Mt. Flume - 4328' & Mt. Liberty - 4459' (17/48)

Choosing the Slide

Paloma and I planned a last minute trip up to the White Mountains for the weekend to get away for her 25th birthday.  We decided to hike Flume and Mt. Liberty on Saturday, so we set off from our place at about 6:45AM for the ride up 93 to the trail-head.  We had a bit of difficulty finding the trail-head, so we stopped at the Flume Gorge visitors center to ask.  The first thing to come out of the park ranger's mouth was "You sure you know what you are getting yourselves into with the Flume, correct?"  Me, not wanting to seem like a pansy, brushed his question off assuring him we knew what we were about to do.  We left and drove a few hundred feet up the road to the trail-head. The parking lot was already filling up - looked like many people decided to take advantage of the nice weather and hike.  We officially started our hike 9:15AM.

Scaling the slides

The first mile or so of the hike was quite easy, part of it following along on a paved bike path.  This was a nice way to get our legs warmed up.  We reached the junction where we had to choose between taking the Liberty Springs trail or the Flume Slide trail.  Prior to this hike I had done some research which said to avoid the slides if possible, and to never, ever try to descend them.  Well, I wasn't going to do this hike without experiencing the challenge of the slide on the ascent, so we chose the Flume Slide trail.  We began the trek over to the base of the slide.  At this point, the trail followed and crossed a river many different times, which added some nice variety (read: mud) to the terrain.  We did our best to conserve our energy on this section, as we knew what lay ahead.  We only encountered a few other people as we heading towards the slide.

Paloma dominating the slides!

When we reached the base of the slide, two different groups who had been ahead of us had stopped to fuel up on sandwiches, water, and energy bars before tackling the slide.  Paloma and I had been hydrating and eating "on the run," so we blew right by them.  The first part of the Flume Slide was fairly steep, though nothing that gave us much trouble.  The rocks were quite loose so you had to take care where you stepped.  As we climbed higher, the rocks increased in size, and streams of water seemed to be flowing from all over, drenching the rocks and turning them into dangerous obstacles.  "Only 1.2 miles of this", we thought to ourselves.  By this point, the challenge of the climb allowed the two other groups time to catch up, and we all  continued climbing up together.

Summit of Flume

Wow, this was intense.  I now understood what the park ranger had meant.  Paloma and I helped each other  scale the rock faces, knowing that one false move would likely lead to multiple injuries.  Our legs burned and our clothing was drenched with sweat, mud, water, and more sweat.  Once we thought that the slides were done, another, more difficult section followed.  We took our time and slowly but surely made our way to the end of the slides.  Little did we know, there was still quite a bit of hiking left before we would finally reach the summit.

View over to Liberty

The amount of energy and strength that it took to tackle the slides made the remainder of the ascent to the summit of Flume quite tiring.  I was certain I had sucked down nearly all of my water on the slides, and my stomach was begging for food.  We finally broke through the trees and were treated to spectacular views and stunning cliffs.  "Ahhhh" we both said, this is why we just tortured ourselves on the climb.  We hiked along the cliffs and reached the summit of Flume at 12:50PM.  Perfect time for lunch.  There were a few other couples at the top, and we spent some time talking with one couple (after I noticed his Heady-Topper beer sticker).  We took photos for one-another.  Another woman at the top had just finished her 41st peak - impressive.  From the summit of Flume we could see over to Liberty - it looked quite far but the food, rest, and beautiful views got us excited for the next part of our hike.  We left the summit of Flume at 1:18PM and began the hike across Franconia ridge to Mt. Liberty.

Summit of Mt. Liberty

Compared to what we had just hiked through, the hike over to Liberty wasn't especially challenging.  Regardless, we were both breathing heavy when we began the ascent up to the summit.  We had heard (and read) that the views from the top of Liberty were even better than the views on Flume - that notion gave us the final motivation to push for the summit.  We reached the summit of Mt. Liberty at 2:06PM.  Time for another break - almonds and fruit, just what we needed to stabilize our energy levels.  As we were sitting at the top, admiring the gorgeous 360 degree views, two guys and a girl emerged on the summit.  I immediately recognized the girl, and sure enough, as they approached, I realized that it was Amanda Walke - a friend from Danvers!  What a small world!  This was her first hike - and dang, she picked a good one.  We talked for a bit and then split ways.  After taking more photos, Paloma and I decided that it was time to begin the descent down the Liberty Springs trail at 2:27PM.

View back to the Flume

We kept a very fast pace on the descent.  On the descent we passed through the Liberty Springs camp sites - which I would love to camp at on a future hike.  The descent was relatively uneventful but quite muddy, so we were
both slipping and sliding.  We leapfrogged with Amanda's group a few times, and finally decided to hike as a big group for the remaining mile or so.  By the time we reached the Whitehouse trail and bike-path again, my legs had had it.  I was cooked!  We made it back to the car at 4:39PM, shed our nasty boots and socks, and hopped in the car.

Sunset at dinner!

While we would typically have a 2+ hour car ride to deal with after a hike, Paloma and I had decided to rent a cheap motel room for her birthday.  It just so happened that it was literally 3 minutes from the trail-head.  Score.  We checked in, showered, guzzled some coffee to wake ourselves up, and got ready for dinner.  We weren't sure what we wanted to eat, so I spent some time on Yelp while Paloma got ready.  I decided on the Sunset Hill House Restaurant, and damn, was that a great decision.  The scenery from the restaurant was spectacular, looking out over a giant field with Franconia Ridge in the background.  We each had a 6 (yes, SIX!) course dinner in celebration of both Paloma's birthday and our completion of a strenuous hike.  The food and service was exceptional.  Paloma had a mixture of Shrimp and Scallops for her entree, and I had duck.  It was tremendous.  We had planned on going out to one of the local bars after to have some drinks, but by the time we finished dessert, we were both ready to hit the hay.  We were in bed and out by 9:30PM.  What a day!

Overall this was one of the more difficult hikes we have done, but the views, the challenge, and the views (yes, I added that twice - they are that good) made it all worthwhile.  I am not going to "recommend" the Flume Slide trail to anyone, as I don't want to be held responsible if injuries occur, but I will say that there is nothing quite like it!

Hike Stats
Trails: Whitehouse, Flume Slide, Franconia Ridge, Liberty Springs
Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:20
Distance: 9.8 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3700'