You develop a relationship in Newburyport at clothiers with John and Didi and then you
have a plan and that plan is for you and Atticus to hike forty eight peaks am I right about
that well one of my brothers was working on climbing each of the forty eight four thousand
foot peaks and this is something John and Didi my friends had done John uh Farley Clothiers
they didn't do all forty eight but they were just starting on them but I was always intrigued
by their adventures and one of my brothers invited me and Atticus to go with him and
two other brothers to climb up Mt. Garfield in September of two thousand and four and
I wasn't sure if we could do it I had lost a lot of weight at the time and Atticus and
I had been walking a great deal but I had never really climbed a mountain but we went
with him and and my other brothers and we all struggle up the mountain four middle aged
Irish Catholic boys with nothing to say to each other talk about disfunction the only
thing that came out were four letter words and grunts and groans and little seven little
old questions saying how much further are we there yet and hating the fact there were
no views and it was hot and sticky and there were bugs and cramps but when we got to top
and we realized the only one who hadn't struggled was little Atticus uh and he was sitting off
in the distance looking off and by the time we stopped gasping we get to the top and if
you go to Mt. Garfield it's it's in the northern part of the Pemigewasset wilderness and to
your right is this beautiful string of Franconia Ridge and off in the distance the Osceolas
and over here is the twins and the Bonns and it's like an amphitheater and down below you
is this great sweeping lawn of forest below you it looks like a beautiful green blanket
and it was a perfect day and I couldn't believe something so perfect existed so close to Newburyport
and I fell in love at that time I quoted Robert Frost saying you know you're reading something
great because at that moment you read it you know you won't forget it I remember seeing
that and saying I will never forget this moment and uh watching Atticus look off in the distance
and taking in the views and not sitting not moving anything but his head and his eyes
just sitting there and one woman said he looks like a little buddha the way he was sitting
there and other dogs on the trail they have a great time they run back and forth up and
go side to side the woods chase after this chase after that they do three times as much
hiking as people and they get to the to they're looking for food from people and they're begging
yeah not him he's always a constant ten yards ahead of me and if I stop he stops on the
trail and we went to the top he found this serene place very peaceful place it's a wonderful
part of the book that family hike story and what happens by the way I really very very
much enjoyed that you and Atticus do start hiking and you say that when the two of you
are in the mountains you change after I did that hike with my brothers throughout that
whole winter I couldn't stop thinking about it and I kept thinking about it and there
were these very mythic dreams I wanted to do them but I said how there's forty eight
and how can you walk eighteen miles or twenty three miles there all different distances
and I have a fear of heights so that complicated things but I couldn't help it and I the next
summer Atticus and I went back and see how many we could do and we did all forty eight
in eleven weeks and we did change it was decompression to the max it was every time you walk into
the woods it was like going to CS Lewis' wardrobe you go through the back and you push through
the trees and you're away from the cars and you're away from the phones and even back
then in two thousand four cell phones sure weren't like they are now as crazy as everywhere
you have this great privacy nd oftentimes we didn't see anyone for hours on end if at
all and you like that the best at first it scared me there's a bit of a nervousness to
it because I'm not used to it yeah but then I loved it and I loved being on our won everyone
says what's your favorite peak and I says wherever we can be alone 'cause how often
you get to a place you're not really in danger but it feels sort of nervous and exciting
to be there and because you're on your own you're not used to it and you find it to be
therapeutic incredibly therapeutic to the point where we you know a friend of mine Parky
Jones a therapist back in Newburyport and I I said this is what it must be like going
to therapy with Parky but not for ninety minutes this must be lile a years worth of therapy
going on in onw hike 'cause you're working up the mountain you you're getting more and
more tired it's hard you're cramping you're sweating and sometime you're like why the
heck am I doing this but by the time you get to the top and you see the views you've worn
everything off and the old Catholic in me says you've paid your penance and now you're
having communion and you see the views and you look out on what I compare to the face
of God this incredible feeling and that sense of awe that I used to see on my fathers face
would come on my face and I could feel and and with Atticus too can you imagine though
the people that you do see the other hikers and they see Atticus this twenty pound little
dog in the lead leading you up the mountain and here you come as you just described yourself
huffing and puffing along trying to make it to the top what do they say what are they
thinking at the time uh so different now now they say is that Atticus yeah and I say no
but they don't remember your name do they Atticus they do it is strange people would
make all kinds of comments I bet uh you know they typically see a bigger dog hiking right
a Lab a Lab or a Husky or something like that and here's this little twenty pound miniature
Schnauzer and taking it all in and and you know some guys would make fun of him oh that's
not acceptable no you know again you can anything you want about me but don't say anything about
my mother or my dog that's it and one fellow on top of Mt. mussolock was going on and on
because he had two big dogs and all his buddies were there and they had beer they were drinking
and he said does that little dog really make it up this mountain did you have to carry
hime at all how much did you have to carry that little dog that little girl dog I said
it's it's a guy dog little dogs are all girl dogs I said well I had to lift him once in
Mt. Washington last year when we were climbing in the winter and he said you climbed Mt.
Washington in the winter I said a few times now so yeah that took care of that I have
embraced this wonderful peaceful life up here but the Under Toad still exists within me
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