WeRmudfun
New member
It was suppose to be a great Sunday to get the pup her 12th and 13th summits. We got on the road around 6:00am to be at the ‘Playground’ at a decent hour. Forecast said clear skies and 5 MPH winds, perfect we thought until we got near Franconia Notch. Socked In! It wasn’t just a little cloudy, there were no mountains; they were gone swallowed up in the clouds and fog. Well it wouldn’t be the first time a forecast was wrong, but do we chance a 10.4 miles hike up to 2 very open summits to see nothing? Quick Plan ‘B’ was thought up; maybe we should go to Galehead, but what if the sun does come out and makes the clouds scatter? We decided to go for Liberty/Flume and hope for the best.
We parked at the Flume parking lot, gathered all our gear and headed out down the Bike Path. Right around .9 miles we came to the Whitehouse Bridge right before the Liberty Spring Trailhead. We took a right onto the trail and started to go up. One of the first things we noticed was that Fall had definitely arrived; most of the color from the trees was now on the forest floor. At .6 miles we came to the trail Junction with the Flume Slide, but we stayed straight on the Liberty Spring Trail. At around 2 miles in from where we parked the trail leveled a bit and we were starting to get warm. Looking up at the sky showed that it was still in the clouds. We started wondering if we made the right choice. At about 2 ½ miles we started referring to the hike as a Halloween hike as the trail was becoming foggy and spooky. Another ¼ mile we hit the real steady UP and the trail starts to be boulder covered. Over all the trail is in great shape, it was just a little wet in spots. It did seem steeper this time and I’m sure it had nothing to do with us being a little older. LOL
We got to the junction with the tent platform and took a quick look around. Hikers coming down told us it was packed there Saturday night. The last .3 miles to Franconia Ridge trail is all UP, but it is a mountain after all. When we started walking along the ridge that was when we started to see the sun and some blue sky. We still had no clue what we were in for.
As we were climbing up the outskirts of Mt Liberty, all I can say is WOW!
For the full trail report along with the undercast, checkout our video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLiqiV0YZZw
[Here’s a teaser.
We parked at the Flume parking lot, gathered all our gear and headed out down the Bike Path. Right around .9 miles we came to the Whitehouse Bridge right before the Liberty Spring Trailhead. We took a right onto the trail and started to go up. One of the first things we noticed was that Fall had definitely arrived; most of the color from the trees was now on the forest floor. At .6 miles we came to the trail Junction with the Flume Slide, but we stayed straight on the Liberty Spring Trail. At around 2 miles in from where we parked the trail leveled a bit and we were starting to get warm. Looking up at the sky showed that it was still in the clouds. We started wondering if we made the right choice. At about 2 ½ miles we started referring to the hike as a Halloween hike as the trail was becoming foggy and spooky. Another ¼ mile we hit the real steady UP and the trail starts to be boulder covered. Over all the trail is in great shape, it was just a little wet in spots. It did seem steeper this time and I’m sure it had nothing to do with us being a little older. LOL
We got to the junction with the tent platform and took a quick look around. Hikers coming down told us it was packed there Saturday night. The last .3 miles to Franconia Ridge trail is all UP, but it is a mountain after all. When we started walking along the ridge that was when we started to see the sun and some blue sky. We still had no clue what we were in for.
As we were climbing up the outskirts of Mt Liberty, all I can say is WOW!
For the full trail report along with the undercast, checkout our video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLiqiV0YZZw
[Here’s a teaser.
