Flume Slide Trail???

[Dan J]

I'm planning on doing a day thru hike starting on the Garfield Trail, going south over Mt Garfield, Lafayette, Lincoln, Little Haystack, Liberty, and Flume. My plan was to descend the Flume Slide Trail, but saw the warning in the AMC Trail Guide. Can anyone comment on the difficulty descending the Flume Slide Trail and/or should I back track and descend the Liberty Spring Trail instead? Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[trailbagger]

I wouldn't descend it. The upper section is mostly wide, steep slabs dripping with runoff and covered with varying amounts of lichen and algae. Of course, if you want to hug the sides and fight your way through the brush then it is probably doable safely.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I'd go the other way myself - especially if Lafayette is in the clouds in the AM as it often is and will often burn off by the PM.

Tim

 

[Grey J]

With a car spot at Lincoln Woods, descending via Osseo Trail off the backside of Flume is another option. You could also start there and traverse north as Tim suggests.

 

[nartreb]

It's perfectly feasible if you take your time and find the handholds, but not recommended at the end of a long day. Backtracking to Liberty or continuing to Osseo might be faster.

The Guide is very emphatic with the warnings since that's a very popular trailhead. It's on the list of challenging trails in the whites, but not at the top of the list. http://www.trishalexsage.com/p/the-terrifying-twenty-five.html

 

[TJsName]

I'm planning on doing a day thru hike starting on the Garfield Trail, going south over Mt Garfield, Lafayette, Lincoln, Little Haystack, Liberty, and Flume. My plan was to descend the Flume Slide Trail, but saw the warning in the AMC Trail Guide. Can anyone comment on the difficulty descending the Flume Slide Trail and/or should I back track and descend the Liberty Spring Trail instead? Thanks for your suggestions.

I'm with Tim - this is a better S-N hike. The Flume Slide can certainly be descended safely, it just would be needlessly difficult. That is also a big day, so being tired on the descent would add a level of difficultly depending on your fitness. Either way, have fun!

 

[blacknblue]

+1 on the advice to reverse the direction. FST is fun going up, a real pain going down. Or, as mentioned, just descend the Osseo Trail.

 

[Dan J]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I think I will reverse it and go south to north. The more I think about it, trying to descend on tired legs doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

 

[Stan]

We didn't think it was that bad ... but we did it on a nice dry day. For some reason coming down that way just made more sense for us on that particular day but the warnings should be heeded regarding footing but I'd also be careful about falling rocks should anyone be ascending or descending above you.