Flume Slide

[stu]

Hello! Planning to do the flume-slide saturday. Can anyone tell me if we can pick up the trail directly at the flume visiter center or do we have to use the whitehead trail and then cut over to the flume slide? As usual, thanks for the help !
Stu

 

[Waumbek]

The latter. You want to park at the lot just north of the Flume Visitor Center to pick up the Whitehouse Trail or, if you want to park at FVC, you can walk up the bike trail to the Whitehouse Trail although it's longer. (To find the lot one north of FVC, go up the old Rt 3, which then feeds into the parkway.) Do you have a recent map? You might be able to find one of those at FVC so you can see how the Flume Slide Trail branches off to the right (south), Liberty Springs Trail left (north).

 

[nartreb]

As far as I know the only (non-bushwhack) routes are the Whitehouse trail from the Flume visitor center and the Pemi Trail or the bike path from the Basin. Either will take you to the Liberty Spring trail; the Flume Slide trail starts about half a mile up that. Note that most online maps don't show correct locations for (the lower portions of) these trails. Refer to the description in the AMC White Mountain Guide, or just follow the signs and ignore your map.

 

[arm]

here's an online map from Franconia Notch State Park site
http://www.franconianotchstatepark.com/franconiahikingfinal.pdf

there's a paved bike path labelled "Recreational Trail" on this map, marked as a dotted line - this bike path runs from Skookumchuck Trailhead to the Flume visitor lot

last saturday, i chained my bike to a tree at Lafayette Campground, then drove to the Whitehouse lot, which is about 0.1 miles north of the Flume visitor lot off route 3

from there, i hiked Whitehouse Trail 0.8 miles north to where it rejoins the bike path, then followed the bike path north to Liberty Springs Trail, up Flume Slide Trail, over Flume > Liberty > Little Haystack > Lincoln > Lafayette, down Old Bridle Path, then biked back to my car (3.5 miles on paved bike path)

parking in Whitehouse lot allows easier access to Whitehouse Trail, which is more enjoyable than hiking a paved bike path (ymmv) ... parking in Flume visitor lot will only add 0.2 miles, so if you'd rather walk the paved sidewalk, park in the Flume lot - knock yourself up

there's a parking lot near the Basin on the southbound side of route 93, but it's about 0.8 miles hike south (on the paved bike path) to Liberty Springs Trailhead, so won't save much time
http://www.franconianotchstatepark.com/directions.html

in hindsight, i could have saved biking mileage by parking at the lot near the Basin, but it was fun! cruising down that bike path after hiking the ridge on a hot sunny day

Flume Slide was slickery in some areas, but overall pretty easy ... hope this helps !

 

[David Metsky]

The Flume Slide trail used to start from beyond the Flume in the state park area. It's been rerouted to start on the Liberty Springs trail part way up. If you were willing to pay the admitance to get in the Flume you could theoretically pick up the now abandoned trail and follow it to the now current trail, bypassing the Liberty Springs trail completely, but it seems like overkill to avoid a little walking.

It's still fairly easy to follow the old trail on the way down, but the folks at the Flume frown on it.

-dave-

 

[SteveHiker]

I was just there on Saturday too. I'll second that the slide was slippery in spots but not too bad. It was a little further from the top of the slide to the junction with Osseo then I remember from last time, but other than that it was a lot of fun despite the high humidity. The two people I was with had never been there before and for a while didn't believe me when I told them it was going to be the steepest thing they had ever seen. The trail is pretty flat for quite a long way. But then they had no choice but to agree with me.

On the way back down from Liberty, once we got back to the bike path, we just kept going on it instead of taking the Pemi Trail. You go a little out of your way if you do that. And the No Trespassing Signs in the woods between the bike path and the Flume trail you have to pay for really cracked us up for some reason. (Must have been the dehydration)

 

[stu]

thanx

Thanks for the info, as Dave said, my old map shows the trail going up the flume (its a bit confusing). Looking forward hiking the slide.

 

[Raymond]

The Flume Slide was a busy place last weekend! I was there on Friday. I parked near the Visitor Center, and I guess now I know why I've never been able to locate the beginning of the Whitehouse Trail. Susan and I parked there last year, too, and walked up to Lafayette Place on the bike path to begin the Lafayette-Lincoln-Liberty loop. Shortened the walk back to the car when we finished, and gave us a nice warm-up in the morning.

Regarding the Flume Slide Trail, I had to cheat onto the herd paths some places. There had been rain overnight and the rocks were still slick, despite their dry appearance (outside of the streams flowing down them). Some of the herd paths are quite extensive, and I found myself following one away from the slide for some distance before I realized what I was doing and bushwhacked back to the proper trail.

I went over to Liberty then followed Liberty Spring Trail down. After seeing just one other person until then (at the Liberty Spring/Flume Slide trail junction, while I was standing around taking an ozone reading for the AMC project), I encountered nearly two dozen people between Liberty Spring Campsite and the bike path, including at least four through-hikers. I was surprised; it seemed a little early for them.