Date: 2018-08-28
From: Katahdin Inn

To: Mount Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: light rain

Last night Lloyd called and said he had a shuttle customer who was giving up her lean-to for tonight. He paid for it right then and put it in my name. He knew we would prefer to stay in the park if possible. We were very happy he was able to get it...and grateful!! We both slept better last night with a rock solid plan for today.  Lloyd picked us up at 5:45 this morning. My things were ready to go, and Hugs was tying up loose ends. Before 6am we were all loaded up and on our way to Baxter State Park. Even that early in the morning the entrance line was a half mile long. Lloyd had warned us of this.  He dropped us off by a bridge that leads to the Park Rangers Station. At the Ranger Station we turned in our lean-to paper and prepared to begin the summit of Mt Katahdin 5267ft elevation. I used a borrowed day pack. Hugs took her own pack but left most of the contents in a bag at the station. It was 7:30am when all prep business was done, and we were off....Just as we stepped foot onto the approach trail it began to lightly sprinkle. Sprinkles at the bottom usually means rain at the top. We¢ll see.  I started out in the lead, though we stayed pretty close together. The ascent began immediately with a beautiful trail. The sprinkles stopped leaving cloud coverage and fog. Katahdin Stream ran right beside it for a good while. The stream was swift with a few small falls. The sound of it was music to my ears.  The forest is mostly pines. Very tall fragrant pines! There were mostly rocks and boulders, but occasionally I would get a soft carpet of pine needles. I came to a wooden footbridge that crossed Katahdin Stream, and I took a deep breath. The air was a few degrees cooler. It was so refreshing! This is the first time I could see into the stream. This water is crystal clear. The rocks on the bottom were various shades of white, brown, and gray. They were all smooth and rounded. I could have walked barefoot in that stream for hours if I didn¢t have a mountain to climb. My mind immediately went to dad. This was his kind of place. I could feel his presence, and I knew we were taking this hike together. This was going to be a long day and it was a comforting feeling. I got ahead of Hugs a good distance and chose to walk quietly. I listened to the birds chirp, and the breezes blow through the trees. It started getting difficult after the first mile so there was my occasional grunt while pulling myself up and over car sized boulders. Slow and steady I told myself. At least these rocks were round and smooth, not those jagged ones that stab you, like in Pennsylvania.  It was at the start of the second mile when I began to sweat. That¢s about the time I noticed how disgusting my borrowed daypack smelled! Who knows how many other hikers have sweat in this nasty pack! I could barely stand it! I should have done what Hugs did. It smelled the rest of the day! The sprinkles had quit long ago, but there was a steady trickle of water coming down the trail.  It must have rained heavier up there. I had to be careful. Wet rocks can be disastrous, and the trail by now was pretty much straight up. I was now tossing my trekking poles up then climbing up myself. Still no need to drop pack since I had the stinky little loaner daypack. Even though I was carrying 3 liters of water I was still able to pull myself up using tree limbs and finding footing on the boulders. I was at slothier pace but making my way. I said out loud ¢ this is for you dad¢!  He was in my heart the whole day.  I was coming up to the tree line and the winds were getting strong. Nothing there to block it. I¢m not sure, but I¢m guessing I was about 2.5 miles up.  Hugs had asked that I wait every mile or so for her, so before I was completely out of tree coverage I stopped. When she arrived she asked for help securing her trekking poles on her pack. I asked for the same. Poles were obsolete at this point. As I was helping her I noticed her elbow was skinned up and bleeding. Hugs had fallen.  I was too far ahead and wasn¢t there to help her. I won¢t let that happen again. We¢ve got to be a team on this climb.  From that moment on we stayed together. We switched off leading finding handholds and footholds. It was the most physically challenging climb I¢ve ever done in my life. Hugs said this is technically the most challenging climb she¢s ever done. Hugs is not a big person. Many times grasps were just too far to reach. I helped push her up from behind or pull her up from the front many times. It was scary! One slip and in many spots it would have been certain death.  The wind gusts were strong! Sometimes strong enough to blow you over if you weren¢t hanging on.  We had been climbing over 3 hours and both of us were hungry. We knew by looking at our Guthook¢s app there were some flat rocks coming up. We had a couple more big maneuvers to get there. I took the lead, and for the first time I had to drop pack and toss it up ahead of me. Just as I started to figure out my hand grasps I noticed fresh blood on the rock. Another hiker had left a piece of themselves on Katahdin.  