At 964 ft, Owl’s Head (Scraggly Lake Public Lands) feels farther from nearby Baxter than it is. It is a lollipop hike. The 1.3 mile flat stick hangs to the shoreline until it splits into a .6 loop rising up, over, and around the high point. Even more intriguing, it is a suggested easy hike in the Maine Mountain Guide.
I did not plan to detour to Scraggly Lake after Horse Mountain. I did not know the road conditions. Having inquired about other roads the day before, I did not feel optimistic that my Honda Fit could make it 9.3 miles up the Scraggly Lake Road from the Grand Lake Road (the road to Baxter’s north gate). Yet filled with glee after bagging the Billfish Gorge spur, I followed a reckless “might-as-well-try” instinct.
The Scraggly Lake Road starts well-graded. A sign eventually announces the start of the unmaintained road. Even then, my Honda Fit powered through water spilling onto the road and around protruding sticks and rocks. At one spot (in the maintained section I think), the road is washed away above a small part of a culvert and marked with a flag. Small potatoes to this Maine native, but maybe nerve-wracking to someone else.
No sooner did I pull into the grassy parking area for Owl’s Head did a public lands employee drive by in a truck. He warned me no one had tackled the blowdowns on the trail yet. No worries.
The lollipop stick hugged the lakeshore so tightly that a strong wind followed me as I hiked. I loved it. My eyes tired of solid white, I soaked in the green eye candy of cedar and moss and ferns. It reminded me of the most beautiful Downeast forests, dropped in the northern Maine woods.
Several viewpoints greeted me with benches and chances to spot the boat launch across the lake and the crown I was about to climb. The shore seemed to keep pulling me towards it, knowing that I would rather be on the water. The final tease? Right before ascending to the loop junction, a side trail leads to the water for boat access.
I turned right at the loop junction. 240 ft of vertical gain from the loop junction to the summit, minuscule compared to a Baxter hike but enough rise to catch a view. The first viewpoint turned out to be my favorite: the high peaks of Baxter still snug under a blanket of snow while I surrounded myself with the warmth and green of spring.
Blowdowns are persistent but not unbearable. Descending from Owl’s Head, I hit the worst: a blowdown so large that it had taken down others with it and obscured the trail. It had been there long enough that a well-established herd path circumvented it.
Nothing could spoil the hike. New spot, gorgeous day, suspenseful drive to the trailhead….what more could I want?
Maine: The Way Life Turned Out 