We had a large group of 14 for this 9/11 Memorial hike. Most of us (except for Evy & Mike) met at the Ripley and Arethusa Falls parking area off rt 302 for the Ethan Pond trail. We headed up about 9:15 in smaller groups with poles being carried by Paul and Ross. I had the flag all neatly folded in my pack along with the ropes.
It was soooo humid that day, we were all drenched upon arrival at the true summit at about 11:30 or so. We decided to put the flag on the outlook so we had a better chance of being seen from other peaks as well as having a place to sit down and spread out. We got the flag up at about 11:50. We then took turns reading names from 2 sheets of a section of the victims list that Randall Sappington had provided to me. He took the original list and broke it down if coordinators wanted to take a section. This added a nice touch to the already emotional memorial hike. Thank you Randall. Some of us (Jackie, Keith, John and myself) jogged over to Field and said hello to Bobcat and snapped a few photos. When we returned, apparently the Canadien Jays had been feasting with several of the group on Willey. We took the flag down at 2:10 and headed down the steep Willey Range trail. There are 9 nicely constructed sets of stairs, just to give you idea of steep! The one mile takes about an hour to go up or down. We all made it safely back to the parking lot and visited Fabyans for a cold beverage :beer: ! A great day was had by all. Thank you crew (Lynda, Joan, Charlie, Paul, Mike, Evy, Ross, Lori, Melissa, Rick, Jackie, Keith, and John) for participating in this memorial occasion. Hope to see you again next year.
~Jayne
