I wanted to take the ladies on their first backpacking trip. My first ever solo backpacking trip (and also my first ever backpacking trip), was great and would be perfect. We would camp at an AMC tentsite, which meant bear boxes and a water source, plus tent platforms. And they would be able to get two more 4000-footers. The perfect intro to backpacking.

So the plan: leave early Saturday morning and arrive at the trailhead by 8AM, in order to get to the tentsite by 11:30, so we could all be together. Set up our tents, then hike to Liberty, then over to Flume, back to the tentsite for the night. Hike out Sunday.

But first, gear! The ladies didn’t have all the required gear, but luckily between myself, Beth, and Right Turn, and Rainbow, we had enough. Beth would hike in with us, but not be staying, though she loaned us a tent. Right Turn and Rainbow weren’t coming at all, and loaned us tons of gear. THANK YOU, all! It’s so much better to borrow and figure out what you need, then buy everything and realize it doesn’t work for you. Plus, Awestruck kept saying this was the only time she’d ever do this, so definitely no sense in buying a bunch of gear. (Spoiler alert: I think we changed her mind).

We met Beth at the trailhead (not only was she loaning us her tent, but also carried it up the mountain), and started up the trail at 8:30 AM.

Since Beth wasn’t staying, she brought Lilja! So left to right: Lilja, Beth, Awestruck, the Bartender and myself.

We parked at the Liberty Springs Trailhead Parking. Potentially confusing since it’s called Liberty Springs Trailhead parking on the map, but you actually start on the Whitehouse Trail.

Whitehouse trail is a short walk in the woods, which meets up with the Franconia Notch Recreation Trail (or Franconia Notch Bike Path, depending on which map you look at). The recreation trail is part of the AT! And it follows along the Pemigewasset River.

Lilja, now a seasoned hiker, had to stop and investigate the river.

You quickly come to a junction with the Pemi Trail (a nice flat easy trail), a bridge over the river, and then the bike path goes off, while we continued to Liberty Spring Trail.

Something that is often confusing are references to Pemi or Pemigewasset. Pemi is short for Pemigewasset, but name is used EVERYWHERE for many different things. Here, we see the Pemi (Pemigewasset) River. We also see the sign for the Pemi Trail, as I mentioned a nice flat, easy trail. Not to be confused with the Pemi Loop, which is a ~30 mile hike with ~9000 feet of elevation gain. The Pemi LOOP never once encounters the Pemi Trail, nor any trail named “Pemi”, but is named so because it loops around/through the Pemigewasset Wilderness. There is also Mt. Pemigewasset (52WAV), which is NOT in the Pemigewasset Wilderness, nor on the Pemi loop, nor is it accessed by the Pemi Trail, but instead by the Mt. Pemigewasset Trail. Confused? Gee, I don’t know why you would be. So anyway, we passed the Pemi Trail, crossed the Pemi River, headed for the Pemi Wilderness, and part of the Pemi Loop.

Also, you note the sign about bears. There is currently a “problem bear” making the rounds in the area. We live in Black Bear country, which means we aren’t really in danger, BUT the problem is that poor HUMAN behavior means bears figure out that humans mean food they can eat, and they start to hang around humans looking for food. Unfortunately, if a bear becomes too much of a problem, the bear has to be put down. All because humans are too dumb to clean up after themselves and store food properly. <steps off of soap box>

We reached the junction with the Flume Slide trail, and continued on Liberty Spring trail. At around the 2 mile mark, it begins a steady, steep climb to the tentsite. In one and a half miles, you gain roughly 1,800 feet of elevation. (Or climbing the Empire State Building 1.25 times). It was hot and humid. Temps were in the 70s and 60% humidity, even at elevation. I was sweaty and really just wanting to get to the tentsite.

We arrived right at noon. The caretaker was away, so we went ahead and picked our platform. This was the part I was most nervous about, as I wanted to be sure we three would be together at a single platform. Happily, we found platform #2 to be completely empty, so we grabbed it. Coincidentally, it was the same platform I set up my hammock next to on my first trip here.

