15 October 2014: Mount Flume, Mount Liberty

I think everyone has one of these whether they admit it or not – this is the time that I hiked alone and almost died. Not being overly melodramatic here. I’ll get more into that later. The day was a foggy, cold but humid day in October that I saw as my last chance to get out for the season.

Peak Elevation: Liberty - 4459 ft. Flume - 4327 ft.
Elevation Gain: 3014 ft
Trail: Whitehouse Trail, Flume Slide Trial, Franconia Ridge Trail, Liberty Springs Trail
Length: 9.8 mi
Time on Trail : 0745
Time off Trail: 1515

I started the day not knowing what the trails would offer – my friends told me that the flume slide was a must-do if I had the chance do do it, so I figured “why not I can handle anything!”. I didn’t check into the Flume visitors center where they can provide insight on trails in the area. I’m a stubborn man and nobody was going to dissuade me otherwise from my plan for the day. The trail starts a ways in on the paved bike path in the area from the Flume center, and eventually veers off into the woods to head up to the Liberty Spring Trail. After less than a mile you approach the junction with the Flume Slide Trail. Going up here is 2ish miles, about half of which proved to be steep open rock face that was nt only wet from the fog but weeping water as well in many places. I was sure to take my time here but about 1/3 of the way up I slipped and slid about 200 ft before I was able to regain footing. I had picked up a walking stick earlier in the walk and lost this here. Oh well. Along the way I came across a coffee can that someone seems to have used as a cooking stove or something.
I pushed my way to the top of this section and the fog was really dense on Flume, I didn’t really take any pictures. There was a ledge that had dense fog so I didn’t spend much time here as I didn’t want to have a misstep. I made my way over to Liberty, which was also foggy but not as dangerously so. There were brief breaks in the fog where I could see down to Rt 3 and I-93, but nothing much picture wise was seen. The fog wasn’t going to be burning off anytime soon so I made an executive decision to head down and call it a day after bagging 3 and 4 of NH48. The way down was not too bad, only rolled my ankle once. The Liberty Tentsite would be a neat place to shack up sometime, and there is water here but I don’t trust water on mountainsides, and I had plenty to get me to the bottom. My knees and feet hated me at this point, having not worked this hard in a while.

Photos:

Mt Liberty, Mt. FLume  15OCT14

Note: this entry is backdated, from 2017.

11 October 2014: Mount Jackson, Mount Webster

Next up was a trip up Mount Jackson and Mount Webster, which are on two different lists but are taken together as a loop on the southern tier of the presidential range. I did this one as a solo job.

History:

Peak Elevation: Jackson - 4052 ft Webster – 3911 ft.
Elevation Gain: ~2100 ft
Trail: Webster-Jackson Trail (loop), Webster Cliff Trail
Length: 6.5 mi.
Time on Trail : 0830
Time off Trail: 1400

As my first solo job I took on the Jackson-Webster loop, short mileage, decent elevation gain. Still not yet in shape I took my time getting up there and had a nice break on the peak of Webster. Book time for this is just about 5 hours. The trail, part of the AT, starts alongside US-302 just past highland center. The signage is right at the edge of the treeline but isn’t too hard to find if you know that detail. The trail has steep sections but nothing I couldn’t manage with a little planning. About half a mile up there is a spur to Bugle Cliff – I didn’t spend much time here.
The Summit of Webster offered nice views into Crawford notch, with the willey range being what I could see most clearly, but some squinting I could see some other peaks which I could not yet name. I learned about the Grey Jays here but did not feed them. I took the trek to Jackson to bag #3 for my journey. Jackson wasn’t too bad, only a bit higher than Webster but has a nice drop between the two. My descent went alright, I think I took only 2 diggers and rolled an ankle once.

After finishing I took a quick trip back up the trail to check out Elephant head. From WMG online: “Elephant Head is an interesting ledge that forms the east side of the Gate of the Notch, a mass of gray rock striped with veins of white quartz providing a remarkable likeness to an elephant’s head and trunk.” Short trip would be great for younger kids with parents to get them outside and to check things out. After I descended I looked up and can see where the name came from for this. Otherwise I would have missed this, had I not seen the signage for the short trail to go see it.

Photos:

Mt Jackson, Mt. Webster 11OCT14

Note: This is a backdated post made in 2017