Mt Flume and Mt Liberty

Date: September 2024
Category: Hiking and Backpacking
Type: Post

September 15, 2024

Emilie Phillips

I hadn’t expected much of a hike whose prime distinction was being just south of the famously crowded Falling Waters, Lincoln, Lafayette loop. But Tyson had done his research well. The Mt Flume and Mt Liberty loop was a fun hike.

The most important question of the hike is, what are these things?

The ground was littered with them. At first glance, they look like seed pods or debris from a squirrel shredding a green pine cone. But on closer investigation, they move. Only a little, and only if you are patient. We dissected one. The outside is two circular leaf cuttings. Inside that we found two smaller leaf punch outs, and inside that an insect larva. The leaves appeared to be glue together at the edges with silk. The outer top leaf is almost always green, and the bottom one brown. At times the insect larva sticks part of its body out. Any ideas what critter this is?

As for the hike itself, the approach to Mt Flume is an easy gradual ascent, until the last half mile when you suddenly have to climb 1,500’ all at once. Some of that is on old treed over slides, and some on slabs and ledges. The trail doesn’t go out to the open slides visible from the road. Once up to the ridge, we got good views. We watched the clouds to see if anyone might be soaring that day. There was no wind. Above each peak one cloud gradually morphed. So there was a tiny bit of thermal activity, but hiking looked more fun than soaring that day. From Mt Flume to Mt Liberty, the trail goes down to a saddle and back up. At Mt Liberty, we got even more views. This time into the Pemigewasset Wilderness and west to the Kinsmans.

Mt Flume and Mt Liberty are on the NH 4,000 footers list.
The Flume Slide trail is on the Terrifying 25 list.