Our tents all set up on the platform. And a pic of my tent. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s new! I bought some “fishbone” stakes to use on tent platforms, as my tent is not freestanding and needs stakes to stay upright. Two of the stakes I used were the fishbones, though one I still had to use a rock to keep from sliding side to side. Two of the stakes (on the left of the photo) I used were regular stakes in the dirt below the platform. The pitch is a little loose, but it did the trick. We had some wind overnight, and it was flappy, but stayed upright.

After claiming our spots, setting up our stuff, and by doing so, dropping off some weight, it was time to head to the ridge!

Here there was also a sign warning hikers not to leave their packs unattended. A common practice is to drop your pack before a side trail to a summit, so you can hike without the weight, then come back and grab your pack. However, with the problem bear roaming around, apparently he knows hikers leave packs here and that means a free lunch. The sign said packs left at this exact spot have been dragged off by the bear.

I was sweating bullets all day. I was struggling with some hip pain, too. The ladies would get a bit ahead of me. Normally, not an issue. But for whatever reason today, anytime hikers were descending as we ascended, they would see me. I assume they thought I was alone. And would sooooo condescendingly say “You got this”, “you’re almost there”, “you’re so close”. If I had the energy I might have yelled at them that I’ve done all the 48, including this exact hike before, but I was too tired.

Awestruck, the Bartender, Beth, and Lil climbing the trail.

Just before the summit of Liberty, you come up to a rocky ledge. Lilja is about to go up it in the photo on the right. (Right photo credit: Beth. Center photo credit: Awestruck. Left photo credit: Beth)

Way back in 2018, when I did this trip the first time, I described this rocky ledge/scramble part. As we got here, the Bartender asked if this was the summit, and I said no, and pointed out the actual summit. It’s not very far from that spot, but it LOOKS impossibly hard to get to. The Bartender sat down and said no. She noped out right there and then. And I don’t blame her. I’m afraid of heights, and even knowing I’d done this before, I was still a bit shaky. I told her that she could do it. If I could do it, she could do it, and it looks way worse than it is. We took the little bypass, which goes next to the boulders (rather than on top of them, which is the scariest part) and has the safety of trees, while Awestruck, Beth, and Lilja went up over the top. Then to the actual summit!

Amusingly, from this angle, it looks like the Bartender is at the very edge of the dropoff. And apparently, I was grumpy, probably time for a snack. (Right photo credit: Awestruck)

The views from Liberty are spectacular. 360 degrees. Here you can see Lincoln and Lafayette.

This video starts at Lincoln, then Lafayette. In the foreground (ish) is Owl’s Head. In the middle range, Garfield, Galehead, swinging around to the Bonds. In the background, 3.5 seconds in, Mt. Washington. At the 9 second mark, Mount Flume and the Flume slide are prominent. Swinging further around, you can see highway 93 below. Then the Kinsmans, then Cannon (and the Cannon cliffs), and back to Lincoln. As usual, very cool to think to myself, I’ve hiked those summits! And for the ladies, they’ve hiked some, and will be hiking the rest!

For whatever crazy reason, we decided to do “bad prom pose” photos. Please enjoy, we sure did!

Then it was time for Beth and Lilja to head back to the trailhead and home. The plan was for Awestruck, the Bartender and myself to head over to Flume. However, my hip had been bothering me. And I’ve already done Flume, sooooo I sent the ladies off on their own out and back adventure, while I waited on Liberty.

I told the ladies to text me when they got to Flume, so technically, they are in the photo upper left. While I waited the Grey Jays decided to come visit. It was about two hours that I got to just hang out and chill on the summit. Groups came and went, and I had the summit to myself for about 30 minutes. Many of the groups tried to feed the Grey Jays, and I had to put (metaphorically, since I didn’t bring it) put on my Trail Steward hat and ask them not to feed the jays. They get aggressive and steal food from people. Once I had a Jay follow me down the trail. And plus, it’s just not good for them to eat human food, or become dependent on humans for food.

As I sat there (during the time when no one else was there), I heard what sounded like a helicopter overhead. I looked up to see two ravens (according to the tentsite caretaker, they were likely ravens). I had no idea their wings were so loud! They kept swooping around in the air currents at the summit. I moved every so often so they didn’t think I was a dead body.

Awestruck and the Bartender made it back and we headed back to the tentsite.

