Owl's Head + The Inner Pemi | 10/9/2025
- Izzy Risitano
- Oct 10
- 4 min read
Thanks to my newfound interest in trail running, I'd spent much of my days at work fantasizing about a Thursday off to put up a big route. Ideally, I'd hit a handful of trace miles, but really, I was hoping to make 20 miles feel free and easy.
At first, Hannah and I had our eyes on Isolation. Either a through-route of Davis path or maybe even a 24-mile loop of Southern Rocky Branch and Davis. But as the days crept closer, I was literally kept up at night worried about the route, something I don't ordinarily experience. To quell my nerves, I checked the weather and realized I had plenty to be nervous about. In addition to incoming rain came the acknowledgement of winter's 7-degree temperatures at higher summits. Not ideal when you're travelling fast and light!
That said, I rambled about other options, hoping Moby still needed Owl's Head for a low-elevation run. Thankfully, Moby had yet to hike the longest single-peak, so I started planning for an inner Pemi to avoid the winds.
We approached the route light-and-fast, stuffing jackets and windbreakers into our low-capacity vests. Though I'll likely be using a larger pack the rest of shoulder season, it was nice to have one last go at lighter packing.
When we began around 7, we kept pace at a quick 16-18 minute mile walk to mitigate sweat until we were done with the elevation. Lincoln Woods slogged as always, but I was dazzled by how pretty Black Pond was when we passed by for the bushwhack. It was both of our first times doing the Bushwhack- while I only wanted it to cut mileage, it was also a treat to skip the river crossings with the water high for the first time in weeks.
When we popped off the bushwhack and onto Lincoln Brook, the trail was almost less obvious, but still a classic Pemi footpath along a river. We slowed down just a little bit, yet still arrived at the slide path in what felt very fast.
After adding a layer, we started ascending "the one" significant climb of Owl's Head, and the exposure immediately revealed the time of the season. In terms of the trail itself, the low part of the slide moved slightly, but was far better than I recalled overall. Thankfully, it was the sort of slide that is fun rather than terrifying!
Despite the cold, our steady pace and avoidance of ice patches kept us fairly comfortable as we climbed. At the height of the slide, we crept along the top of the bread-loaf ridge as snow began to fall. At first, it felt like drops of water coming off trees. But as we looked at the white-covered summit of Lafayette, we realized it really was snow!
At the snowy summit, we had a quick snack and turned back, where we soon crossed paths with everybody we'd seen in the parking lot earlier. We even passed Ryan from Recycled Percussion, who I believe is nearly done with his 48-in-a-week effort.
At the base of the slide, we buckled up for our final bit of ascent on Lincoln Brook Trail, which was sometimes hard to find and at others very wet from beaver activity. In one section, there weren't nearly enough tree trunks to throw over the moat, and we had to get wet. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful trail with plenty of outlooks to the high peaks of the Pemi-Loop. The final crossing, just before 13-Falls, was fairly challenging even with the recent drought conditions. I cannot imagine how some of these trails look during the Spring- moreover, how everyone's socks would feel!
As much as I wanted to poke around 13 Falls Campsite, I'll need to come back in off of Garfield and Galehead, so we just pushed on down Franconia Brook Trail instead. Unlike Lincoln Brook, Franconia Brook was one of the most runnable trails I have ever seen in the WMNF. It was a perfect railroad grade, with exclusively low hopover blowdowns along the way. We were able to hold a 10-12 minute pace through those last 6 miles; it was practically pavement!
Just when we started seeing hordes of people, we were back at the wilderness threshold and marked our 3 miles back to the car. Lincoln Woods is always hard on the feet, but it was a massive advantage to run it instead of spending an hour walking it like usual. Still, though, it's a tough part of the year to expect a peaceful walk out, given the volume of leaf peepers at Lincoln Woods.
Car to Car, we were out 8 hours, with 5:35 moving time. There is truly no better feeling than getting in a 20-mile day without headlamps while being back in time for dinner!
Final Stats: 20.39 miles, 3626 gain
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