Flags on the 48 in an annual ceremony to commemorate the victims of 9/11. This was my first year participating, and it was a very satisfying to be a small part of this. Every year, on all 48 NH 4000 foot peaks, flags are raised. It was interesting to see the logistics of carrying and raising a 30 foot mast, with the team headed up by my friend Joe. The flag was to be flown on the ledges near the summit off a spur trail, but first Joe hung a flag at the spur junction.
At the ledges, the PVC sections were inserted and duct taped, then guy ropes tied to loop screws in the PVC. Caribiners tied the flag to more screw loops, and the flag went up surprising easy. Randall, his kids and friends had joined us and would raise another flag.
I really like Joe's addition, showing 4 stars for each of the planes, 2 on the World Trade Center, another in a Pentagon, and the fourth outside of these symbols to represent the Pennsylvania crash. Very powerful symbolism.
On some years, one of the military branches provides a fly-by, which is very powerful to me, also, that they would go out of their way to send their thanks, when usually we send our thanks to them. No fly-by this year, but I did catch a commercial 747 very high up thanks to Super Zoom.
I was able to see nearly 1/4 of the flags that day. There were some stupid ones I missed (like Hale), and had trouble ID'ing certain peaks (Pierce and Jackson if you can believe that), but it was pretty cool seeing all those flags on this special day.