I injured my left leg getting up there. Just a scrape and a bruise, but I made it. I was able to hang on to some boulders and extend my foot back down to Hugs who used it to climb up. We both made it!  Lunch time!  We weren¢t even at the true ¢flat rock¢ place, but it was good enough. While we were eating a father son section-hiker duo arrived. They lunched too. Nice people from NY. Dad is an attorney and Max is in High School. During lunch I noticed my bandana was missing. The others had seen it but didn¢t pick it up( don¢t blame them). I¢m sure bloody rock had claimed my bandana.  We started going UP again. It wasn¢t long before Hugs¢ left shin was bloody from top to bottom. We had matching shins! Though hers was worse by far. Our bodies seriously ached in places we didn¢t know exist. This is hard! The rest of the way up there were zero trees to help block the wind. I put my hat in my pack. I¢m guessing 40 MPH gusts, maybe more. The clouds and fog limited our view. It was a white abyss as we continued to fight the misty winds and Katahdin.  We came to a climb I couldn¢t figure out. I was thinking to myself ¢ this is brutal¢. It was brutal, but it was also rewarding, humbling, spiritual, and so much more. I was determined.  I made my around to a wet slanted boulder, and that¢s where I went wrong.  I went down hard! I was certain my right hip or femur was broken. I could not move. The pain was through the roof. Hugs came immediately to help me and we cried. I did not want to go out like that! After 10 minutes or so I was able to move my leg with my hands. My left foot was wedged under another boulder, I had to get that out. Slowly but surely I pulled myself to a sitting position. It took a while but I was able to stand and bear some weight on my leg. Maybe I¢m not broken?  Badly bent, but not broken. I forced myself to keep going. In time I realized it¢s probably a bone bruise and muscular. I still had to lift it with my hands. But I climbed.  There was a flat false summit that gave us a reprieve for about a mile on our way to the very top. We had to pick our way through, over, and around small to medium sized rocks but no climbing. Our biggest challenge was the misty wind. Followed closely by the fog and clouds.  Finally we could see the sign! We were beaten up and bruised, but we were going to make it! And the sun started peeking through!  Thank you Jesus!!  We touched the sign at 1:50pm. It had taken 6 hours and 20 minutes to summit Katahdin. Surreal!Others were up there. A couple of NOBO thru-hikers, a new world record holder.  Karel(pronounced Carl)Sabbe from Belgium.  He summited before us completing the trail in 41days 7.5 hours. Wow!  But his record does not take away from the half dozen  NOBO¢s who completed their journey today.  I watched a grown man touch the sign and fall to tears.  I hugged him from the side and said congrats.  I¢ve always felt that dad sends me birds. After he passed we planted a tree in honor of him (his request) and immediately a blueJay built a nest.  Poor mom was dive bombed a few times by that mama bluejay when she was watering dad¢s tree.  That¢s just one example of the many times in my moments of need, when a bird has arrived. Today was no different. The biggest fattest crow flew to the top of Katahdin today.  He stayed around until I was ready to start down.  When my son was younger playing baseball my dad would let out a ¢caw-caw¢ to let Kyle know he was there.  It was their special thing.  Not surprised to see a crow today. We took our photos at the sign through gail force winds, gave our best to the others and started down.  It was 2:40pm. Just then the clouds rolled away, the fog lifted, the winds slowed and the sun shone!  We had views!  Beautiful amazing views!  We had come up via the Hunt Trail which is the official A.T. trail.  There is a shorter trail going down called the Abol Slide Trail. It will save us a mile and we needed to be off the mountain by sunset at 7:10pm. We were pushing the limits. Abol Slide is steeper than Hunt and it¢s named for its rock slides.  I still felt it was our best option with limited time. The climb down was scary! Three hours of scary! We had to do a lot of climbing down. Sometimes we could stay upright and carefully walk, but the rocks below our feet were loose and we caught ourselves many times.  Until one time I didn¢t. No serious damage, just a small cut on my wrist.  My leg on the other hand could have lived without the fall.  Every step after I injured my leg was painful. It¢s still in pain right now.  The last 1.5 miles of Abol Became a real trail.  Thank goodness it did, because the clouds came back and rain poured down. If we had been on those rocks during the rain we would have been stuck on Katahdin overnight. We stepped onto the road around 7:15pm, and hitched a ride with the ranger back to camp 2 miles away.  What a day! Battered and bruised but not broken. I¢d do it all over again. What a gift this day was!Where¢s your faith?