Tropical Storm Irene did a significant amount of damage to the White Mountain National Forest in 2011. One of the casualties of the storm was the Flume Brook Trail, which was closed after the storm and never re-opened. Instead, the Forest Service elected to construct a new trail east along the ridge from the Scaur to the Waterville Flume. This trail has been named Irene's Path.
Park in the large lot off Tripoli Road in Waterville Valley. From the parking area (fee required,) take the path past the kiosk and then bear left on Livermore Trail. Stay on this easy trail for 0.9 mile and then turn left on the Kettles Path. You’ll pass “kettles,” glacial forest depressions on both left and right. After 1.1 miles, you will reach the spur path to the Scaur. Irene's Path begins here.
Take Irene's Path to reach the cache. After passing along the base of the rock face, it climbs gently along a ridge and then drops down on a well-constructed new footway that leads eventually to a junction with a trail leading to the Waterville Flume. Bear left at a fork (the right fork is the Old Skidder Path) to go to the Flume at 3.1 miles from parking. The cache is close by.
Congratulations to whitemountaindave for being FTF and thanks to moosaconaway for beta-testing.
Photos of the new trail are on the “Off the Beaten Path” Facebook page. Trail directions were taken from “The Scaur.”