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 pretty 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.
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