I just want to start this off by saying I was not the official flag for the Osceola hike. In fact when I paricipated last year I was not the official flag for Mooselauke. My group just thinks about things too late to sign up for a peak.
Nevertheless, we bring our flag up with us. I hike with my friend’s wife and her family and friends. (My friend Dave was on AA flight-11). My have hiked every year since sept 11th as memorial to Dave.
As I said ealier this year we did Mt Osceola. I had hiked Osceola before on recommendation of my friend Dave. Doing this hike a second time brought back lots of memories.
As everyone who participated this past year knows the weather was perfect. I think we got started at 10:10am. By 10 of noon a few of us had made the summit. The official flag was already there and set up. I’d say atleast 15 people were on the summit at that point.
Around noon, we heard a jet engine in the distance and most of the crowd on the summit started looking skyward for the plane. The noise got closer and closer but still we could not see the plane. Suddenly the plane came UP the “cliff face” from the Waterville Valley direction. The pilot circled the peak and came back in front of us. He was very close in fact I could easily make out the distinct outline of his helmet in the cockpit. This was the most amazing and impressive thing and really made my day.
As the rest of our group made its way to the summit. We placed our flag next to the “official flag” (in the pictures it is the flag to right of the offical group). We all ate lunch explorered the cliff and just plain old relaxed. We stayed on the summit until 2ish then headed down. What a great day.
Hopefully next year we’ll be able to sign up on time and get to reserve a peak.
