Bagpipes on Mt Monadnock

[SABERG]

I was on Mt Monadnock on Sunday and much to my suprise heard bagpipes.
Looking up from the second vista, saw a man standing (with a hundred other people) at the top facing south playing the bagpipes.
Ode to joy, Amazing grace, Battle hymn of the republic, it sure had the sounds of a memorial.
Can anyone fill in the blanks?
When I got to the top he was gone, asked a few of the crowd and they thought it was cool, distracting, cool. But no one could say why.
Just curious.

SABERG

 

[dvbl]

Just a guess. Bagpipes are sometimes played at policeman and/or fireman funerals. So maybe a hiker friend of theirs recently died in the line of duty.

 

[dug]

My sister got married at Cathedral of the Pines, overlooking Monadnock. They had a dude playing bagpipes for the ceremony. Wonder if it's the same guy....

 

[David Metsky]

There's an annual bagpipers gathering on Monadnock each summer (the solstice?) so I suspect some local pipers go up there on occasion just for kicks. It's a fairly short hike, easy enough to run up with a set of pipes. I've encountered pipers on various peaks in the Whites and they seem to do so just for fun.

 

[JohnL]

We ran into a bagpiper on the summit area of Katahdin back in Sep '85. I thought I was hearing things until we came over the lip and there he was. No kilt though.

JohnL

 

[Grumpy]

Thank Heaven none of those bagpipers talked on cell phones between tunes!

G.

(Note to moderators: I will delete this post upon request, or you can go ahead and dump it on your own. But I just couldn't resist ... you know. G.)

 

[woodstrider]

Bagpipes on Adams, NH

I was once at the Madison Springs Hut and heard the sound of distant pipes. I looked out of the huts windows and I could see a figure in the distance piping on Mt Adams. It was the day after a backpacker had died and I thought that it was quite fitting.

If you have ever seen the Highlands of Scotland, it is much like the Presidential Range, and other places here in the States. Many of the Highlands people settled in areas that reminded them of home when they immigrated to the US. I suppose it is fitting to pipe in these places as well and must bring the piper spiritually closer to his muse. How else to explain why someone would schlepp up to Mt Adams with a set of pipes.