Date: 2003-08-31
From: The Birches

To: Katahdin!!!
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: overcast clouds

dang! the day finally came! the one that none of us thought would ever arrive. its pretty amazing. we got up at 5:30 and got some food. headed over to the trail where speck and slickrocks mom and dad were, and oopus dad and uncle were there too. they are gonna try and make it up there today with us. well, not with us, but sometime. we got on the trail at 6:40 and headed up. and man, we booked it. i'm sure its normal for thruhikers to book it up the mountain, but it was awesome! since it was the middle of labor day weekend, there were tons and tons of people on the trail. so, we were passin people for the first 2 miles. and then we got to treeline where it started slowin down for us. anyone whose hiked katahdin would understand. its just a bit rocky! the scramblin took us a little time. but we mananged to get through it as swiftly as we could. before we knew it we were on the tablelands. and man, this is when the emotion started. i saw the top and i couldn't believe it. i'm looking at the one spot, a sign, that we've been walking towards for 6 months! i've walked 2000 miles to get to this sign, and there it is, not more than a mile and a half away! and man, we couldn't have had a better day to summit! the weather is perfect. nice and cool. clear as anything. perfect!!! we were on our way up to the end. all of 5-Alive and Cire were in a line headed up the last climb we would ever do on the A.T. towards the top. and then we could see the sign, marking the top, and the finish of a journey that none of us ever imagined would end. we were there! and after the initial sparks of excitement were out, the champaigne was open! and the two cheeseburgers that i carried up there were out and i was ready to celebrate! it was cold, probably 40 degrees, maybe a little less. so, it was hard to be completely comfortable. but we were at the top, so it didn't matter. we sat for a good hour and a half. we got the pictures and we hugged and some cried. we were finished. but, we still had to get down! and thats when the fun really started! i guess we were so excited to be on the mountain that we didn't realize how hard the climb up really was. i was goin down some of the rock scrambles not knowing how in the world we ever got up the thing. it was insane. and by the time we got below treeline, my knees were killin me so i started runnin down. i had to get down as quick as possible. and i got to the katahdin stream falls and there were all of our parents, except for speck and slickrocks who were with us on the trail, and that was it. that was the end. more pictures, more emotion. and i got a candybar and a mountain dew! that was really nice. but it marked the end. we all headed down the last mile with our parents. it was sort of similar to the day we left in georgia. all the parents hiked the mile up to the top of springer with us. but this time it was a mile down katahdin. how insane is that! well, the good thing is that its not time to go our seperate ways, yet. we are goin to dinner to celebrate with everybody tonight! congrats to all of 5-Alive and all those who finished!-diesel