Date: 2010-09-26
From: The Birches

To: Mt Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: overcast clouds

"One Life, One Life, its time." Thats what I awoke to at 5am. I was staying in a hotel room with Guda, Guda's brother, Andy, Guda's father, Andy, and Guda's grandfather...also Andy. I couldn't mess those names up. Anyways, We had agreed to wake up at 5am as we had all week so that we could summit Katahdin early. I had stayed up sorta late watching the WVU football game with the Andys so I wasn't naturally up at 5am like I usually am. I needed Guda's help with getting me up.We went downstairs of the Baxter Inn where we were staying and started in on the "continental breakfast" which consisted of coffee, mini danishes, and mini bagels. I had two cups of coffee and about 72 little danishes. Yeah, I feel guilty that I ate so many but I was sooo hungry. After we got our fill of danishes we packed up and were in the truck by 6am on our way to finish the lifelong journey.The trip from Millinocket (Baxter Inn) to Baxter State Park takes about an hour. If it was a paved road with normal speed limits it would probably take less than 20 minutes but you're on a dirt road and you have to go 20 mph. No big deal...it just built up our anticipation. It was really cool to be driving and slowly come up on the massive Mt Katahdin. It was like it was straight out of a movie. We got to Katahdin Stream Campground (the foot of Mt Katahdin) and piled out of the truck.Before we started hiking we went to the ranger station to register. I filled out a little piece of paper and according to the list I was number 404 for the year for thru hikers making it to Katahdin. Wow, out of the possible 2,500 that started I was number 404. Thats about %16 of the total number have made it so far. Of course, there are lots of people behind me that are coming and I have no official number on the amount that started but nonetheless I would say only %20 for the year will finish. WOW! Thats really hard to fathom. We took a few pictures but we needed to get going. There were huge crowds started to hike up and I was anxious to not have to be behind them when we got to the top. I had no idea what was ahead of me and what awaited me. So at 7am on September 26th, 2010, I started my last 5.2 miles of the Appalachian Trail. The first mile was pretty easy. As I walked with Guda and his brother we joked about how we only wished that the rest of the trail up would be like this. Ladies and gentlemen, its not like that at all. As soon as you get passed Katahdin Falls it becomes very tough. You basically climb up from then on out. I am in good hiking shape though so I easily passed a lot of day hikers (not to toot my own horn but come on, I have almost 2200 miles under my belt). The climb was moderately tough and then you hit tree line. It goes from tough to death defyingly difficult. I passed Roadhouse and his father just as I was starting this difficult stretch of trail but they were the last people I saw for a while. Actually, at one point as I was literally rock climbing I looked around to find that I was all alone. I could see white blazes but I was convinced I was on an alternate AT path. I thought everyone else had taken an easier less deadly AT trail that skirted around the cliffs. In fact, I was so convinced of this that I waited for 10 minutes to see if anyone else was coming up behind me. Nope, no one did. Crap! Do I keep going up and following the white blazes or do I back track down and see where everyone else went? Well, I might as well keep going up so I did. At this point, the adrenaline of "summitting" had worn off and was replaced with pure mountain climbing. I had made the mistake of carrying my poles but after several minutes of needing my hands to grip rocks and many near falls I collapsed my last Leki pole and kissed my other stick and tossed it over the mountain. I eventually made my way up passed all of the rock climbing and made it to flatter, less deadlier ground. From this point it was about 2 miles to the top so I just bucked up and began walking.I needed this last stretch of walking to think. I was full of all sort of emotion really. Physically, I was tired but mentally I was even more tired. I have come a long way. Almost everyday for nearly 6 months I had thought about this day. How was I supposed to act? Is there something that I am supposed to feel that all thru hikers feel? I don't really know. I just knew I was sad that this day had finally come. What a contrast though. Up until that moment I could not wait to be done. The last two months or so I was hiking on shear will and faith. I had become increasingly frustrated with continuous uphills in the recent weeks and the only thing that got me through those times were picturing Katahdin. Well, now, here it was and I was sad. I walked and thought about everyone I had hiked with. I thought about all of the awesome people that had helped me out while I made my journey north. This part of the hike up Katahdin was an awesome time to be reflective.Finally, I reached Thurough Spring. This marked the one mile mark. Not long after I passed the spring I caught up to Treadmore. Oh cool, I thought, I will be summitting with someone I know and have hiked with for a long time. It would have been nice to summit with Guda but he had to