Re: What a great day!

[Max]

#49028

Ditto on Mtn Magic’s feelings. It WAS a great day!! Here’s how ours went. My wife Patti and I arrived at Cannon at 10:30 AM. After purchasing her ticket for the tram, I started up the Kinsman Ridge trail, pushing a pretty fast pace and arriving at the summit an obscene 57 minutes later. Plenty of time to set up the flag. The skies are crystal clear early in the day, and I can already see the flag on Mt. Lincoln with the naked eye. Impressive, nice job guys! I get mine up by using bungie cords to attach the pole to the lookout tower. The steady breeze straightens out Old Glory like she is destined to be. In a brief moment of disappointment, I realize I have forgotten both my binoculars and quarters for the ones that are on the lookout platform. Another summit visitor with correct change informs me that she can see a flag on Garfield. Her quarters run out. It looks to me like I can see one on Lafayette and also on North Kinsman. I think Liberty too, but hard to tell without magnification. My wife arrives right at noon (after browsing the base station gift shops), and we sit down to talk to the various visitors.

Christine and daughter Olivia drop by. They are the two that had inquired here about participating, and that she had not hiked anything other than Monadnock. We have a nice chat, and I take their pictures in front of the flag. I am genuinely glad that they made it and were part of the event. Well done girls!!

A minor highlight is the release of three separate gliders near the summit as they are towed by their respective airplanes from (I assume) the Whitefield airport. Cool.

Franconica Ridge shortly becomes cloud covered, and thereafter it starts to cover Cannon as well. So the best views were early. Surprise #2, my son, his wife and my grandson arrive via the tram, and we have a mini family reunion attop the peak. What a great event! With the fog blowing in, we dismantle the flag setp precisely at 2 PM. My family returns to the tram station and I return via the Kinsman Ridge trail, running down to the base in an equally obscene 39 minutes. Well, it was a short day mileage-wise, but I made it intense at least! After some gift shopping in Lincoln, we head over to the Mooseland Grill for a dinner that can’t be beat. Nice to run into Cantdog, Alpinista, and Silent Cal. Sorry I did not get to meet everyone there, and we had to leave before the remainder arrived. But we’re home safe and ready to do it again next year.

Pictures to follow.

Patti and Max