Katahdin

I thought that this post would be a big post about reflection on the trail as a whole. I thought that I would talk about the lead up to the trail. But I hadn’t talked about summiting Katahdin yet. So reflection later.

I’ve delayed not because of busy-ness… but a lack of desire.

I had such a mixed bag of feelings when it comes to approaching Katahdin. I thought I would be happier being back in society. I was excited for the comforts of society. I was excited to complete this journey. I was excited to see Lilly and my family. When I started the trail, I don’t think I would have ever thought that I would be sad. But that’s my primary feeling. Even a almost two months completed, not a day goes by that I wish I was on the trail, with my friends, walking all day.

The lead up to Katahdin was insane. Maine is an amazingly beautiful state. It also proved to be one of the hardest sections of the trail. We were all warned about the difficulty of southern Maine. However, we also had just finished the Whites and that was a pain… so how hard could southern Maine be? It was difficult both mentally and physically as is most of the trail but at different level.

For a good week we woke up every morning to wet gear. It was like clockwork. Every morning around 4 – 5 AM, it rained. It stopped raining around 7 – 8 AM so we didn’t hike in the rain but all our gear was wet. Then we had steep mountain sides to climb, ledges to climb up and down, and we didn’t have great views most of the time like in the Whites. When we did, it was phenomenal but weather just wasn’t cooperating with us.

We stayed in Monson for a night at the hostel. In Monson, we stopped by the ATC to get information regarding Baxter State Park. That was weird… we haven’t really had to plan like we did for actually summitting. Baxter Peak, the highest point in Maine and the summit of Katahdin, has 4 trails that lead up to it. We had to figure out which trail to go down. Baxter is also heavily regulated due to the number of hikers they have daily. Since we were looking at Labor Day weekend, we knew it would be even busier than usual.

That night we went to a bar and had some live music. This was our last night with the whole tramily together. Plug and Cosmo were planning to summit on the 31^st. I was planning for the 1^st. Rocket, Flap Jack, and Starboi planned for sometime after the 1^st. It was an emotional night.

The next day, Cosmo, Plug and myself entered the 100 Mile Wilderness.

The first time we saw Katahdin was in the 100 Mile Wilderness. The first 40ish miles of the wilderness is pretty tough with lots of high climbs followed by drops followed by climbs again. We (Plug, Cosmo, and I) were climbing the third mountain in a row (Gulf Hagas Mountain, Hay Mountain, White Cap Mountain). Cosmo made it up to the peak of White Cap first. Then I. Then Plug. Cosmo waited on us because we knew Katahdin was just around the corner.

I thought it would be emotional for me to see Katahdin so close but it didn’t spark any wild emotion.

We chugged along. The 100 Mile Wilderness took us 4 days with my longest day of the entire trip at 30 miles. The third day into the wilderness we did 27 miles. I definitely felt it as that was the longest day for me. We went through a lot of spots with mosquitos and got eaten pretty good even with Deet. Upon arriving at the lean-to, some women heading south were complaining about bugs and lack of bug spray. I offered my Benadryl spray to help them with any itching.  They were extremely thankful! The next day was rough… Within the first 20 minutes of the day, I got stung by a bee(?), wasp(?), something on my ankle. It was crazy! I was hiking. I heard a buzzing. Then I felt stinging. It was absolutely perfect timing to give away that Benadryl spray – I hope you can sense the sarcasm. Then I fell like 2 or 3 times. It was a crazy rough day to do 30 miles.

I walked essentially up a stream going up a part of the trail to an area called “Rainbow Ledges.” It was from there, that I got a jaw dropping view of Katahdin that nearly sent me to tears. The craziest part… I was trying to complete the day so I could have easily missed the view!

It was getting late but I had to stop at the final lean-to for just a few minutes because I had to see the final entries in the trail log. Again, it teared me up. The reflections from people were astounding. I signed the log with the typical, “Spoons just passing through. This feels weird.” At this point, it’s getting dark but I had to keep going. This was the last night to see Cosmo and Plug as they were going to be at Abol Bridge (right before Baxter State Park) and headed into Baxter the next day.

I got to Abol Bridge late and, again, just… Katahdin was there in all its glory.

Cosmo and Plug left at 4 AM to head to The Birches in Baxter State Park. It’s a first come first served part of the park for Thru Hikers only. Baxter really creates a game theory situation. You want to be there first so everyone starts waking up and hiking early to get to the sign-up sheet when, in reality, we all could have just talked and figured out that there weren’t more than the 12 that were allotted going into The Birches at the time.

They woke me up, said their goodbyes, gave our hugs, and were off. I zeroed that day.

August 31 came and I went into The Birches. It was a beautiful 5-mile hike. I registered with the ranger and got my spot in one of the shelters (there were 2 four-person shelters). A group of us decided to leave the next morning at 3:30 AM trying to see a Katahdin sunrise. It was my first time to willingly night hike. What an awesome hike!

It was up Katahdin the whole time! There were points where we were going up hand over hand, actually climbing. The views were astonishing especially as the sun was coming up.

A guy I met at The Birches, Dishwater, and I made it up to Baxter Peak after sunrise but around 6:30 AM. The last mile was rough not because it was anything different from what we’ve been doing, but because we could see the peak. It was a really long mile. But we made it. We made it to Baxter Peak where we got to admire Maine and its glory. We got to touch the sign that we have seen so many others climb and take pictures with. At that point, we were no longer thru-hikers… we were 2,000 milers. A part of a small population. A part of the <1%.

I think it was the mix of emotions that almost made me feel emotionless. It was weird. I was so excited but so sad. In awe of the scenery but recognized this was the end of the journey. We had the perfect morning on Katahdin. No clouds. It was beautiful.

After an hour on Katahdin, Dishwater and I decided to climb down the hardest trail, Knife’s Edge. Again, it was an amazing hike. Being Labor Day weekend, there were several hikers going up the trail towards Baxter Peak. They were amazed that we had already gone up Katahdin and are already heading down. We had to let them know we broke the rules and climbed at night. The number of day hikers was one reason we decided to start at 3:30; we didn’t have to wait in line to take pictures on the sign which was a common occurrence for thru-hikers.

Dishwater and I got to the parking lot and waited for Lilly and gang (Will, Elizabeth (Lilly’s sister), DeAnna (Lilly’s friend), Anna, Carlos, Brenda, Aldo, Matthias) to come pick us up. Their arrival was really emotional. We stayed at a house in Bangor that Lilly found on Air B&B and had a great time just relaxing.

The photo album is going to be kind of a mixed bag of stuff as I added stuff from other albums. It’s probably out of order as well.

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