But first back across the boulders, and here Awestruck declared “you guys, it’s fucking majestic!”. I mean, she’s right. It IS fucking majestic.

We cooked up dinner and changed for bed. Thanks to the bear activity, ANYTHING with an odor had to go in the bear box. Which was slightly annoying as things like face wipes, electrolytes, and even medications went in the box. I brought a deck of cards and as a goofy surprise, before the trip, I learned 3 magic tricks. The first one, Awestruck figured out almost immediately. The second one, she was too tired to figure out. And I forgot how to do the third one. Some magician I am. But two out of three isn’t bad.

9 PM is “hiker midnight”, aka we all probably got up real early and hiked all day, so want to fall asleep early. The couple on the platform next to us, did NOT get the memo. For whatever reason, once it got dark and everyone got into their tents, THAT is when they decided to start moving stuff around and talking loudly. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, we’ll just assume they forgot tents aren’t soundproof. But they kept me up, when I wanted to sleep. I was annoyed and loudly said “For fucks sake”. I unzipped my tent, preparing to walk over and ask them to keep it down. In order to get out and up, I had to kneel down first. OK, I put my arms down, and place my right knee on the platform. My right hamstring then cramps up in the most painful leg cramp ever. I shoot it out behind me to straighten my leg. I then attempt to put my left knee on the platform. My left hamstring cramps up horribly. I shoot my left leg back. I am now in a full plank position. All while trying to be as quiet as possible since the Bartender is trying to sleep literally a foot away from me. There’s no way I can walk over to those people, so I roll/throw myself back into my tent and try to wish away the leg cramps. Even worse, as mentioned about the bear, my electrolytes and Advil are allllllll the way in the “kitchen” area bear boxes. AND I can’t sleep because the stupid loud talkers. I yelled something about keeping it down. Awestruck yelled back, “I don’t think they could hear because they were talking so loud”. Sigh. I did finally fall asleep, though I woke up quite a bit as my loose tent pitch, and the Bartender’s unstaked tent vestibule were flapping quite a bit in the wind. Oh, and of course, I was vaguely worried about a bear. Awestruck and the Bartender didn’t sleep well either.

I woke up around 6:30 AM and started moving around. Poor Bartender never fell asleep and got up when I did. We made our way to the “kitchen” area to have breakfast.

We talked to Sam, the caretaker for a bit, and he asked us if we had any problems with mice. We said no, but I swear as soon as he left, this guy came out. I made coffee (which was terrible, so I didn’t drink it), ate breakfast, tried to put all the things with odors back into my pack where they belonged. Awestruck woke up and came over to have coffee. My water filter was leaking everywhere and I kept tightening it and wondering what was wrong, when a thru-hiker enjoying his breakfast said “Your filter is upside down”. [Insert facepalm emoji] I guess I should have had the coffee.

This sign is posted just by the tentsite. Hooray 8 days!

We packed everything up and headed out. The hike out felt soooooo long. Lack of sleep and being tired from the previous day’s hike took it’s toll. I didn’t take any photos, so here are some mushrooms and flowers from the day before.

The day before there were NO bugs. It was glorious. For whatever reason, I swear the last mile out, the mosquitos decided now was their time, and bit me right through my leggings. Too tired to do anything about it, I’m currently covered in bug bites.

We were all dragging, and looking pretty pathetic when we got to the bike path. A guy went by and asked “did you do the whole loop?”. We assume he thought we did the Pemi Loop. You know, 33 miles. Nope, just 3 miles. But thanks guy for thinking we could? Or maybe we just looked so pathetic. Whatever. We were so off our game, we didn’t take our finish selfie until the brewery.

Beth, Lilja, and I (Liberty only):

• Distance: 8 miles
• Elevation gain: 3,250 feet

Awestruck and the Bartender (Liberty and Flume):

• Distance: 10.2 miles
• Elevation gain: 4,250 feet

Total time and moving time is hard to track since we all had somewhat different itineraries.

Lilja got her first 4000-footer. This was Beth’s “unofficially official” 2nd 4000-footer, aka the ones she’s counting since she started with us, and not counting the ones she did previously. Number 10 and 11 for Awestruck. Number 8 and 9 for the Bartender. Number 64 for me, but who’s counting?