stay behind a ways to be with his brother who wasn't so used to climbing up mountains. So Treadmore and I hiked and chatted. I can't remember what conversations we had but it was probably more nervous chatter than anything. We walked for what seemed like an eternity and we kept coming up over these peaks. With each peak I would get all nervous because I thought that this was it. But, we'd reach each mini peak and see, through the fog, that we had another one to ascend. Finally, through the fog and mist, we could see our destination a few hundred yards away.You want to talk about literally running while hiking....geez louise I was basically sprinting. As I neared the famous Katahdin sign I could see a large group of 20 something year olds all around the sign. Craaaaaaaaap!!!! I wanted to not have to wait in line for a picture and not have a bunch of people there but what can I do, you know? So, at 1031am, I strolled up feeling all sorts of emotions. As I walked up the entire group of people looked at me. It was kind of awkward for me for a second to be honest with you. Finally, one of them said, "hey, are you finishing from Georgia?" Yup, I said in a faint, tired voice. I was awakened out of my emotional coma when the entire group let out a huge cheer and clapped. For me??? I looked around for a quick second. Wow, between 20-30 people were cheering me because I came all of this way. TOTALLY COOL!!! How many other thru hikers got the same reception. Treadmore was about 50 yards behind me but I feel bad because they didn't really see him come up. Anyways, the group parted ways to let me at the sign. They all stood there smiling for me as Treadmore took my picture in different poses etc. It seemed like they were honored to have thru hikers finish in front of them. It was totally awesome.After we took pictures, I needed a minute to take it all in. I found a good rock and sat down for a minute. I tried taking a video but only got halfway through before I was overcome by emotion. So, my video of Katahdin is really a two part video. I took a second video once I gathered myself. Anyways, as I sat there with tears streaming down my face I really could not believe I was on Mt Katahdin. It was definitely a surreal experience. I was finally at the place where I had dreamed about being for almost my entire life. I really did not know what to do next. There wasn't a view to take in due to the extreme mist so I just sat there. Eventually, I got up and gathered myself. At about that time Roadhouse had come up and not long after that Guda and his brother came up. We took more pictures but there was nothing more I wanted from Katahdin.At 1130am, we started our descent. Now, had this been a Hollywood movie they probably would make the descent this quick easy thing that they might just skip over but since this is real life the descent was harder than the ascent. It was very dangerous. Before I had left to go back down I had asked a few people if there was an easier way to get back down the mountain. Hey, I was done with the AT so I didn't have to stay on the AT anymore. Unfortunately, there wasn't. Bummer man! Anyways, Guda, Andy, and I walked down. It took forever. Being a Virgo and a stubborn person, I refuse to die going down the mountain!! So, what did I do? I was extra cautious...I found myself sliding on my butt like a little kid and taking my time. Therefore, I was really slow but cautious.I eventually made my way down the mountain. I finally made it to the bottom at 315pm where father Andy and grandpa Andy were waiting for their sons. They had agreed to take me to Millinocket, ME so I waited for Guda and his bro-man with them. We all eventually made it down safely and drove to Millinocket. We said our goodbyes and they dropped me off at the AT Lodge which is a nice hostel run by Ole Man and NaviGator. Now what? I didn't need to resupply, no laundry needs to be done, and I had no idea what to do next. My father wasn't coming to pick me up until the next day and since that whole fiasco with my debit card I only had $7 cash on me. I couldn't even sit down at a resteraunt to enjoy a meal. I made a bunch of calls to people to let them know I had made it and then mosied on down to the AT Cafe to see if there was any bread crumbs on the floor for me to sneak away with. When I got there Kit Kat and Dr Rock were eating dinner and they invited me to join them. Kit Kat paid for my dinner and I chatted with Dr Rock about who was where and who was close to summitting. Kit Kat was always a very sweet lady since I met her in the Shennandoahs. She is Dr Rock's support vehicle and was always there with a cold soda and a ride if I needed one. I really and gracious for her kindness. After dinner, I went back to the hostel where I got a message that Treadmore was looking for me. I found him at a local resteraunt where we had a celebritory drink with his fiance Roberta (awwww how cute they met on the trail). Very nice folks.Afterwards, I went back to the hostel and watched football. So there were no huge champagne celebrations or tons of people hugging and crying. The end of my trip was much like how it started....by myself and reflecting on the future. I started alone and basically finished alone. In between those were memories that will last me a life time. I would not have it any other way.