amstony
New member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2004
- Messages
- 732
- Reaction score
- 142
This was supposed to be just another hike into the White Mountains to revisit 2 of my favorite mountains in Franconia Notch...Flume and Liberty. The plan was to hike up the Liberty Springs trail, make a right on the ridge and take Franconia Ridge Trail over to Liberty and Flume and then do the reverse out. I had always done Flume separately via the Osseo Trail, so this would be new trail to cover and coincidentally allot more elevation gain!! 
The hike itself was fine, just hot and humid and with numerous visits by the 2 state birds of NH, the Black Fly and Gnat. I was going to travel without my backup sneakers today too to reduce weight.
So I was hiking down the Liberty Springs Trail at a moderate pace, nothing fast, I slowed down since it was so hot and humid. When I came to Liberty Springs tent site I was putting my feet on some rocks near the spring when all I could feel were big rocks giving way under my feet and I started falling face first, I could sense what was hapopening and using my poles twisted myself to the right away from the rocks and SLAMMED hard, back, first into the stream bed.....avoiding big rocks to my front, all I could feel was my neck and back hurting! My right boot was jammed between 2 big rocks. At this point the tent site caretaker, who had witnessed the entire event yelled up "HEY!, are you OK"? All I could do for about 10 seconds was just focus, I looked up and shook my head.
All I remembered was saying "WTF was that, what happened", he said "I think the scree bar gave way"! "Are you OK", I said, "I think so, I am trying to get up", oh man was I sore. And my pole which had spun behind and had helped break the back first sideways fall was split right in two. I looked at it and said to the caretaker, "I think I am OK, but my poles dead". I very slowly pulled myself up, very slowly. I got up real slowly and stood up to make sure I hadn't inadvertantly broke or sparined anything...... I was also soaked in mud and water, which felt pretty good actually!
I felt Ok and my legs felt OK. I spoke to the tent site manager, who obviously had some work to do rebuilding the scree bar. I din'y notice anything else wrong, and by jury rigging the pole I was able to sue it some while descending. So I started out back down the trail feeling very lucky today!
After about 2-3 minutes my right boot felt weird. I looked down and lifted it up and half the bttom on of my faithful Asolo 525 boots had pulled off and was flapping around. Oh no, 2.2 miles to go, and .9 mile road walk back to Flume Visitor center. How could this happen to my boots, this was not fun, eventually the boot fell apart and I had to use the laces to hold the boot together through the rocks and steams. Apparently the boots had been jammed in the rocks when I fell and had pulled loose the bottom of the boot....
Then as I descended further down I had a hiker pass me who told me "Hey, buddy, you have blood all over the back of your left leg". I looked back and saw a nice 6" cut right across the back of my leg, looked over to the right leg and saw my shin had swolled with a nice knot...then I found more cuts and abrasions on my right leg........ but for some reason none of this gave any pain!
Between this and busted poles it made for a slow and very careful descent. I was never so glad to see my trunk and get out my sneakers I wished I had not taken out of the pack.
Felling unlucky, but VERY lucky I didn't break something or worse, I made it home, despite sitting in the 7 car wreck traffic for an hour in Canerbury!
Pics are in my album on www.facebook.com, I put a jpeg of the boot, pole and one of the abrasions- attached here....
Now I have to buy new boots and poles- yuck!
The hike itself was fine, just hot and humid and with numerous visits by the 2 state birds of NH, the Black Fly and Gnat. I was going to travel without my backup sneakers today too to reduce weight.So I was hiking down the Liberty Springs Trail at a moderate pace, nothing fast, I slowed down since it was so hot and humid. When I came to Liberty Springs tent site I was putting my feet on some rocks near the spring when all I could feel were big rocks giving way under my feet and I started falling face first, I could sense what was hapopening and using my poles twisted myself to the right away from the rocks and SLAMMED hard, back, first into the stream bed.....avoiding big rocks to my front, all I could feel was my neck and back hurting! My right boot was jammed between 2 big rocks. At this point the tent site caretaker, who had witnessed the entire event yelled up "HEY!, are you OK"? All I could do for about 10 seconds was just focus, I looked up and shook my head.
All I remembered was saying "WTF was that, what happened", he said "I think the scree bar gave way"! "Are you OK", I said, "I think so, I am trying to get up", oh man was I sore. And my pole which had spun behind and had helped break the back first sideways fall was split right in two. I looked at it and said to the caretaker, "I think I am OK, but my poles dead". I very slowly pulled myself up, very slowly. I got up real slowly and stood up to make sure I hadn't inadvertantly broke or sparined anything...... I was also soaked in mud and water, which felt pretty good actually!
I felt Ok and my legs felt OK. I spoke to the tent site manager, who obviously had some work to do rebuilding the scree bar. I din'y notice anything else wrong, and by jury rigging the pole I was able to sue it some while descending. So I started out back down the trail feeling very lucky today!
After about 2-3 minutes my right boot felt weird. I looked down and lifted it up and half the bttom on of my faithful Asolo 525 boots had pulled off and was flapping around. Oh no, 2.2 miles to go, and .9 mile road walk back to Flume Visitor center. How could this happen to my boots, this was not fun, eventually the boot fell apart and I had to use the laces to hold the boot together through the rocks and steams. Apparently the boots had been jammed in the rocks when I fell and had pulled loose the bottom of the boot....
Then as I descended further down I had a hiker pass me who told me "Hey, buddy, you have blood all over the back of your left leg". I looked back and saw a nice 6" cut right across the back of my leg, looked over to the right leg and saw my shin had swolled with a nice knot...then I found more cuts and abrasions on my right leg........ but for some reason none of this gave any pain!
Between this and busted poles it made for a slow and very careful descent. I was never so glad to see my trunk and get out my sneakers I wished I had not taken out of the pack.
Felling unlucky, but VERY lucky I didn't break something or worse, I made it home, despite sitting in the 7 car wreck traffic for an hour in Canerbury!
Pics are in my album on www.facebook.com, I put a jpeg of the boot, pole and one of the abrasions- attached here....
Now I have to buy new boots and poles- yuck!
Last edited:
