Mt. Lincoln- 5089' (25/48)

Ever since our failed attempt at bagging Mt. Lincoln while hiking Mt. Lafayette last September, the mountain has been calling our names to complete it.  Lincoln was the last of the four Franconia ridge mountains that we had to complete (Lafayette, Liberty, and Flume being the others), so we decided that it would be a good choice for our 25th mountain.  Finally my buddy Foster was going to join us on a hike, so Paloma, Foster, and myself set off on Saturday morning towards Franconia Notch to finally bag Lincoln.

We arrived at the Falling Waters trail-head at around 9:15 AM.  Despite the forecast calling for clouds and showers, the weather at the base was a beautiful 45 degrees with minimal clouds in the sky.  Things were looking good.  We made our final preparations and were on the trail at 9:30 AM.  There was still a ton of snow on the ground, I estimated about three feet or so, but luckily the trail was pretty well packed down and easy to follow.

The frozen cascades

Our route for the day was to hike up the Falling Waters trail to the top of Little Haystack, then traverse the ridge to the summit of Lincoln and return the same way, a total distance of 7.8 miles.  The lower portion of the Falling Waters trail is relatively mild, gaining elevation gradually.  Since there was so much snow, we had little issues with any of the water crossings as they were completely covered - sometimes we didn't even realize we were over a river bed.  Within only a few minutes we reached what we assumed was the cascades that this trail is famous for, though they were completely covered in snow and frozen so there wasn't much to see.  In a few spots you could see some flowing water - I bet this trail is beautiful when the snow is gone.

Falling Waters - Appropriate Name!

As soon as we passed through the open river bed area the climbing truly began.  The trail was still packed down relatively well but only about one foot in width - stepping off to either the left or the right would cause your legs to post-hole down about three feet.  It was actually quite funny as every few seconds one of us would let out a "damn" or an "oof" as our legs broke through the snow and plummeted downward.  We eventually caught up to a group of three which we would end up leap frogging the rest of the way to the top.  By this point the trail was climbing steadily towards the summit of Little Haystack, which stands at about 4800' but unfortunately doesn't count due to the difference in height of it to the ridge which it is a part of (read the AMC 4000' "rules" here).  Our hearts were racing and our legs were burning.  This was a difficult section.  We stopped for a quick snack break of Raisinets and clementines to refuel our bodies before the final push.

Lunch on Little Haystack

We finally broke through the trees and reached the top of Little Haystack at 11:50AM.  Now here is where I must admit we encountered a bit of confusion.  In reading about the route prior to our hike, I had read that you would reach the top of Little Haystack and then continue on the ridge to Lincoln, though I didn't realize that Lincoln completely blocks the view of Lafayette from here, and it looks like there are no mountains beyond it.  Stupid me thought that we must be at the top of Lincoln since I knew the order of the mountains on the ridge and couldn't see Lafayette.  This lead to me proclaiming that we were at the top, and we ended up taking premature summit photos and eating lunch.  Luckily, an older gentleman asked us about our route of the day and I told him we were just hiking Lincoln so we would be turning and heading back down after we ate.  Thankfully he questioned whether we had already been over to Lincoln which caused me to realize that we hadn't reached the summit yet!  Whoops!  I would have been devastated if we turned back and figured out we had only hiked Little Haystack!  Nevertheless, the top of Little Haystack was beautiful and gave us great views.  We had a nice spot hunkered down between some boulders which shielded us from the wind as we ate.

Paloma and I at the summit of Lincoln

Realizing that we still had some work to do, we packed up our things and headed across the ridge to the real Mt. Lincoln at 12:20PM.  It was beautiful along the ridge, and it was neat watching the clouds whip by, engulfing us for a moment, then disappearing completely.  Just goes to show you the ever changing weather in the White Mountains.  We reached the summit of Lincoln at 12:45 PM, where Mt. Lafayette was revealed to us.  Now it made sense!  From the top of Lincoln we were treated to great views of the ridge and across to Cannon Mt.  Since we had already eaten, we took a few snap shots at the summit then headed back across the ridge to Little Haystack to begin our descent.

Men.

The word "hilarious" describes our descent nearly perfectly.  A steep trail + melting snow + gravity and inertia = three hikers completely out of control for much of the descent.  I don't think I have laughed for such an extended period of time in my life as I did during our hike down.  It was nearly impossible to hike slowly which caused us to have to basically jog down.  This was all good until one of us would hit a soft spot and post hole one or both of our legs into the snow and stop dead in our tracks and face plant. I'd estimate that about once every five minutes one of us would be tumbling down the trail in some awkward movement.  Thankfully the amount of snow made every landing soft, so we were able to laugh at each other rather than have concern for each other's well being.  I am just hoping that no kids were nearby to hear the variety of questionable language that was coming out of our mouths each time wiped out!

By this point we were all soaking wet and tired, but were having a blast, so we decided to engage in what many winter hikers rave about - butt-sledding.  Yes, sliding down the trail on nothing but your ass.  The first spot we decided to give it a whirl was at a steep hairpin turn on the trail.  It looked like others had the same idea, and a human ice-luge shortcut was made.  It was too perfect to pass up.  We all cruised down the 60' slide on our asses.  It was quite fun.  We continued to slide down all of the remaining steep spots we could find as we made our way back to the base.

We arrived at the lot at 3:10 PM - though we were sore and exhausted, we continued to talk about how awesome the hike was as we changed into dry clothes and packed up the car for the ride home.  This really was a great, challenging hike.  The Falling Waters trail is definitely one I will revisit at some point as I would love to see the cascades in action!

Public Service Announcement:  If you ever plan to hike with Foster, bring eye protection and a helmet.  He has a nasty habit of sling-shotting all branches he passes into your face.  I am thankful that I still have vision in both eyes.


Hike Stats
Trails: Falling Waters Trail, Franconia Ridge
Total Time (Including Breaks): 5:40
Distance: 7.8 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3400'

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'