A Hiker's Tail: Liberty and Flume

Hi!!!

Stairs! It got steep on this trip

Last weekend I did another hike with TWO mountains! Mount Liberty and Mount Flume are usually done together in a loop but the Flume Slide Trail is not nice to paws so we went up Liberty Spring Trail and across to Flume and back again. It was a big day but it was good. Now I have 8 of the big-mountains done!

We had to start by parking the car 0.9 miles away from where the trail really starts. It was a warm up at the beginning of the day but it took FOREVER to be done at the end of the day. The main trail was pretty steep most of the time and I did need a little help on big rocks on both sides of Mount Liberty. Did you know that Liberty Spring Trail means there is a SPRING on Liberty on the trail? A spring is a place where you can get water! It is near the ridge at the tent site.

On top of Liberty

It looked cloudy when we started, but it was so nice on the peaks! Liberty was first and you could see alllll around. The west side is the town of Lincoln, North and South Kinsman, Franconia Notch, and Canon Mountain. The east side is the 100 Mile Wilderness with Owl’s Head and the Bonds. There are even more mountains in every direction! (Laura note: 38 of NH’s 4,000 footers are visible according to “The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains”)

Look at the views!

East

West

Looking at Liberty from Flume

It was a nice break and we didn’t really want to keep going but we needed to get Flume and it would be silly to come back on a different day. Of course we had to go DOWN before going back up to Flume. That was not as fun. But Flume has a nice cliff for views and we got a second lunch (more Tail Mix!). Then we had to go down and up (AGAIN!) back to Liberty before going all the way back down the same trails. I didn’t get a third lunch, but I found a comfy spot in the rocks during snack break.

When we finally got back we had worked hard and it was easy to convince my Laura to drive us to ICE CREAM! Two peaks definitely deserves ice cream. I made new friends: TWINS. They are super cute and they loved me. I know you are jealous. One of them wanted to borrow me. It was very flattering but I was very tired and ready to go home and go to bed. Next time you can keep petting me again and I always like hugs!