Index
Northwestern Wilderness Of Maine
Personal Essays
Owls Head
Spectacular views are everywhere, but when you know every inch of the land you are looking at, you feel like you belong somewhere. Your eyes trace the trails up the mountsides you traveled many times. Your memories drift back, as you watch the distant lakes and rivers, to the first time you traveled across them in a canoe.
I visit this spectacular view often. It is located just south of Jackman on Route 201. The mountain is called Owls Head. A Maine guide once told me the mountain got its name from a old fisherman he knew, who spent six months every year fishing and camping on Attean Lake and the surrounding area. One night, while he was sitting by his camp fire on the western shore of Attean Lake, he noticed slow moving headlights in the darkness of the distant horizon. He remembered a narrow clearing in that area, where the dirt highway crossed the mountain, as he drove his jeep on the monthly supply run down river. The headlights reminded him of the big owl's eyes he saw just a few moments earlier, when he flashed his light toward a rustling noise in the branches above his head.
The view from Owls Head became a landmark, and soon a rest stop was built and a trees were cleared. As more and more travelers stopped, picnic tables and toilet facilities were built. A trail was cut so travelers could hike up to the top of Owls Head to get a panoramic view of Attean and Big Wood Pond.
The trail continued to the other side of the mountain. I have enjoyed this view also, it overlooks toward the east. You can see Boundary Bald Mountain, Mount Kineo in the Moosehead Lake area, and on a clear day you can see as far as Mount Katahdin - a mountain, 5,268 ft high, in north-central Maine. It is the highest elevation in the state and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
The photograph at the top of the page, was taken on a warm spring day, from the top of the trail. You can see Attean Lake with several islands. The mountain range to the north, is Sally Mountain. The mountain range west of the lake is Attean Mountain. Studying the mountain ranges, you will recognize Number 5, Tumbledown, Sugarloaf, and many more. If you focus your eyes on the distant horizon, you will see the Province of Quebec, Canada.
The photograph below, was taken after a late spring snowstorm, from the highway near the picnic area entrance.
I recommend that you stop by this interesting land mark on your next journey to Jackman, in the Northwestern Wilderness Of Maine!
