Hiking Mount Flume and Liberty
Mid-June 2026, and I reckoned one more hike was in order before my 12-day trip to the southern Rockies, a final tune-up for body and mind. This was two weeks after my somewhat unpleasant hike to Mount Paugus, and with the weekend promising near-perfect weather, I fixed my sights on the loop of Mount Flume and Mount Liberty. Mount Flume offered the Flume Slide: a steep, often wet scramble that would put my skills to the test in unfamiliar terrain. (As things transpired, the bugs would prove themselves a rather more formidable adversary.)
On the morning of June 13, I left my home in the Boston area and headed for the White Mountains. I had some errands to run along the way, so I only reached the trailhead at around 11:10am. By the way, there were two trailheads for Mount Flume or Mount Liberty, the closer and smaller Whitehouse Trailhead was full by the time of my arrival, so I resorted to the larger Flume Gorge parking lot a short distance away. After some warmup, I started my hike at 11:30am.
Here's GPS tracking: PLACEHOLDER
The first 1.6km (1.0mi) of the trail followed Franconia Notch Bike Path, paved, well-maintained, unhurried. Shortly after crossing the Pemigewasset River, the trail left the bike path and entered the woods.
Upon entering the woods, the trail was, by White Mountains standards, in good condition and not too rocky. The elevation gain and the day's heat announced themselves before the junction of the Liberty Spring and Flume Slide Trails, drawing a generous sweat from me. Beyond that intersection, however, the incline along the Flume Slide Trail leveled out into a gentler, more forgiving climb.
Before the start of the Flume Slide, the trail crossed a few creeks, some of them being moderately challenging. Expectedly, hiking poles turned out to be of great help. The only irritation came from the swarms of bugs hovering near the water.
Shortly after making a final crossing of Flume Brook upon a narrow trunk (p5 above), it's the start of Flume Slide. As its name suggested, this was a very steep stretch of the trail, much of it traversing polished rock. My tracking shows an average (tangent) gradient of 0.52 for about 0.5km (0.3mi). This was slightly less than the North Slide of Tripyramid that I hiked 2 years ago, and it was located entirely in dense woods so it was much less exposed. Nonetheless, it intermittently featured entry-level class 3 scrambling moves (p4-7 below). Though on paper less technical than Tripyramid's North Slide, these rocks bore running water through much of the summer, complicating matters considerably; I found myself compelled to avoid the west areas for better tracion.
Yet for me, personally, the wet rocks occasioned a challenge of far greater magnitude: the bugs. Whenever I sought to concentrate upon discerning the optimal route ahead, their maddening persistence would fracture my attention. Thus ensued an unvarying cycle: I would weave them away, advance a few steps, and presently they would return to plague me anew, an exercise to be repeated ad infinitum.
Nearing the top of the Flume Slide, the trail eased on its technical difficulties. It was nonetheless steep and somewhat rocky, the familiar character of the White Mountains.
Finally, I reached Mount Flume at 2:48pm. The western face of Mount Flume near its summit was mostly exposed rocks, stripped of vegetation and opening up to great views of Flume Gorge below and the rolling hills extending from it. Mount Liberty rose in view as well, the next objective in my hike.
Following a brief respite, I pressed on toward Mount Liberty at 3:15 pm. The trail connecting the two peaks proved, as expected, another exercise in rocky footing, once more the signature of these mountains. The path descended first to the saddle between the two peaks, then climbed upward again to claim the heights of Mount Liberty.
Finally, I reached Mount Liberty just before 4pm.
Unlike Mount Flume, Mount Liberty's apex was a congregation of massive boulders thrusting clear above the surrounding forest—an island of naked stone that yielded views in every direction, unobstructed and complete. Likely owing to its more accessible approach, free of the technical demands of the Flume Slide, I found myself in the company of several other groups here, where earlier I had held Mount Flume's entire summit to myself.
Scenery-wise, many of the views on Mount Liberty were similar to that from Mount Flume earlier, but with the welcomed addition of views to the east, of Twin Range Mountains in blue succession and Mount Washington soaring above in the background. Gusts of breeze arrived now and then with promises of relief, though they proved too mild and fitful to scatter the swarms of hilltopping insects that had claimed Liberty's heights. Their insistence marred somewhat what would otherwise have been unalloyed pleasure.
Here's a video that I took at the summit of Mt. Liberty:
12 seconds, 2160p60fps, H265 only, 20Mbps/33MB file size.
After spending about half an hour at the summit of Mount Liberty and with my patience outlasted by the ceaseless attentions of the bugs, I took my leave and started my descent just before 4:30pm.
For my journey down, I found Liberty Spring Trail somewhat rocky, but not technical at all, and completely dry. I had nursed the hope that this aridity might spare me the torments of the bugs, where wet Flume Slide had seemed to summon them in still greater densities. The hope proved illusory. The swarm accompanied me still, undiminished in their persecution, all the winding way downward.
If some consolation were to be sought, it lay in the water crossings: those few that interrupted Liberty Spring Trail proved scarcely formidable, where Flume Slide's had required care and effort.
In the end, I was back at Flume Gorge parking lot at 6:50pm, concluding this exercise hike.
END