Bondcliff, Bond, West Bond (NH #32, #33, #34)

to do; Post it...and back fill Garfield

Garfield (NH #31)

Flags on the 48

To the legions of people reading this, and those who may not know, there are 48 peaks in New Hampshire that officially qualify as being equal too, or over 4,000 feet.  After setting out to 'bag' all 48 myself, I've performed a fair amount of research looking for trail information, the rules and regulations among others.  Last year I stumbled upon a website called 'Flags on the 48'.  In short, since 2002 a group of local hikers and patriots have decided to remember and pay respect to the terrible events of 9/11/01, by raising old glory simultaneously on all 48 peaks between the hours of  12 and 2pm.  So, with promising weather being forecasted, I thought that it would be fun to go hiking and check it out.

The family and I left the house around 4:30 AM for the long drive up to the White Mountains with intentions of bagging Mount Garfield.  We folded the middle row of seats in our vehicle in an attempt to make things as comfortable as possible for Taylor and Veronica, with hopes of letting them to sleep a bit more.  They stayed up for a bit, surely excited about the hike, and freaking out from being up at such an odd hour.  But after 10-15 minutes on the highway, they both were able to sleep.  After stopping to eat a decent breakfast We arrived at the Garfield Trailhead and started up around 9 AM. 

Making our way up the slow grade trail.

Posing for a shot!

On our way up we saw this cool mushroom and then a neat caterpillar.  Veronica and Taylor argued about who gets to name it, but I'm pretty sure they finally agreed on 'Honey'.

Just prior to the summit, we witnessed a helicopter fly what seemed to be a couple of hundred feet overhead.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the camera out quick enough, but you can see it in the picture below.  The wife said, she felt like we were in 'close encounters' the movie.

Finally reaching the summit, here's our first look.  I figured a small group would be present, but certainly wasn't expecting this many.  I haven't seen a crowd like this on any other mountain than Manadnock.

And here's my girls with the flag in the background.

We had a packed lunch and made our way down.  Unfortunately, Veronica took a pretty good fall and skinned her knee and shin.  She was very upset, but was okay after I cleaned it off and gave her two band-aids.  I asked her to pose for the photo below, and she smiled when I said I intended on putting it on the blog!  

WAR SCARS!!

Finally...just before the end, my daughters spotted a mushroom growing on a tree.  They both insisted that it resembled a 'Krabby Patty' from Spongebob and asked me to take a photo of it.  So...here it is!  Natures very own Krabby Patties!