Maggie, Dawn, Sara, Christina, and I left Lincoln Woods at 0800 via the Wilderness Trail to the Osseo Trail. Dawn and Maggie were making their second Flags hike. This would be Maggie, Dawn, Sara, and Christina’s first times up Flume and Liberty.
We made good time up the Osseo Trail, meeting up with Rachel (Little Sister) just before the ‘stairs’. Rachel was moving at her usual amazing speed planning an up and back for both Liberty and Flume.
Our group dredged on and made the summit of Flume for 1130. I carried a telescopic pole which we tied to one of the trees at the summit, and hoisted the flag above Mt. Flume. Each of us held our own thoughts for the Memorial before sitting down for lunch. Rachel made it back from Liberty with stories of cookies. This was too much temptation so we got ready to head to Liberty.
A few of us headed out to Mt. Liberty and visited with their group. I was impressed and amazed to see a bunch of children on Liberty. It really made me think how important it is for all of us to teach younger people about what happened 8 years ago. I was so impressed with their enthusiasm.
We headed back to Flume where we were greeted by a few Canadian hikers. They asked about the flag and we told them about the memorial hike.
At two, we took the flag down, got our things together, and headed down toward Lincoln Woods. We got to the bottom around 1730.
Despite some overcast and consequent lacking views, the hike was both fun and spiritual. Thank you to the group that came along.
– LenDawg
