“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” — Diane Arbus

From the Flags on the 48 website: “On September 11th, 2001 the consciousness of United States of America was undeniably altered by overwhelming and devastating acts of terrorism, so far reaching in their intensity that our country will forever carry the scars. Thousands of lives were lost in a fleeting moment, immeasurable families shattered, and countless hearts broken.

We in the hiking community continue to honor the deceased with a tribute: flying the American flag atop all 48 four-thousand foot and higher mountains in New Hampshire on Sunday, September 11. By demonstrating our steadfast unity in this challenging endeavor, we also hope to express our unwavering support to the families, friends, and communities whose losses are beyond comprehension and whose suffering we remember in our hearts.”

This event is the highlight of my year. One that I was training for after breaking my ankle. My goal was to get back in shape after an almost five-month period to be able to hike in this event.

This year marks the 13th year that I have been doing this hike. Good weather, bad weather, heat, cold, rain, and wind could not stop our group from doing this annual hike. The mountain we did this year was rated as an easy hike, Mount Hale, at 4,054 feet. One of the shorter mountains and the easiest 4,000 footer in the White Mountains. The hike took us up a well established bushwhack trail that had little rock or roots on it which was welcomed for my recovering ankle. One other person was also glad since she had ankle surgery the week after I did. Her surgery was not as extensive as mine so she recovered and was out hiking faster that I did. It is called the Fire Warden Trail and it could have been used by the fire warden when hiking to the summit. On the summit, there are posts in the ground that were used to anchor the old fire tower.

The ten people in our group have been doing this hike together for many years. We start out the hike with a group photo. I like to say that we do this incase someone gets lost and we have a photo of them. Since we were doing a trial that was not on any maps, the name of the trail or the mountain was not on the trailhead information board.

The group of use stayed together for the hike. As I stated in the opening statements, this was an easy trail. We gave ourselves four hours to reach the summit and set up our flag. It took up two and a half hours hiking very slowly so we would not reach the summit to early.

At the summit we worked together to set up our flag. Mount Hale has a wide-open summit, so we had plenty of room to set up the flag. Some of the summits are tight, and most have some room. There is no view of the neighboring mountains from the summit, just on the hike up.

Once on the summit, we had a moving tribute by Boy Scout Troop 13 from Pepperell, MA and by a member of our group. Our group has been taking one or two names of the victims from each site and talking about what they did prior to that memorable day.

We flew our flag from noon until 2 p.m. and the hiked down. It is always a great honor to be part of this tribute. Looking forward to the hike next year.

If you in the area and up for a hike, please join me.

That is all for now. Until next week, be safe.

For more photo of other project I have work, visit my website: https://photobyjosephciras.weebly.com or visit me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PhotobyJosephCiras/.