Hiked by: Tim and Valerie on October 8, 2006. Whitehouse Trail to Liberty Spring Trail to Franconia Ridge Trail, then back.
Chilly morning, and we started extra early since it's Columbus Day
weekend, and it’s supposed to be a perfectly gorgeous day. High 30’s at the
trailhead at 7:40am when we started.
This is an odd start because we followed the Whitehouse trail along Rt 3 for
the first 0.7 miles. This is not getting us any elevation at all. :-( Then,
0.2 miles along the bike path, and then finally we head off into the hills
on the Liberty Spring Trail. The trail was still nice for quite a while, but
gradually became less about dirt and roots, more about boulders. It was
about 2.6 miles up the Liberty Spring trail before we came across the tent
sites. It’s like a little community in the trees – small walkways/sidewalks
of a sort between the tent platforms, etc. From the tent sites, it is only
0.3 miles to the ridge, then another 0.2 miles to the summit. That hike up
to the summit of Liberty took a lot out of us, and Valerie was questioning
whether we should do the Flume out-and-back, or just start down. BUT, it was
just as gorgeous as the weatherman had predicted, and why get home at 2pm??
So, after a break for pictures and snacks, we headed down the trail towards
Mt Flume. Down, down, down… then up, up, UP! We broke out at the top and the
view was so fantastic! The slide is just incredible from the top – so much
bigger than it appears from the road. It is unbelievable to sit at the top
and look down that Flume Slide Trail.
After another snack, more picture taking, and some chatting with other
hikers, we headed back towards Liberty. By now, it was downright HOT for
hiking. There were probably 40 people on Mt Liberty when we got back there,
so we didn’t stay too long. The crowds on the trail were almost constant. We
passed dozens of people who were climbing up as we were coming down. Knees
were really screaming after a couple hours of downhill on the boulders.
Back to the car about 3:45PM. 10.2 miles in 8 hours. Not fast, but some time
spent on the summits. This makes #17 and 18 for us this season.