gary and susan are planning on attending again this year. it is quite moving to see the flag waving and hear the sound of gary’s clarinet floating on the breeze as he plays “this land is your land” or “God bless America”.
Short description of rigging and pole system: three five foot sections of an aluminum roof rake, three guy lines.
Any suggestion on improvements/changes for next year (optional): covering all 48 peaks would be cool.
it was quiet a day. on the ride over in the morning to mt. monroe, i felt very sad thinking about that day and all the people we lost including 19 alumni from my high school. for the first time i was not happy to be heading to the hills for a hike.
shortly into the hike a rabbit came hopping down the trail and passed between my pole and my leg without breaking stride. when i looked up there was a jet black fischer that had been chaseing it. very cool.
about halfway up i met a nice couple who ended up staying up top with me for the two hours. Gary had brought a clarinet and he played “God Bless America” as i put the flag up at noon and took it down at two. he would also play for arriving hikers. we had about 30 folks pass by. a few did not seem too interested while others took pictures of the flag and posed in front of it with mt. washington, clay and jefferson in the background. one women commented that as she hiked up from the south, as the clouds covered and passed by the flag she was inspired and thought “… and our flag was still there.” that made my day!
we could see frodo’s flag on eisenhouer, and thought we saw the one on jefferson.
i went home feeling much better. i met some great folks and was glad to have done it. we must remember those we lost on 911.
thanks to frodo, greg and rj for all the effort.
