3/19+3/20 - Liberty, Flume & Clough

[dr_wu002]

I often wonder if people deliberately avoid the mountains on very nice days -- even weekend days and in particular, the last day of winter beautiful days. Because, I had Liberty then Flume and Liberty again, to myself, for about a 1/2 hour each time! During this whole time I only saw one hiker. And it's not like I got a 4am start or something -- just a regular 8am get-go time. Well, I'm not complaining am I? Liberty and Flume are two gorgeous, open summits and this was the first time I hiked them with snow on the ground. It turned out to be a warm, slightly breezy and crystal clear day. Here are some pictures for you to look at:

1st time on Liberty:
http://community.webshots.com/album/302976360yIwotc
Flume:
http://community.webshots.com/album/303001986ZOHcqx
2nd time on Liberty:
http://community.webshots.com/album/303031135TlnFOo

For the first day of spring on Sunday Barbarossa and I figured on a Mt. Clough for a pretty righteous start to the post-winter season. And, although we never made it to the summit, this bushwhack turned out to be oddly more satisfying then the entire Liberty Trip. Despite the relative lack of views, slow movement and summitless experience, I had an absolute blast! While the Liberty Spring Trail is boring and kind of tiresome (which left me feeling a bit restless on the Liberty & Flume Summits) snaking through thick trees and falling into spruce traps on the Mt. Clough Bushwhack was cleansing! You end up focusing so much on your surroundings that you begin to take it all in and like I said in the trail conditions page, the whole trip becomes your destination. It's amazing just how much pollution from day to day life this type of hike can sweep away.

The Clough summit was easily within striking distance for Barb and I but we both kind of had an early turnaround time (well, I did). In retrospect though, we literally flew out of the woods so I wish instead we had tried for the summit. Live and learn -- this really was a great hike. Thrashing through gnarly, close together trees, getting slapped in the face with branches, falling into spruce traps, trudging through wet, gloppy snow -- let me assure you, it's worth every minute.

A few pics: http://community.webshots.com/album/303051721brauKX

Big thanks to Eric (Barbarossa) for taking me on my first bushwhack. You've created a monster!

Hope to see you on the trails soon...

Regards,

Dr. Wu

 

[Barbarossa]

It was a great hike. I'm not so sure about the easy striking distance, the yards don't come cheaply in that spruce.

You're very welcome; thanks for accompanying me. I'm sure the lost patrol will head out again soon.

-Barb

 

[dr_wu002]

It was a great hike. I'm not so sure about the easy striking distance, the yards don't come cheaply in that spruce.

You're very welcome; thanks for accompanying me. I'm sure the lost patrol will head out again soon.

-Barb

I think we could have made the summit and returned to our turn-around point in 2 or 2.5 hours. The spruce just made it more fun. I think Jess appreciated having me home a few hours early though.

We gotta do it again!

-Dr. Wu

 

[Dennis C.]

Liberty and Flume are standard fare, and wouldn't have caught my interest, but Clough did for sure. I especially wanted to see how far you got from those great photos. Picture 16 "Clough Summit -- this was as far as we'd go": that thick spruce looks tough, especially if you were breaking through with each step. Approximately how deep was the snow? Was it consolidated at all?

 

[dr_wu002]

Liberty and Flume are standard fare, and wouldn't have caught my interest, but Clough did for sure. I especially wanted to see how far you got from those great photos. Picture 16 "Clough Summit -- this was as far as we'd go": that thick spruce looks tough, especially if you were breaking through with each step. Approximately how deep was the snow? Was it consolidated at all?

The snow wasn't too bad -- we fell into a few spruce traps and it was deep in places but it wasn't too bad. The trees were mighty thick though and it kept getting thicker and thicker. I think we were about 1 mile and 250' elevation left but from where we were (that open area you saw in the picture) we couldn't find anything open to let us move on to the summit. I had kind of an early turn-around time that day (1:00 or something) so we stopped, figuring that maybe it was another hour or hour-and-a-half just to get there. I think the route we chose -- going up the gentle SE shoulder was wrong. An earlier trip report said that it was fairly easy going and we did not encounter that. Google "clough" and I think you can find other people's trip reports.

It's my fault -- it was my first bushwhack and I was the dumbass who picked the route!!

-Dr. Wu