Deep Winter in Flume Brook Valley: 2/24/23

I enjoyed some of the best snowshoeing of the season on a cold, windy day when the ridges were shrouded in fog until late in the afternoon. With temperatures on either side of ten degrees F, the 6" of new snow was powdery and a joy to break trail in. Road conditions were slick in the morning, so I stayed close to home and wandered up into the Flume Brook valley, exploring some old logging roads up on the south slope of Mt. Liberty. The entire day was spent in open hardwood or birch forest.

Knowing there was a rock-solid snow base in the woods, I opted for a bushwhack approach to the middle of the Flume Brook valley, ascending through the woods from the tourist path above the Flume to the Flume Slide Trail. On my way up I stopped for a look at Avalanche Falls at the top of the Flume.

There was an ice climbing lesson in progress below.

On the wall.

 

The half-mile bushwhack from the Flume path to the Flume Slide Trail was a moderate ascent through 100% open hardwoods. As expected, off-trail conditions were excellent, with the new powder atop a hard base of crust.

There are some large sugar maples and yellow birches on this slope. This may be the champion maple of the valley.

The valley section of Flume Slide Trail is a wonderful snowshoeing route. For much of the half-mile or so that I was on it, I followed a line of critter tracks.

 

Eventually the tracks veered off into a tangle of fallen branches. Perhaps it was a member of the weasel family on the hunt.

Sweet snowshoeing, had the whole valley to myself this day.

This gully just below the trail was scoured out by the 1883 slide off the south slope of Mt. Liberty. This was the slide that surged through the Flume, creating Avalanche Falls and dislodging the famed boulder that was suspended between the walls.

After crossing the brook that drains the slide, I bushwhacked up the steadily rising south slope of Mt. Liberty through more open hardwoods.

After gaining a few hundred feet of elevation, I came up to one of a number of old logging roads that stripe this slope. These likely date back to the  Johnson Lumber Company operation of the early 1900s. The roads show up remarkably well on the Lidar hillshade map of the area, viewable on the NHGranit website (granitview.unh.edu).

I followed this road for a short distance, then climbed to a higher road that was the primary objective of the trek.

This road ascends up and across the slope through a beautiful open forest of hardwood and birch. The wind fog that shrouded the ridge gave the woods a ghostly look.

The road leads ever on...

Looking back.

Birches! The legacy of a 1908 forest fire that burned 423 acres in the valley.

I had half a notion to try and continue across the slope to a crag I had been to several times over the years. But there would be zero view, and sidehilling across the slope without the benefit of a roadbed proved to be difficult with the slippery under-layer of crust. I soon abandoned that quest and turned back at an elevation of 2950 ft.

I did manage to get a fleeting glimpse of Hardwood Ridge through the trees.

Looking back as I headed down the old road.

I marveled at this steep and open upslope glade. Looks like it would be a great ski run.

I followed this road all the way down to its end at the brink of the ravine below the Mt. Liberty slide.

Looking back at what appeared to be the junction of the two different roads I followed on the way up.

Heading back down the Flume Slide Trail as the sun makes a late afternoon appearance.

Trunks and shadows on the slope leading down to the Flume.

Looking up at the champion maple.

 

A cleared view to the SW along the tourist path above the Flume.

Mount Pemigewasset from the wide frozen bed of Flume Brook.