Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail is a 2185.9 mile long footpath stretching from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Every Spring, hikers from all over head to Georgia and start walking north, attempting to hike the whole trail in one season. This is called a thru-hike. Only about 25% make it all of the way.

This blog follows our progress as we hike north.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Katahdin

   On Friday, 10/4, we only had 10 miles to go to reach Katahdin Stream Campground where we would spend the night and stage before the big climb the next day. Because of this we slept in and took a shower in the morning, and took our time hitting the trail. This also gave us an opportunity to eat more food. Several thru-hiking friends showed up at Abol that morning, and we were glad to see them, perhaps for the last time. For the past couple of weeks we had been running into people that we had not seen since the South, and our hike seemed to be coming full circle at the end.
   The 10 miles to Katahdin Stream Campground turned out to be probably the easiest on the entire trail, and it was a relief to be given a break for once. We were in Baxter State Park now, the location of our final mountain. We knew the next day, when we planned to summit Katahdin, would be hard and we were both nervous about it.
   We checked in at the Ranger Station and then headed to the campground. The Ranger told us not to head up the mountain before 2 am...ok, no problem. Unfortunately the next day was Saturday, and the road that we were camped next to was amazingly busy with traffic heading into the park all night long. So it was a restless sleep that night for us, partly due to the traffic and partly due to our nerves and pure excitement about our last day, last mountain, last climb.
   Saturday, 10/5, was another beautiful day, and the rain that had been called for never materialized. In fact, we had made it through the entire 100-mile Wilderness without a drop of rain, something we did not expect to happen. I couldn't remember the last time that it did rain, actually, sometime back at Rangeley, perhaps?
   We hit the trail slightly before 8 am, and had 5 miles to go to the top of Katahdin. There were already over 100 people ahead of us, mostly day hikers, and the trail was packed. This was the biggest single climb on the entire trail, and from the campground we had an elevation gain of 4200 ft to the top. The first mile was easy, but the next two really started the climb. After that we reached treeline, and the final two miles were spent scrambling and boulder hopping up the side of the mountain. For our New Mexico readers, imagine Cabezon. Times four. It took us 4 hours to reach the top, which we did some time around Noon. The top was loaded with people and we had to wait in line to take our summits photos.
   After six and a half months and nearly 2200 miles, our hike was finally done. Well, except for the fact that we had to get back down off the mountain. That required turning around and retracing our steps for the last 5 miles. So, after about 30 minutes on top we turned around and headed back down the mountain. It was the first time in this entire adventure that we walked southbound on the trail, and it felt strange.
  The journey down the mountain turned out to be more difficult than the journey up, in some ways, and was definitely hard on the knees. Large blocks of granite that we had climbed up now created some scary drop offs on the way down. You did not want to trip. We made it back to the bottom and the Ranger station around 5 pm, signed out, and caught a shuttle out of the park. We were done. The whole thing went too fast.
   Now we just had to get home.

1 comment:

  1. I am very proud of and happy for you two. I've enjoyed following your hike and look forward to the next time you make it out to New Mexico so I can listen to your stories from this journey.
    Tom

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