Brought out the dryrobe

It's still September but last night I got my dryrobe out of the attic for the full moon swim. The water is still pretty warm, it was 66 last night, but the air was colder and I was pretty sure I would want it. And I did. We had our full moon swim a couple days early because there's a noreaster coming through this weekend. It would be nice if the rain and weather could ruin the weekdays instead of the weekend, but what can you do? 

Before the swim I went rowing and the water was surprisingly smooth. There weren't that many people there, and so I was in the boat with the big guys! Yay! I was in the two seat, even though I prefer starboard (so boo on that). It was still a kind of tough row because a lot of it was at a pretty slow pace, like 18, which makes it hard to keep the boat set, even with the really good rowers. And we had a new cox, which always adds an element. I'm finally getting the hang of early rollups, so I'm happy with that. Now I have to work more on keeping my body tight on the release and letting the boat bring me back to the catch instead of pulling with my legs. The last few weeks I have been in the stern a lot more, which I think is a sign that I'm getting a little better. It's too bad that the season is almost over, though I think there's some muscle memory there.

Last week I had to cox again. I was in the four with the guys and I was so nervous about it. It turned out OK, I didn't hit anything though apparently I did cut another boat off. Ooops. In fairness, she cut me off first. Anyhow, my proudest moment was navigating through the tricky bend in the river that has a bridge in just the wrong spot for rowing - I totally crushed it without anyone telling me what to do. It was pretty awesome!

Anyhow, for the swim we gathered around 9:30, chatted and hung out for a little bit, and then some of us went in for about 10 minutes or so. It was definitely more chill than most of our full moon swims, with only three of us really getting into the water all the way. The guy who organized it is not into the cold, and he stripped down to his swimsuit and then sat on the beach. After he brought out this fire setup that he has which is a propane tank attached to a burner that gives off a little fire but is super contained. We roasted marshmallows and ate smores. We did see a police car go buy at one point, or at least we saw the siren at the top, not the car, but they couldn't see us in our spot on the water. We are such rebels. It was a nice outing!

Fish in the boat!

Yesterday we were rowing and a fish jumped into the boat! Fortunately it jumped into the seat in front of me, and the guy there was able to toss it back. Given the pollution level on the Malden river where we were, I think it just thought the boat was cleaner :)

We've actually been getting a little better at rowing - the last couple of rows we've had 2-3 of the good rowers in our boat and we've actually been pretty well set, or at least enough so that we could row. I think the other thing is that we stopped trying to change the set with our handle heights only, which was really throwing my technique off. Last night we went from the point where we stop on the malden to where we stop on the mystic without stopping (except to get the fish out of the boat) which is like 3 miles. It was pretty long and kind of hard, but felt great! I really like the longer pieces - I think the biggest thing I need to work on is more power, but without losing technique. 

Tonight I am coxing, and it looks like it's going to rain. So not excited about it, though hopefully it will be the last time I have to cox this year. Only 10 practices left for me after tonight.

Flags on the 48

New Hampshire does a Sept 11 commemorative every year on the Saturday nearest to Sept 11, where hikers carry a really tall pole and a really big flag up to the top of all the 4000 footers, and hoist the flag from noon to 2. I've always thought it sounded amazing, and today I joined the crew on Wildcat to raise the flag. And it was amazing.

I went up last night and we camped out at the moosebrook campground, which was really nice. I had to work, and then I had to stop at the outlets and look at the lulu lemon (nothing sparked joy, sadly), and then there were two moose across from the joe dodge lodge that I had to stop and look at, so it was dark by the time I got up there. I met the crew (I know two of them from swimming) and set up my tent. They had been saying we would squish into the campground, so I brought my small backpacking tent, but when I got up there there was this whole field - I had to laugh.

Anyhow, we wanted to get hiking early, so we got up at 6 am and I packed up my stuff and had some food and hit the road and we got to the trail at like 7, which was pretty fast, and we were hiking by 7:15. We went up 19 mile brook trail, which is a really nice trail to the hut, and then a little brutal beyond it. Since I was hiking with a group, I was all nervous about keeping up with everyone, but the pace was fine until the last little bit where I had to drop back a little and have a snack. One other woman was having a hard time because she hadn't hiked much this year, and she was a little dehydrated, and so her heart rate was really high. So we wound up hiking together at the end. We were both excited to see the top.

The summit of Wildcat is a small space with not that much room. It was soon apparent that there were a lot of cooks setting up the flag, and more were not needed, so I went to the viewpoint, which is right near the summit, to admire the hut and the mountains. It was such a nice day, sunny and cool, with a breeze (which was perfect for the flag). When they had everything set up we had a little ceremony and raised the flag, which was well above tree hight. A few hikers came up from the hut later and said that they had seent the pole coming up, and then the flag. And we could see the flag on Carter Dome really well, and on South Carter a little. It was a real feel-good moment for America, with so many people coming together to remember.

We had a couple hours up top while the flag was flying, and a few people went over to Wildcat C to look for the flags on the Presidentials, but they didn't couldn't see them. Several of us stayed with the flag. While we were enjoying the view and eating some grey jays came by, and we fed them peanuts. It's so fun to have a wild bird land on your hand! A group from the Dartmouth outing club came by and they had a nice time looking at the view and feeding the birds too.

We had another little ceremony when it was time to take the flag down - a couple of the hikers are first responders and one said a few words about the people who run towards danger instead of from it, and then we took the flag down, folded it up, and headed out. The first bit down was pretty brutal, but once we reached the turn off for the hut it got less steep, and we enjoyed the hike down. When I was doing my 4000 footers I had gone up the ski trail to do Wildcat, but this was clearly a better way - it's so much nicer going through the woods, and the first two/last two miles are by a really pretty brook. It had been a while since I hiked with a large group, but I was pretty happy with how I did and it was nice chatting with people during some of the less exciting parts of the hike. One woman even had a dog, and it was so fun hiking with him.

I was tired by the end of the hike, and then I had to drive 3 hours home after. All I can say is thank heaven for audiobooks, it makes the drive so much better when you have a good story to listen to. All and all a really great experience, just as awesome as I thought it would be. I would definitely do it again.