Date: 2013-09-13
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Mt. Katahdin Summit
Miles today: 0.0

Friday, September 13 Katahdin Spring Campground to Mt. Katahdin Summit   10 miles. Weather: Overcast, rain early then occassional showers.I barely slept last night. I was a kid on the night before Christmas. For five and a half months I had been waiting for this day, the day I would summit "The Greatest Mountain" and end my journey. Also, it poured all night. I have never heard so much rain fall for so long. It pounded on the shelter roof and splattered in huge puddles in front of the shelter. It sounded as though the shelter was located behind a waterfall. As dawn approached, I thought the day might be a wash out. That would mean we would have to consider putting off our summit until Sunday, the next day we could arrange all of Baxter State Parks complicated logistics requirements. No, I thought, I was ready now. I wanted to go up in the worst way. Then I thought about my wife Yolanda and the fact that she would be joining me along with Newton's sister and daughter. No way could they go up in this weather. Even if I was crazy enough to go, I know they would never think about going let alone make it to the summit. Around 4:30, I thought I heard the rain start to let up just a little for the first time all night. As the minutes crept by, the rain started to become more faint and around 5:30 all was quiet. Then I heard a wonderful sound, a simple sound. When you live in the woods for six months you learn what certain sounds and sights mean. The little sound I heard was a bird's chirp. Then another one. On rainy mornings, bird's don't chirp if it's going to keep raining. They chirp when it's going to stop. Somehow they just know. I knew right then and there that we were going up the mountain today.Newton and I shared a small lean-to with Wilson who had been given the space as trail magic from Grizzley who originally reserved it but couldn't make it. The three of us silently arose and went through our camp breaking ritual for the last time. Wilson left early and Newton and I went and met the women who stayed the night in Millinocket and drove into the park at 7:00. By 7:30 we were on the trail.For the first two miles, the trail slowly ascends, getting wetter and wetter as you go up. For a mile the trail was quite literally a stream bed, with 2 to 3 inches of water rushing through it. Our feet quickly became soaking wet. Then the ascent started in earnest. The climb was grueling by any standards. A 4,162 foot climb in 5 miles. That's double any other continuous climb we had done yet. It is, at times, very steep bouldering over huge piles of jagged, jumbled boulders much of it requiring hand holds and upper body usage. I was having a blast but the women were going very slowly because of the danger involved and their unfamiliarity with this kind of terrain. I wanted so badly to bolt like a dog off the leash and dash to the summit, but of course Newton and I stayed with the women. A climb that would normally have taken me about two and a half hours would take 4 hours on this day.The views were stunning. The mountain rises up over 4,000 feet from it's surrounding area and is a huge mass set amidst a vast wilderness area. There are waterfalls, ponds, lakes, and forest visible as far as you can see. The day was threatening, but so far not a drop of rain had fallen. Clouds poured up one side of the mountain only to hit an upper air mass and disipate leaving the trail clear. The summit, however, was in a cloud bank that would occasionally blow clear only to cloud back in. The climb leveled off and we entered what's called The Table Land, a gently rising plateau that takes you up to the summit. As we approached the summit, other hikers who had already summited were coming down, whooping and celebrating their finish. Newton and I couldn't stand it and we rushed on ahead, knowing the girls were perfectly fine on their own now. As we got within 100 feet of the summit, through the fog I finally saw the famous Katahdin sign that marks the termination of the Appalachian Trail. I could make out a group of 15 or so other hikers standing around it, hugging, laughing, and high fiving. Then, suddenly, we were there at the summit. I hugged Newton and congratulated him. He has been the ideal hiking companion and has added so much to my journey. Then Yolanda arrived and I kissed her and just held her tightly for a long, long time. God, I have missed her!I never really thought about what I would do when I arrived at the sign itself. I never let myself have such thoughts. I walked up to it and kissed it, like it was some kind of sacred religious icon or the Stanley Cup. I was giddy with delight and relief. It's been a long, hard, wonderful journey but my body and mind have taken a beating. I miss my wife and I'm ready to go back to my life. I also know I will never be quite the same. It feels fantastic to have finished and met my goal, but it is much more than that. For me, thru hiking the Appalachian Trail was not me against the mountains, the weather, the bugs, the trail, the lonliness, the pain, the exhaustion. It wasn't competing against other hikers, or overcoming all the obstacles I met along the way. It was me against me. It was finding a way to push aside any doubts I had in myself. To ignore the voice down inside me asking "why go on?" To realize I can meet any challenge put before me by trusting in myself and those around me supporting me. That is the best feeling in the world. That is what this journey has meant to me. I will take that feeling with me to my grave. Not everyone gets to feel true self realization in such a clear, tangible way. At the end of it all, the Trail provided me with the ultimate trail magic.