Mt Flume, Liberty, Lincoln and Lafayette Day Hike
Bits
- Photos: Photo gallery
- Trail: Pemi Trail to Flume Slide to Franconia Ridge to Old Bridle Path
- Trailhead: Lafayette Campground
- Mileage: 14.4 miles
- Hiking time: 9.5 hours hiking, 12 hours on trail
- Weather: 60 degrees to 80 degrees, clear, very sunny
- Conditions: Spring conditions. Wet trails, serious monorail in the shade at higher elevations, mainly the ridge.
Journal
We had planned on doing a 6-day backpacking trip starting yesterday, but it looked like there was still melting snowpack at the higher altitudes, which you really don’t want to deal with while carrying a 40-pound pack. Plus snowshoes.
So we decided to day hike instead. Trail reports suggested that the Franconia Ridge around Mt. Lincoln was in good shape, and that’s on our New Hampshire 4000 to-do list, so we went there.
The Route
We started in Lafayette Campground, where there was plenty of parking at 9 on a warm Friday morning.
(We would have arrived earlier, but traffic had stopped on the way up due to yet another fatal motorcycle accident. Shivers as we drove by the bike on the side of the road.)
From there, we took the bike trail along the river to get the flat valley part of the hike out of the way first. We went up Flume Slide trail, then north on the Franconia Ridge, eventually coming back down Old Bridle Path. In retrospect (a) that was too long and (b) except for that, it was the right call. Up the steepest part and down the best descent of the options on that face.
The Hike
Ridiculously hard. Almost cut it short. We stuck with it, but man it was long and tough.
Flume Slide trail is crazy steep - up rock faces, basically. And water was flowing down it, making for unreliable footing and a few scary moments. I was pretty tired by the time we were to the top - it’s been a pretty exhausting few weeks and I’m not in my best shape.
Franconia Ridge had lots of snow on it, making progress difficult. We had brought our snowshoes, which seemed silly in the valley, but were needed at the top. We had miles of snow hiking across the day, which was really tiring.
Once the ridge opened up, it was gorgeous. Some of the best views in the Whites.
I almost bailed early, due to being so tired, planning to head back down the AT after Mt. Liberty. However, the descent looked a lot better on the farther north trails, and I really didn’t want to re-walk the bike path in the valley, so we stuck with the snowbound Franconia ridge.
Once we got to Little Haystack, the trail was clear north. So we finished off the entire loop. Seemed smarter, despite being tired.
We summited Lafayette around 6… pretty late in the day, and we still had 3+ miles to go down. The descent was rough for a while. We had to stop to reload water at the pond by Greenleaf Hut - SUCH a gorgeous area. Definitely consider staying there at some point.
On our way down, we had to use microspikes for a while due to the icy monorail in the shaded areas. Eventually it dried out and we could hike normally. We passed an injured hiker who had fallen on some ice. He had called for mountain rescue, so we moved along. On our way down, as the sun set, we passed about 20 search and rescue folks who were going up with a stretcher to carry him down. What an amazing feat…. and apparently, they had over 40 “carry outs” last year.
We finished after dark, exhausted and just sort of amazed at how much effort this hike took. The steeps, the length, and the snow. This one probably sets up upper limit on what we’ll try to pack into a day, especially with uncertain conditions.
And, no question: calling off the 6-day backpacking route until later was definitely the right call.