Isolation 2006

Date: Saturday, September 9th, 2006

Peak: ISOLATION

Attendees: Mountain Magic (Coordinator), Arnold, Eric, John, Karen and Cris

Mission: In remembrance of lives lost on 9/11/01 – Raise a flag on Mt. Isolation.

I don’t know if the Peak Coordinator is supposed to write the trip report or not but I think Mountain Magic, who was the peak coordinator for Isolation said he would be in the woods for a few days and I wanted to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh.

I arrived at the Rocky Branch trailhead a little early at 7am after a three hour drive up from MA. Other people started arriving soon and introductions were made. It was decided that Arnold should get a head start as he knew he would be slower than the group. I volunteered to ride to the Glen Boulder Trail head with him while everyone else waited for any stragglers that might show up late.

Arnold and I started up the trail which was moderately steep but not overly difficult. The pace was considerably slower for me than usual but it was a nice change over my usual sprint to the top. By the time we got to Glen Boulder the rest of the group had caught up with us and we took a quick second to enjoy the views of Boot Spur across the Gulf of Slides.

John, Eric, Karen and I pressed on while Arnold and Mountain Magic picked up the rear. We took another break at Slide Peak and wondered where Mountain Magic and Arnold were. We weren’t to worried though as we knew they knew where the mountain was. We pushed on.

At some point after Davis Path enters the tree line we found Mountain Magic and Arnold in front of us! Evidently Magic had used some of his magic and teleported across the mountain. He claimed he took a bushwhack to cut some time off but we knew was his magical powers.

We tromped through the mud down Davis path and made it to the summit of Isolation at about 5 minutes after Noon. We quickly assembled the PVC pipe and attached the flag. We then stuck the pipe into the summit cairn and secured it with nearly invisible fishing line. I think we had it flying by about 10 past.

We looked at the Presidentials hoping to see another flag. The Wildcats were way to far away and Washington and Monroe were deep in the clouds. I knew Pierce had some pretty high scrub on the western side so I was pretty doubtful we would see anything there. Our only hope was Eisenhower. We could see the bump on the top that was the large summit cairn and we thought we could see smaller dots walking around but we could not see a flag.

Mountain Magic had brought a kite with him to the summit and he got busy trying to get it flying. It was quite a treat to watch him running back and forth across the summit holding a string trying to get the kite airborne. We all had a good laugh. But perseverance pays off and with the help of Arnold and John the kite did take flight!

While we ate lunch two other hikers arrived on the summit and proudly proclaimed they had finished the 48! We wished them congratulations and pressed them into service to take group photos. Thanks guys! We explained the Fot48 which they had not heard of.

At about 1pm we grew concerned over the darkening clouds pushing over the Presidential range. With a 7 mile hike out we definitely did not want to get wet. So we quickly disassembled the flag and headed down.

We passed a few groups on the way out and mentioned to each one the Fot48 as none of them had heard of it.

As the sprinkles started we broke out the rain gear. Karen, Eric, and John decided to press on ahead as they were on a tight schedule. Karen was getting on a plane the next morning to go hike Rainer! Good Luck Karen!

So Mountain Magic, Arnold and I plodded along as best we could. The rain got harder, then thunder and occasional lightning. While the rain got pretty heavy it wasn’t really that bad. We made it back to Rocky Branch Trailhead a little before 5:30.

– Cris