Date: 2010-09-15
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: light rain

Got up around 6:00 to rain. I surprisingly slept well last night as I thought I wouldn't sleep at all due to the excitement of the day. We all went to the ranger station and picked up some day-packs and signed-in. The first mile isn't too tough then it turns into a steep climb for a couple of miles. Once above treeline it becomes a boulder scramble which probably isn't that bad on a good day but today was definetely not a good day. The higher we got the colder it would get and once we hit the tablelands the rain turned into sleet. The tablelands is about 3/4 of a mile long and is flat but the winds were gusting up to 40 mph and I was getting pelted by sleet. At this point I'm still doing pretty good and push on. Then I start the gradual climb up to the summit and the sleet turns into snow and it is getting really cold. I have on gloves but they are soaked and I'm starting to lose feeling in my fingers and my feet are wet. I see Compass and Southern coming down off the summit and watched as Compass took a really bad fall. He says he's OK but he's got a bit of a shell-shock look to him. I didn't see the summit sign until I was practically right on top of it. You would think that after a journey like this you would get emotional or something like that but I don't think it has sunk in yet. I was just there, kind of existing. I couldn't even tell you what I was thinking. Maybe it was because I was getting hypothermic?   Once at the top, I had to wait a few minutes for somebody to show up to take my picture. It was kind of cool to have that moment by myself though because I figured there would be a bunch of day-hikers up here. Although you would have to be crazy like me to climb Katahdin on a day like today. In the meantime, I ate a Snickers and shivered a lot. I was so happy to see Kumquat and Rabid then Safari showed up not long after. They seemed much more excited than me. I feel kind of like there's something wrong with me that I'm not more excited. My camera didn't work so Safari took my picture with his camera. Then me and Kumquat ran across the Tablelands because at this point I can't feel my hands and need to get below treeline as quickly as possible. Once below treeline it got much better and it was a pretty uneventful descent. We caught up to Southern and Compass, and Southern confirmed that he was indead in some sort of state of shock which I totally understand at this point. We got to the bottom and signed out. It took us less than 5 hrs to do the 10.4 miles.    Kumquat's parents showed up a couple hours later and somehow 10 people fit into their minivan. What is even more amazing than that is that we had 8 backpacks strapped on top of their van. It was a 4 hour drive to their house where I will be spending a couple of days before flying back home. I will have to do some reflecting before doing my final entry. I can say that I have had the time of my life and have met some of the most awesome people I have ever met. It was a little scary on Katahdin but it does sound cool when I tell people I finished in what basically amounts to a blizzard. I am now in clean clothes and am relaxing in a beautiful and comfortable house and looking forward to getting home and seeing my family.