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On Finishing the Four Thousand
Footers Emerging from the trees onto Signal Ridge on Mt. Carrigan I caught my first glance of the summit. As I climbed along the beautiful ridge, I looked at the magnificent mountains and the bright blue sky. In the distance a cloud floated lazily along the horizon. Because of the spectacular views, we had saved Mt. Carrigan for the last mountain on my family's quest to hike New Hampshire's 48, 4000 footers. I was glad we were finishing on such a marvelous mountain on a dazzling day. I paused and looked on both sides of the ridge, over to the surrounding mountains. Suddenly, I wasn’t tired any more. I felt energized and ready to go. We kept hiking and we went back into the woods, through the towering trees and old rocks, and quickly ascended the rest of the mountain to the top. We then made a sharp turn to the right and saw the fire tower high up on the top of Carrigan.
After completing our goal, I couldn’t believe we were through. Then I realized we weren’t. There were still many goals we could set in the Whites. We could hike them again, or in winter, at night, in 8 days, or in another new way. We could even start hiking a new set of mountains, like the 100 highest, or the 4000 footers in New England. We finished lunch and stayed on top for an hour, and then we started down, this time with all of the 4000 footers under our belts. After swimming in the river at the bottom, I got into the car, excited about finishing, and being able to start again. We were far from through. Will Strayhorn
is in the 8th grade in Raleigh, NC. He believes he and his younger
brother, Thomas, are the only two kids in their school who have
hiked all 48 of NH's 4000 foot mountains.
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We
quickly climbed up to the top and pulled out drinks and food.
A gentle breeze kept away the black flies and cooled the sweat
on my shirt, and a small bird sang its loud song as if in celebration
of our accomplishment. We had finished the 4000 footers! I looked
around and saw many of the mountains we had climbed over the
past few years. I saw the spectacular mountains of Lincoln, Lafayette,
Liberty, and Flume sitting up on Franconia ridge. I saw the rocky
summit of Garfield across the valley and thought back to when
I had finished it the year before. I then began to think of all
the other mountains I had hiked and all the great times I had
had hiking them with my family. I thought of mountains like Tecumseh
and Waumbek that I had hiked on days with rain pouring down on
us, just to get them out of the way, and I thought of mountains
like Adams and Madison that I had hiked on brilliant days without
a cloud in the sky. I was now really proud to have hiked Owl's
Head, the mountain with the worst reputation, which we had finished
just a few days earlier. I saw the miniature trees on all the
surrounding mountains, and the rocky tops of mountains far away.
With this spectacular view, I was glad we had saved Carrigan
for last.