Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Hiking the 4,000 Footers: Liberty and Flume 7.21.2012

Via an out and back on Whitehouse Trail, Liberty Spring Trail, Franconia Ridge; 10.2 miles round trip; 4250 feet in elevation gain

Originally we had intended to hike Mount Liberty on July 4th as a celebration of both my birthday and the Nation's birthday, but thunderstorms, injured backs (mine), and only having two possible days per week to hike set us back a few weeks. 

The day we set out to hike Liberty and Flume it was very hot in the 90s with high humidity, because essentially that is the only weather we hike in these days. Despite the heat- being more north certainly cut down on the oppressiveness of the weather. 

Hiking

Hiking

The trail is a little confusing in the initial stages because you have to follow a bike path and several signs to just get onto the Whitehouse Trail. We decided to do an out-and-back because we had heard the Flume Trail is pretty gnarly and shouldn't be attempted in wet conditions. Since it had been raining off and on all week- we weren't sure how this would effect the trail conditions and didn't want to risk turning back.

River Crossing

For the most part the Whitehouse trail is a moderately steep trail. One river crossing that could be trickier if the water was higher, but for our hike the water was very low.

A Top Mount Liberty

Mount Liberty was amazing, amazing, amazing. Incredible views in all directions.

A Top Mount Liberty

A Top Mount Liberty

Like all out and back hikes- when you look across to the next mountain you need to reach it seems completely impossible. It always looks ridiculously far away, but somehow it doesn't take nearly as long as your brain thinks. 

A Top Mount Liberty

A Top Mount Liberty

A Top Mount Liberty

A Top Mount Liberty

Flume was amazing too. Great views, interesting trail. Amazing hike overall.

A Top Mount Flume

A Top Mount Flume

Looking Towards Liberty from Flume

A Top Mount Flume

Hiking up Liberty again (it was an out and back after all) was not fun. By the time we reached our car we were pretty spent. 

Liberty and Flume were numbers 10 and 11 for our List

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