Tom

[Jayne]

#47232 |

“In memorial of those lost on that tragic day, we raise our proud colors of glory in your honor”
After making several pit stops to pick up members of the crew, we arrived at Crawford Depot at 9:30. A couple of group photos and telling some fellow hikers what we were up to with these 5 foot PVC poles attached to our packs, we were well on our way up the Avalon Trail, to A-Z to Tom Spur. The flag equipment crew went to the front of the pack and made good time to the top. We raised the flag at 11:53 on the true top. After reflecting for a bit, the rest of the crew showed up, proud to see our flag flying out straight. More silence.
I got the binoculars out, (bring the 10x next time), but I could see S Twin clearly. We then headed over to the viewpoint and could see Pierce and Jackson with the naked eye! Impressive! (If I did Tom again, I think I would put the flag on the viewpoint instead of the true summit, as it would be more visible.) After some more checking around, we could see Monroe, and yes- Jefferson! On Jefferson were my buddies Rick, Bob, Tom, and crew, who did a fantastic job displaying Old Glory, and thanks to Michael J- the Louisiana flag. Thanks to Rick for rev 2 of my flagpole.
The fighter plane came over Tom kind of high on route to S Twin, and I jokingly said, “ Wow, he flew over for Flags Over the 48”. He headed towards S Twin, and little did I know, did a low fly by several peaks. Very cool.
The gray jays came around for feeding and kept us entertained for a while. We had a few visitors from Boston that came up for the purpose. They brought with them 4 cans of Guinness and of course there were 4 of them so none for us. Although one guy was willing to give up his beer if the bird could fly away with the can, but he wouldn’t give it to us! 😆
At 2:00pm we brought the flag down, properly folded it, packed up our poles, and left no trace. We went down the same route in no time, freshened up, and headed to the Mooseland Grill. I think we were the first ones to arrive at 4:00. We ordered some food and beverage (not Guinness but Pigs Ear- yummmm). A bit later, we met crews from N Twin, Pierce, Mooselauke, Jefferson, and Cabot before we departed for the trip home. A long and tiring day but oh so worth it.

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