Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Liberty and Flume on a Windy Day, 2/16/2019

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Liberty and Flume
2/16/2019
Liberty Springs Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail
Around 11 Miles
4,250 Feet of Elevation Gain

We now start our hikes a bit later than we did in the past.  I think this is because we are trying to let ourselves sleep in more.  It is really nice, at least for me, to start the hike in daylight instead of before the sun appears; when we start our hike and it is light outside, I feel more energetic and determined to begin than when it is dark.  

It was fairly cold this day, so I tried not to take too many pictures; when I take my hands out of my mittens in low-temperature weather, they start feeling numb, tingly, and then painful real quick.

Although there were some wispy clouds here and there, we could see well enough.  The views that we witnessed were beautiful.  We had to break out the trail, but between the peaks on the way back, we ran into other hikers.  After that, the trail became more and more packed out as others hiked on the trail too.

Also, it was amazing to know that we were walking on treetops right beneath the snow.


There was the summit of Liberty!  I love how the rocks look in the following image:



Some mysterious-looking views...



This was Sage and me on Liberty's summit:

Photo by Trish Herr


Mom and Sage on Liberty:


We were in fairly high spirits when we got to Flume.  We discussed the possibility of going down the Flume Slide, but we decided that it would be too dangerous.  We therefore went back up over Liberty and down Liberty Springs Trail.  






After we went back to Liberty and started heading down, I began feeling warmer.



Back at the car!


We had a nice hike of Liberty and Flume.  The views were pretty, and the packed-out terrain on the way back (we met more hikers on the trail) made our hike easier for the way down.

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