| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Liberty, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Bike path, herd path, Liberty Spring Trail, Flume Slide Trail, bushwhack, Liberty South Slide, Franconia Ridge Trail, old road |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Thursday, September 1, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
We parked at the Basin East. Can only access if heading northbound on 93. Large paved lot. Plenty of room at 8am when we arrived at 3:30pm when I finished. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Rock hopable though the rocks looked quite slick and wet from recent rain |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Flume Slide Trail has the occasional blue blaze as it connects with the AT; not hard to follow down low. Liberty Springs Trail is blazed in white as it’s part of the AT; very well trodden and easy to follow. The Recreation Path isn’t blazed as it’s paved. Franconia Ridge Trail, in this section, is blazed in blue occasionally I believe as it connects with the AT; not hard to follow. The herd path/shortcut isn’t marked as it’s not an official trail but it is very eroded and easy to follow at this point. One large PITA blowdown on it just before reaching Liberty Springs Trail. I don’t recall any other blowdowns on trail though that’s not saying much 4 days later ;P |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Wouldn’t recommend the slide for dogs. Flume Slide Trail wouldn’t be appropriate for the vast majority of hiking dogs either. |
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 | Bugs: |
I don’t recall any. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
A classic lazy slacker hike. We walked south along the bike path until we picked up the herd path/shortcut between the bike path and Liberty Springs Trail at its first switchback. Nice to run into Barbara and Ginger and chat for awhile. We commented on how easy the herd path is to follow know and how eroded it is for a herd path. Liberty Springs and Flume Slide Trail were damp. We followed Flume Slide Trail for about 1.5mi until after it crosses a prominent and unnamed drainage on maps. This brings me to my first point: where the slide is. To find slides I use what would seem like the very foolish method of looking at Gaia (free version) and merely noting discolorations on maps, which, at elevations and surrounding drainages/ravines, are slides. This has gotten me into very little trouble and has proved to be a very useful tool. This time, I got it wrong though. In case anyone else uses Gaia like this, allow me to explain: on the east side of the winding S/SW ridge of Liberty there are 3 separate but close together discolorations on the EAST side of this ridge, the first of which starts just below 3400ft. Given that this slide evidently has 3 tracks with some brush in between them, it would be easy to assume this is it. It is not and research online will quickly show this. The slide we wanted is on the WEST side of the winding S/SW ridge. Although Gaia shows a discoloration around 3900ft+ here, the “climbable” part you want is all below that and not shown on Gaia.
Anyway, just after the trail crosses this prominent drainage which we’d follow up to the slide, we began to look for a good spot to start whacking. We knew we should find old skidder roads to follow up toward the slide and hoped to find them early on. Woods weren’t bad but no sign of roads next to the trail so we just began to whack, keeping an eye out for them. Sure enough, we quickly found one and began to follow north back toward the drainage. Then we found another that headed NE and paralleled the drainage. The roads were of course very old and had trees growing up in them but weren’t at all bad to walk on. A little hard to follow at times down low but once you got a good grip on one that remained straight it was pretty easy to follow. Occasionally another road would cross and there’d be some confusion. As far as old roads go, these were steep. Some blowdowns on them but not too bad at all. Around 2900ft or so, we began to curve more easterly. Then we found ourselves at the jct of two old roads again: bearing right would lead us steeply up toward the winding S/SW ridge described earlier. Bearing left would lead us, seemingly on a contour toward the drainage. We took the latter. We soon felt we’d enter the drainage too early but kept on it to the draianhe. Good choice as it brought us right out to the base of the slide. NOTE that shortly before this we crossed a very small washout/drainage. As your intuition will likely tell you, this is too small to be the fallout from the slide. We followed along this contouring path to the north toward the drainage for 0.1mi before reaching the base of the slide around 3200ft.
We scramble up the boulders in the drainage to the base of the large wet slab that fed it. Took a nice break here, then let the fun begin! We took to the left side of the slab and walked up alongside it in the woods soon diving further into the woods for better walking. At first, the woods were pretty good. The old track of the slide soon “spread out” though and we found wet slab to the left of us too. From here to the ridge, it’s hard to describe what we did. We basically stuck to the woods nearby the slide heading NE, getting views as we could but also staying safe and away from open wet slab. Personally, I found it hard to keep track of the main slide and where it was as there were so many small, medium, and large slabs, mostly were, some dry, scattered about. Woods were of course thick. Lots of spongy moss. Interesting views. We found a nice small overgrown scree track with some boulders to sit on to take a break and have a view. This spot, though small, reminded me a bit of the NW slide on Carter Dome. Not sure of the elevation here but I think it was around 3800ft and where we began to head away from the main track of the slide and toward the ridge.
Until now we’d been following nearby the slide to the NE. Now, we headed more easterly and more in woods, to the southern ridge. Interestingly, we passed underneath where my free version of Gaia shows the open (slide) area starting at around 4000ft and continuing to the summit. Early on, we found a talus field of two which weren’t terribly unstable and provided us with some good walking. When we made it to the ridge at 4050-4075ft, we were treated to a magnificent view to the south and east toward Big Coolidge, Flume, Osceolas, Tripyramids, Carrigian, Bonds, and much, much more. Ironically, the number of slides you could see from here was impressive. Because this ridge is so narrow, it affords many scrambly, bouldery views and we were treated to others just above if (and of course at the summit). We made our way up through thick woods along the ridge having to scramble up several boulders and small cliffy areas as we approached the summit. Pretty cool if you like that sort of thing. The hardest one was actually perhaps one of the safest but most awkward and we both had to belly flop onto a rock then swing our legs over. Nothing crazy; probably Class 2+, MAYBE class 3 at best.
Clouds came in right at the blustery summit. We enjoyed some lunch and respite at the summit before we made the long, rocky trek down Liberty Springs Trail. Nice to see so many thru hikers out. I don’t see that many anymore mostly bushwhacking. I also checked out the campsite spur for the first time in awhile. I was surprised how many people had already stopped there for the day as it was only 2pm. Got to reserve a spot for yourselves early I guess. At the base of the mountain, 0.2mi above the herd path/shortcut between Liberty Springs Trail and the bike path, there’s an old road (shown as “No Acess” on Gaia). Per Larry’s suggestion earlier in the day, I followed it north on the contour until it crossed the drainage shown on Gaia (it crossed a few other dry drainages before this). At this point I turned left (west) and whacked down alongside it toward and popped out right at the parking area. Woods were relatively open but the footings around the drainage was kinda crappy. Probably should’ve stayed a bit further from it.
Fantastic, difficult, and rewarding day with Mr. Elbows. Hike was about 6.75mi with around 3000ft of gain. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney and old man and the saw (Lazy Slackers) |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2022-09-05 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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