Dumb question about Mt. Flume

Is there more than one Mt. Flume in NH? Maybe a second one that's not part of the Whites? It probably seems like a dumb question, to suggest that there are two mountains with the same name.

Way, way back in my youth, I could have sworn I hiked up a mountain called Mt. Flume with my girlfriend. I'm pretty certain it wasn't the 4328-foot Mt. Flume in the Whites though, because there's no way we ascended up a 4000-footer. Maybe I'm just remembering the name incorrectly. I have no idea what the trail was called, it's been so long.

I remember this hike particularly because along with my girlfriend, we hiked with one of her friends who was having a real hard time on the ascent. I remember feeling very full of myself because at that time I was in great shape (26 years old at the time) and I had no problems at all. At the top there was supposed to be some kind of natural water slide. But the women never made it. They were too exhausted, so I said "Hey, let me see how much farther it is". I practically ran up the rest of the way, took me about 20 minutes, and when I got to the top, there was a sign saying the slide was 1/10 of a mile away (can't remember exactly what it was called, after all, this is almost 20 years ago). I decided to just save the really "good part" until my hiking partners were with me, so I ran back down to where they were resting and excitedly told them that it was not much farther to the top. Unfortunately, they refused to go any farther - they were just too beat - so this hike always remained in my memory as an "unfinished" hike, and I've always regretted not just going that extra 1/10 of a mile to see the slide on my own. The entire hike took as between 6-7 hours if I remember correctly.

Well, there is the "Flume" State Park at the foot of the mountain. Other than that, I don't really know of any other "Mt Flume" besides the one that is beside Mt. Liberty.

I'd have to go look at a WMG to see if it was reachable by trail or not but there is a Flume Peak also in the WMNF.

It is located in the Waterville Valley area, between Greeley Ponds & Livermore Road. It's possible that there is a short trail that leads to perhaps maintained my the Waterville Valley Group (who initials at the moment escape me.)

Thanks to DeLorme Software for finding BTW, that area other than the 4K peaks is not a place I've spent much time around. A couple of friends have spent sometime there & they do recommend those short hikes.

Surprisingly there are several states with multiple mountains with the same name. At least three mountains in Vermont named Haystack and in Wyoming there at least two Table Mountains. These are the ones I personally know so I bet if someone did some research they would discover it more common then we would think.

Like you I hiked Haystack Mt in my youth in the Pawlet area then in college skied at Haystack Mt. I too thought this is unusual so looking over my Vermont Gazetteer(Delorme) I found a third on the Long Trail in northern Vermont.

rlc said:

Is there more than one Mt. Flume in NH? Maybe a second one that's not part of the Whites? It probably seems like a dumb question, to suggest that there are two mountains with the same name.
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I practically ran up the rest of the way, took me about 20 minutes, and when I got to the top, there was a sign saying the slide was 1/10 of a mile away (can't remember exactly what it was called, after all, this is almost 20 years ago).
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The entire hike took as between 6-7 hours if I remember correctly.

Click to expand...

There is more than one Owl's Head in New Hampshire, so it wouldn't suprise me if there were two or more Flumes. I do think you indeed climbed the 4000 ft Flume, only from the "old" Osseo Trail, which used to start from the Kanc but now starts from the Wilderness Trail. Someone on another hiking forum hiked/bushwhacked the old version of this trail recently. Apparently the trailhead is in some condo development near Loon Mountain, but I digress. The length of your hike would be consistent with this. If I am right, you're lucky you didn't drag those girls the rest of the way because you wouldn't have seen a "natural waterslide" but just a natural slide (a scar in the mountainside from a rock/land slide), which is where the Flume Slide Trail is (which I also hiked some 20 years ago). The flume gorge (a natural water feature) is a lot further down the mountain.

I do suppose the other possibility is the old Osseo trail crossed near the top of Flume Gorge, and offered a veiwpoint down into it, but someone with lots more knowledge of the area (where are you Dave Metsky???) will have to chime in on this.

Kind of silly to open up this three-year-old thread, but I figured I'd update it because I found the answer to this on my own last year. It's Flume Peak I was thinking of. This is a 2980' peak that is southeast of E. Osceola and west of N. Tripyramid.

Mystery solved!