Outer Limits

 

  We arrived home from our six week, 8,800 mile odyssey on Saturday evening. I should be happy to be home, but what we saw on arrival was a carpet of leaves around the house to be raked, a carpet of flies inside to be vacuumed, wood to be split and stacked, mail to be gone through, and there's no mozzarella in the fridge to make pizza! Waaaaa! I was ready to turn around and hit the road. The nomadic life suits me well.

  But we must abide at home awhile and I must wrap up this travelogue. Thank you in advance for reading. We had originally planned to visit Key West after our week doing child care in Massachusetts, but Hurricane Ian gave us second thoughts. We decided to stay in Mass. another week before heading home. 

  The weather was salubrious. We took long hikes, watched the annual rowboat races, and climbed a mountain. I had heard for years of my brother Mark's October ascents of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire and envied him. I love mountains.  

  Mark had just climbed Monadnock earlier that week with his daughter Mary Kate and son-in-law Joe and was extolling it's beauties. On Tuesday Teresa and I had a night off from watching the kids and decided to spend the day climbing the mountain. Our brother-in-law Sunny had climbed the mountain a few years ago with my sister Mary-Jo and their kids and warned us that at some point we'd be crawling on our hands and knees. He gave us collapsible walking sticks to steady our step.

  The forecast Tuesday was for the mid 50s and sunny. I did a little research. The easiest trail to the summit was the White Arrow, 2.3 miles, expected time to the summit 2.5 hours. Easiest does not translate to easy, and time becomes expandable on a mountain. It's a 2.5 hour drive to the mountain from home. Mark typically leaves home at 6:30, takes a more difficult, but quicker route to the summit, and is back home by 3:00.

  We intended to start early, but didn't get going on the trail till 12:45. At first the trail follows a gravel road through dense woods. It was easy walking but the road was mostly up, with occasional level runs where I could catch my breath. Hmmm. Why is my heart pounding? Our elevation was just over a thousand feet; About the same as Wannaska. Teresa didn't seem bothered. Maybe that was due to the long walks she takes every day. I began to see the value in regular exercise. 

  After a mile, the road ended and we followed a well marked trail over jumbled boulders.  We were still in the woods. Other hikers were passing us going up from time to time and there was a regular stream of hikers descending from the top.  "It's windy up there," one told us. We were taking turns carrying a backpack with lunch and water. I began to resent the ice packs and jar of pickles and thought of hiding them in the woods, but knew from experience I'd never find them again. Teresa offered to take the pack and I didn't ask for it back.

  I was taking more breaks now. Just a minute or two to give my heart a chance to pump blood to my legs. At last we got above the tree line. Far above us I could see Monadnock's bald peak covered with little colored dots. The dots were happy hikers who had made it to where I wanted to be.  The final third of the climb was over much larger jumbled boulders. We weren't actually crawling, but we were using our hands to prevent falling backwards to concussions and death.  

  I never considered giving up. We had told several people about our hike and it would be humiliating to turn back before reaching the top.  I thought of my brother's little kids hiking this trail, but that didn't bother me. Kids are tough. What really inspired me was the elderly women who breezed past me identifying mountain flora while I got out of their way. If that's sexist reasoning, so be it. I'll follow any flag in a battle.

  At last the ordeal ended and we stood atop the world at 3,165'. We had just walked up the equivalent of a 200 story building. The summit extended over a couple of acres of large flat boulders. Several other hikers relaxed under the blue sky while ravens circled on the updrafts hoping for lunch scraps. 

  People go to a mountain top for the panorama.  Monadnock is an isolated peak. The name is an Abenaki word meaning mountain alone. The word has become a geological term for any mountain without neighbors.  We could see lesser mountains in the distance and lakes and the glorious fall colors.

  My one worry on the way up was how I was going to manage the descent.  My brain had been deprived of its normal allotment of blood. One reason I rested so often was to restore my sense of balance, which is a vital sense to have on a mostly vertical pile of granite. I need not have worried. Going down was the proverbial piece of cake. Shin splints shmin splints...bring 'em on. Gravity was my buddy now. Yes, I had to be careful where I put my feet, but as I say, piece of cake.

  We both felt proud of our accomplishment.  My many rests had only added 15 minutes to the suggested time. To celebrate, we decided to treat ourselves to a good meal in an Italian restaurant near home. The long drive home was made extra long due to a highway accident. I tried not to fuss. Someone may have died. We were extra alive. My big bowl of spaghetti went down well.

  We're already talking about coming back next year, but I'll be using oxygen like Sir Edmund Hillary did when he climbed Mount Everest. Fun fact: Hillary was 33 when he became the first recorded person to climb Everest. Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who accompanied Hillary was about five years older. They say "about" because the Nepalese did not keep track of birthdates. He later adopted May 29, the day he reached the top of Everest as his birthday. I plan to change my birthday to October 11, the day we conquered Mount Monadnock.

The lunch Sherpa