Flume and Liberty

I made my way to New Hampshire this past weekend to hike with some friends.  It was going to be three days of peak bagging in the Whites, what could be better?  For day one we decided that we would hike Mt. Flume and Liberty by hiking up the Flume Slide trail and then down Liberty Springs trail for a nice loop hike.  We arrived at the Liberty Springs trailhead parking and began hiking by about 9:00am.  We hiked about 1.3 miles on the Whitehouse trail and Liberty Springs trail before meeting up with and taking the Flume Slide trail.  The Flume Slide starts out fairly flat and is easy going for a ways before making the steep climb to the top.

I have heard and read many accounts of how difficult and steep this trail is, and they are all correct. Once the climb starts it is very steep and difficult.

We were lucky to have dry conditions and made it to the top without incident.  Trying to go down this trial or in wet conditions would be dangerous.  It was a tough climb and we were all pretty tired when we reached the summit, but the views were great, even with all the clouds.  We enjoyed a snack and some water and recovered some of our energy.  

The clouds were getting darker so we continued on to Mt. Liberty.  This is a quick 1.5 mile hike from peak to peak, where I stopped for some pictures and continued on.

Just past the summit of Liberty the junction with the Liberty Springs trail comes up on the left and we began the descent to the parking lot.  It is a long steady decline down past the Liberty Springs tentsite and eventually back to the parking area.  The trip down is tough on the knees but is not overly steep. The rain began falling as we made our way down.  It started as a light rain and then would pick up for a brief shower before letting up again.  It made the rocks wet in areas that were exposed.  The rocks under the trees stayed dry, which helped with footing.  It never rained hard and I didn't need to break out the rain gear, but it was a preview of what was to come.  From the junction with the Franconia Ridge trail it is a little over 3 miles back to the parking lot.  It was a good loop hike that was challenging and tough but the views made it worth it.  Day 1 was in the books, we would now make our way toward Mt. Washington and the Presidentials!