Mt. Moosilauke (1924) - Sunrise Surprise
". . . As Trips Counselor, I was spending the summer at Camp Hanoum, a girls' camp at Thetford Hill on the Connecticut River just north of Hanover. As such, I was leading a group of teen-age girls on an overnight climb up Mt. Moosilauke. At this time, the Summit House, as extant, was being operated by a staff of D.O.C. students for summer overnight climbers, with dormitory sleeping accommodations and meals.
After dinner, the student staff joined the Hanoum group in front of the fireplace and regaled the girls with mountain stories. I spoke of the beauty of the sunrise I had often seen from the summit. My eloquence on the subject was so convincing that Bernice, one of the girl campers, said that she had to see the sun rise the next morning. She made me promise to wake her in time. The menfolk stayed up for a while after the girls retired and then, before turning in ourselves and recalling the promise, we went outside to observe the weather.
Thick clouds of fog were blowing over the mountains and it was obvious that there would not be a spectacular sunrise in the morning. What to do about Bernice?? We did not want to disappoint her. I don't know who thought of the solution, but solve the problem we did.
I woke Bernice without invading the privacy of the girls' dormitory by pulling the string tied around her big toe and run out into the hallway. She was rubbing her eyes when she came downstairs and remarking that she felt as though she had just fallen asleep. We hustled her outside so that she wouldn't see a clock, told her to look "here" where the sun would rise in a few minutes.
She peered into the darkness down the rocky side of the mountain and just as she was smelling a rat a flashlight appeared behind and over a large boulder. She stared at the light for a few seconds while we tried to explain why the sun was so small, and then broke into peals of laughter at the sunrise that was "mist."
From Canfield Hadlock D'26.
