Date: 2009-08-15
From: Birches, ME

To: KATAHDIN, ME
Miles today: 5.3
Weather: few clouds

so i didnt get much sleep at all last night. i was just too anxious and excited and nervous. i woke up at 6am and packed up my stuff. everyone else was awake who stayed at the shelter/camp area too. everyone was soo pumped. the rocky song was playing when i woke up and packed up my stuff and left the shelter. this group of guys family came to katahdin to hike it with him and made him a playlist and that was on it. it was soo perfect.so i headed out at 640am and started up the mnt. there were tons of people hiking already, it was crazy! there were only about 9 thru-hikers summiting today and the other few dozen were day hikers. so i passed a ton of people on the way up. it was so funny cause i couldnt even feel like muscles in my legs, it was like they didnt excists. i was just so pumped full of adrenilin that the mnt didnt even fase my body. it was so great! AND, it was a picture perfect day, clear blue skies and in the 80's. i dont know how it happend...the first half of the clime was pretty normal for a mnt, nothing i didnt expect, but then all of a sudden when you got above treeline the real clime began and it was like rock climing again! i didnt expect it to be like this since there were so many day hikers and kids climing it. it was tough. exactly what i wanted for the last final mnt on my long trip. i got up the climing part pretty good, and then there was a sign that read "katahdin peak, 1.0 miles" i was about to hike the last mile of the appalachain trail. such a crazy feeling. just one more mile. that was it. i took the mile real slow and just couldnt comprehend anything that was going on or about to happen...as i got closer to the top i could see clumps of a dozen people standing around and then i could see the sign. i stopped and took a deep breath and shook my head is amazement. i kept walking up and saw hi-c who had hiked to the top about 40 minutes before i arrived. when i got to the sign, it was new and beautiful. i couldnt believe i had made it to the sign. ive seen so many pictures of hikers standing with this sign after completing their thru-hike and i had make it! looking at the new sign that had the correct milage on it saying "spring mnt GA, 2,178.3 miles" that thats how far we had come... it was unbelievable.. the day hikers at the summit all stood up and started clapping when i got there. they could tell hi-c and i were thru-hikers and they all congradulated us, it was such a special moment. then i looked at the view around me and it was breath taking. i mean, the best view on the trail. the mnts around it were just so beautiful and being above treeline is one of the greatst feelings in the world. we took tons of pictures and when spaceman arrived about 1/2 after i did, his two freinds who met us on the summit pulled out a bottle of champane that they hiked to the top of the mnt for us. it was awesome! so hi-c, spacemand and i went over to the sign for some photos and sprayed the champane all over the place, it couldnt have been any better. katahdin was by far, i mean hands down, 110% the BEST mnt on the trail. the most fun and exciting and beautiful and unique mnt ive ever been on. i wish everyone could clime it. it was everything wrapped up in one mnt, one clime. it was magnificent. i hope i never forget any of it, b/c all of it was just the icing on the cake to a perfect thru-hike. we stayed ontop for about 2 hrs, and then decided to hike down the knifes edge. this wasn't part of the at, usually most people hike back down the way they came up, but we wanted to hike down a different trail, and this trail was freakin scary as shit!!! it took me forever, i had to put my poles away and i was scared out of my mind, it was pretty awesome though, but i dont think i ever need to do that again. lol. but being finished with my thru-hike is such a strange feeling. when i got to the car after climing back down, just the thought that i was done hiking for a long long time, was so surreal. it just felt like a town day. like i was going to zero tomorrow and then in a few days ill be back doing what ive been doing the past 5 months... just hiking. following the blazes, finding stream water, sleeping on the ground and carrying everything i need on my back. just walking forward. its what i did, its what i felt i should still be doing. when i got into the town of millinocket there were a flock of geese that flew overhead and when i looked up at them i isntantly was envious. they were doing what i had been doing for so long and thats what they'll always do. i wish i could do that forever. all the stress of life started piling up on me instantly. all these decisions i had to make so soon. for so long the biggest dicisions i had were, how many days of food i needed, what restaurant i would stuff my face with and where the next blaze was. that was it. simplisity... i love it. i think about all my other trail friends who are still out there and i am jelous. i wish i was out there with them. ill never forget any of it... i wish everyone could expereince something like this... it was freedom, real, challenging, exciting, painful, dangerous, soothing, uncomfortable, touching, it was everything i could have ever asked for... thank you AT...