In the week after the attacks, hikers by the dozens spied some of their favorite peaks, mountains with such inspiring names as Liberty and Eisenhower. They brought with them a hearty dose of patriotism, flags large and small, a few tears and a few prayers.
One hiker, in particular, lost a former University of New Hampshire professor who was aboard one of the ill-fated flights. Still others, felt they lost a certain innocence that the U.S. is invulnerable to such attacks. All sought a certain peace in the beloved mountains.
Still, the patriotic displays were not universally embraced among the hiking community.
On one popular Internet bulletin board -- the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Hiker Journal http://www.outdoors.org/BBS/Hiker-Journal -- some hikers chimed in that bringing flags and having a public display of prayer and tribute was interfering with the wilderness experience.
Said one wag: “The mountains to me are a sanctuary to escape from life’s everyday tensions. The mountains should be as unfettered with the social, political and religious as possible.”
I was unable to make it on any of these hikes. I wish I’d been able to fly the flag or at least see one billowing in the wonderful mountain air. Despite my love of the mountains, I went a different route in trying to grapple with all that happened: I ventured to my old neighborhood in Manhattan, a mere four blocks from Ground Zero.
I trekked down Broadway, past City Hall. What normally is a deserted neighborhood on the weekends was teeming with thousands. We walked single file, directed across the street near J&R World by police barriers. At the corner of Fulton Street, we all got our first glimpse of the devastation.
I spied one of my old haunts in the distance: Borders books. The building was charred and the windows blown out. I began to whimper and moved on. I walked down Fulton Street to my old pad and saw that it was in fine shape, except that it and the buildings around it were largely soot-covered.
I then wove my way through the narrow streets of New York's Financial District, past the Stock Exchange, past a modern-day sculpture and to a barrier with another view of what was once an amazing architectural feat.
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