Hiking in the White Mountains: Flume Mountain

Date of Hike: 3/1/15

Bike Path & Basin Bushwhack: 0.5 miles / Liberty Springs Trail: 2.4 miles / Franconia Ridge Trail: 2.4 miles / Liberty Springs Trail: 2.4 miles / Bike Path & Basin Bushwhack: 0.5 miles
Total Miles: 8.1 (3,890 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- My original plan was to hike the Kinsmans with Whitney but she didn't get home from work until after eleven on Saturday night so she stayed in. She had hiked Liberty and Flume on Saturday so I decided to head there.
- I started the hike just after 8 a.m. from the Basin parking lot wearing microspikes which I would keep on for the whole hike. Not having to wear snowshoes was a much needed relief on my feet after hiking twenty-five plus miles in them the day before.
- I felt ok along the bike path and heading up the basin bushwhack which ends at the hairpin turn on the Liberty Springs Trail. I even felt pretty good up until the Liberty Brook crossing. However, after the snowbridged water crossing the trail becomes steep and I slammed into a wall of slowness. It wasn't pretty, at one point I managed to pull of a forty-two minute mile, my slowest since a bonking during the Hut to Hut Traverse last July. Eventually I made my way up past the tentsite and up to the Franconia Ridge and I started to feel much better once I hit the summit and took in the views, it's amazing how views can energize a hiker...and knowing a majority of the elevation gain is over.
- From the summit of Liberty I bombed down to the col and made my way to the summit of Flume. There was a small storm coming in but the cloud cover was high so the views were pretty sweet. For a moment I contemplated heading down the Flume Slide Trail but I was a little sore from yesterday and figured just heading back up Liberty and down would be faster even if it's longer mileage wise with some added elevation gain.
- I jogged down to the col and had a strong hike back up to Liberty. From here I basically sprinted back to the Jeep, covering three miles in just over thirty minutes.
- It was my nineteenth ascent of Liberty and Flume since 2009 when I first climbed them. There are very good views from both summits, on Flume you can see the whole spine of the Franconia Ridge stretching north over Liberty, Little Haystack, Lincoln, Truman, and Lafayette.
- When I got back to my car it was almost twenty degrees, which felt like a heat wave, it was nice not freezing my fingers off while packing up my car after a hike. Spring is just around the corner, and the snow should be gone soon, and by soon I mean late May!

Pemi bike path becomes a snowmobile and cross country ski trail in the winter

This is where you leave the bike path and hook onto the Basin bushwhack. Notice the two parallel trees on the left of the road, head in between the two trees, picture right.

The bushwhack is usually broken out in the winter and ends at the hairpin turn

Hiking along Liberty Spring Trail past the Flume Slide Trail junction

Passing the tentsite and continuing through a thick wall of small pines

Reaching the junction with Franconia Ridge, the trail becomes much easier from here

There's only a small Alpine Zone section, around Mount Liberty's summit

The Pemigewasset Wilderness: Owl's Head, the Twins, Guyot, and the Bonds

The slides of the Pemi Wilderness

Mount Lafayette and Garfield above Lincoln Brook Valley

Heading from Liberty to Flume

Flume's jagged summit and a view from Flume's summit north of the Franconia Ridge

Top pic: Mount Moosilauke / Bottom pic: Hellgate Ravine and the Bonds

Mount Liberty with the Kinsmans behind it on top. Lonesome Lake and the Cannon Balls on the bottom

Loon Mount on top. North Hancock and Carrigain on the bottom

Franconia and Garfield Ridge

Heading back down on the Liberty Spring Trail

Back on the bike path back to the Basin parking lot

Route for the day (click here for details)

Splits

Date of Hike: 8/30/14

Lincoln Woods Trail: 1.4 miles / Osseo Trail: 4.0 miles / Franconia Ridge Trail: 4.1 miles / Lincoln Slide Bushwhack: 2.5 miles / Lincoln Brook Trail: 4.2 miles / Franconia Brook Trail: 1.6 miles / Lincoln Woods Trail: 3.0 miles
Total Miles (GPS): 20.75 miles (5,075 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- On Sunday, Kelsey invited me to do a long out n' back of Mount Lafayette from Lincoln Woods. I told her that sounded good but let's make it a little more interesting by dropping down the Lincoln Slide once past Mount Truman (a sub summit between Lincoln and Lafayette) and looping back to the car via the slide, bushwhack, Lincoln Brook Trail, Franconia Brook Trail, and Lincoln Woods Trail. Kelsey, always the adventurer was up for the wild descent deep into the Pemigewasset Wilderness.
- This hike would be Kelsey's 'Welcome Back to the White Mountains Moment.' As she had not hiked in the mountains since January because of nagging injuries.
- We Started hiking around 7:30am and made the quick flat walk to the start of the Osseo Trail by way of the Lincoln Woods Trail. On the Osseo Trail we made the gradual climb to the steep ladder section and took a break to enjoy the views from the downlook before making our way up to Flume Mountain's summit. The summits were in and out of the clouds between Flume - Liberty - Little Haystack where as luck would have it the clouds blew off and made for some really incredible views. Kelsey and I have now been lucky enough that on our two mega-hikes together we had undercast while Presi Traversing followed by Saturday's clearing off while on the Franconia Ridge above treeline.
- Once we made our way to the summit of Mount Truman I dropped us off the ridge and took us on the easiest path to the top of the slide. Basically, if you know the right spot to head to the slide you only have to go through a short fifty foot in the scrub section. However, I've heard that if you don't know where to go the whack over to the slide can be hellish even though it's a short one. Luckily, I know where to go so I never had to experience this.
- The Lincoln / Truman Slide is massive at the top, then funnels down into a drainage, and ends where a brook begins. The slide is easier to descend then ascend because of all the loose rock and gravel. It's similar to the South Tripyramid slide in steepness but the footing is worse. At no point do I find the slide dangerous, however, it can be tedious if you are not a fan of lose rock that moves in the gravel.
- Once past the wide open upper section the slide narrows and travels through a boulder field with rock ledge. It becomes a rock hopping affair for a few tenths of a mile as water starts to flow through the slide and eventually the slide ends and the brook proper begins.
- Here is where the fun ends and the bushwhack begins. I have done this route twice before, the method to my madness is stay in the brook and rock hop through the brook as much as possible. However, most hikers do not feel comfortable doing this because it's slippery and there are spots where the brook becomes steep.
- I decided to try and take Kelsey out of the brook but every time I did this the whack was thick and relentless. I remember last year finding much more open woods both times I had to leave the brook. So I kept dropping us back to the brook then back out. It was slow going, and this being Kelsey's first bushwhack it got old fast for her. I felt bad as I was unable to get us a decent bushwhack in the woods that I was able to do for Denise and Whitney last October on Whitney's wild 48 finish.
- Eventually we made our way to the Lincoln Brook and crossed it and hit the Lincoln Brook Trail about one hundred and fifty feet up an embankment, about 0.7 miles north of the unofficial path up to Owl's Head.
- Lincoln Brook Trail had some new minor washouts in a spot or two, and was a muddy mess in the usual spots. Kelsey caught a second wind about two miles before hooking onto the Franconia Brook Trail and we trail ran the last six miles back to the trailhead. It was a lot of fun to run with Kelsey, she is an ultra-runner who is able to finish strong even after a tough couple of hours spent trudging through the middle of nowhere.
- Kelsey needed to be back to the car by 4pm and we made it there by 3:45pm, perfect timing! It was great to see Kelsey again, she's enthusiastic and her positive attitude is contagious.