Date: 2023-10-09
From: The Birches

To: Katahdin
Miles today: 5.3

Woke up and was kind of lazy about leaving, left around 8? Or so? Jersey said she was going to try and leave at 6:30 but when I walked past her lean to they were still packing. We got to the ranger lot and guess who walks up but Village Tart and Long Strides! Turns out they had waited 2 days in town for the weather to turn, and Ra and Mando then got dropped off. So it was nice to see more folks we knew at the end. Adding even more to the "final boss" vibes.We started hiking and the first mile was amazing, so flat and easy and gentle it was bonkers. We passed day hikers, filled our water at O Joy Brook, and continued up. The boulder scrambling was totally fine, the exposed rock was¢¦ VERY EXPOSED and I needed to haul myself up at times but not that much. It was a long climb up and then going up the ridgey bit it was completely socked in so we couldn¢t see the drop off which I¢m thankful for otherwise I would¢ve been terrified, even at the expense of missing the views. There was a YouTuber there filming (which Gadget warned us of lol) and we kept going as it was cold and we wanted to stay warm. The rocky bits leveled out, turned into puddles of water (bogs I can never leave you eh), and then we started passing day hikers heading down. We couldn¢t see the summit due to the weather so it just felt like the future / end was rushing up without any warning, and we were inching along not wanting to be done and kind of steeling ourselves for Katahdin. I didn¢t see anything but Rabbit must have because then he grabbed my hand and I saw the sign come out of the fog and gloom and then suddenly we were at the northern terminus of the AT and that was that. We were the first thru hikers to arrive so we stared at the sign, and sat by rocks to get shelter from the wind, and just mutely process it for 20 minutes or so. After all those months and miles it was just a battered wooden sign on top of a rocky peak. Not to be corny or trite but the real Katahdin was the experiences along the way.After that we took our pics, asked the YouTuber to take our photos with his DSLR (I hope he¢ll email it to me someday), and then the other thruhikers rolled up and then the peak started filling up with dayhikers. Jersey Shore looked so overwhelmed and feeling exactly how I felt, and we were just hugging each other and saying congrats and how proud we were of each other. We went to sit back down but it was crowded and not good time to reflect so I¢m glad we did that when we first came up when it was quiet and could have space to ourselves. After a group photo we went down and across the tableland the clouds blew away and the view was INCREDIBLE. Decided to go down  Abol because it was getting cold and my knee was hurting and it was supposed to be easier, but it just was a shitty exposed rock fall descent for a mile but at least we were back in the sun.When we finally made it down to the flatter parts we cruised back to camp, where Rabbit¢s family was there waiting with socks and sandwiches and promises of goulash at home which Rabbit had been yearning for forever. I met Jersey Shores¢s parents, said goodbye to her and Magic, and then went to Millnocket for a LONG OVERDUE SHOWER and sleep. It definitely didn¢t hit me that I finished and I was just exhausted.