My 11th (Mt. Flume) and 12th (Mt. Liberty) 4,000 footers!

The end-of-July hike (Mount Willey, Mount Field, and Mount Tom) are grouped together in Crawford Notch State Park in the "middle group" (in the far-right green circle), August's Cannon Mountain hike is the left green circle, Monday's Mount Hale is the middle green circle, while today's hike (Mount Flume and Mount Liberty) are in the red square:


Using Map My Walk, I went up the Flume Slide Trail (3.3 miles) to Mount Flume, northwest along the Franconia Ridge Trail (1.2 + 0.3 = 1.5 miles) to Mount Liberty, then down the Liberty Spring Trail (2.3 miles). Adding in the trails from the parking lot, I covered 10.75 miles in 5 hours. I covered about 6,490 feet in climbing elevation (2800 up, 340 down, then 450 up, then 2900 all the way back down):


Before you even get to Flume Slide Trail you have a nice walk along the Pemigewasset River:


The lower 3/4 of the Trail is actually fairly gentle - crossing over brooks and streams. I am sure it is VERY WET in the springtime!


The book (White Mountain Guide) says "Flume Slide Trail's upper section is extremely steep and rough, with polished rock slabs that are very slippery when wet (and they are nearly always wet because of the many seep springs on these steep slopes). This trail is not recommended for descent, and its use is discouraged in wet weather, when the ledges are more than ordinarily dangerous." This is looking down one of those sections:


And this is the view from just-off-the-top-of the trail:



And that is where I am heading - Mount Flume:



my selfie on Mount Flume:


I look a little haggard because the wind is HOWLING on top of the mountain. The weather at Mount Washington at that time said average wind speed was 35 mph (with peak gusts of 61 mph!!)

To get over to Mount Liberty, you descend on the Franconia Ridge Trail:


and then you ascend (I hate it when my only way DOWN is to go UP):


my selfie on Mount Liberty:


and beautiful 360 views on the top of Mount Liberty:





That's Mount Flume in the near-distance

A photo back along the Franconia Ridge Trail, looking south:


and out across Franconia Notch:


Then down Liberty Springs Trail, which is part of the Appalachian Trail (which explains the number of hikers I encountered on the trail, going both up and down). I finished how I started - on a lovely bikepath:


and over a very nice stream:


and that's all for today! Thank you God for a GREAT DAY! GO Bike 3000!!



In September Deede Dixon (and two other girls) will be bike-riding across the country!! Here is the Facebook page for their bike ride https://www.facebook.com/bike3000 and their website http://bike3000.weebly.com/
Aren't they going to have a fun adventure!!

Thursday, August 28, 2014
123 miles -- Reading up 93 North to trailhead parking lot (2 hours)
10.75 miles -- hiking (5 hours)
3 hours -- to get home

Continuing to listen to all my songs, in alphabetical order. I was still in the D's today: I started with "Dear Prudence" by The Beatles (the white album), and ended the day with "Desert Sun" by Keith Jarrett (Live at the Blue Note, disc 6). In between were 4 versions of Deja Vu (various incarnations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young), and Defying Gravity from Wicked, which includes the lyrics:
So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!