Date: 2004-08-19
From: Katahdin Stream Campsite

To: Mt. Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: light rain

We woke up this morning in our little 4-man shelter with Lekiless and Captain Hook. Our camera friends, Allen and Mary Grace, joined us this morning as well as Arwen's mom Josefa and her friend Marissa. Captain Hook's family brought a huge breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, fruit, juice, all kinds of stuff. So we had a great start to the morning.As we packed up for the last time this morning, it all seemed surreal. It's hard to believe that this is really the last "big up" for the trip. For six months, there has always been another mountain to climb. Hook's dad and Allen would be joining us on our ascent of Katahdin today. So we said goodbye to the others in the parking lot and signed in at the base of the mountain. Camel, Mountain Man, NY Mule, DaveAndMiranda, and Anna and Chris were ahead of us. The weather was a little overcast this morning, but warm. We were all pumped up - practically vibrating with excitement. Everyone was all smiles as we set off.The first stretch was surprisingly gentle. A little ways up we came to Katahdin Falls, a gorgeous roaring waterfall that runs right next to the trail. But the further we went without the steep ups we were expecting, the more wary we became. See, we knew that Katahdin is 4000 ft of elevation gain over 5 miles - steep by any standards. But we didn't know that 2 of those 5 miles are relatively gentle, which mean that the remaining 3 miles are, as Camel would say, brutal. Before long, we found the steep ups we'd been looking for. The trail towered above us, a steep boulder climb, a vertical jungle gym. We would have to use arms and legs, hands and feet, sometimes with poles, sometimes without, to haul ourselves up this climb. Katahdin is a very old mountain. Time has taken its toll on it. Over many thousands of years, Katahdin has become burried in its own massive rubble. It's that rubble that we now found ourselves climbing over and around. We took our time and went slow. After six months of training, it was tough enough for us; we could only imagine how difficult it must've been for Hook's dad and Allen.As we climbed higher the weather deteriorated. Little by little, we were climbing into What had been the cloud cover above us; gradually a thicker and thicker fog began to surround us. Katahdin is somewhat of a geological anomaly in that it is the only mountain for miles around. On a clear day you can see what seems like forever. Today, however, we would get no views. And increasingly it was becoming difficult to see even a few feet in front of us.The temperature was also dropping as we climbed higher. By the time we were at the Table Lands - a relatively flat stretch just before the last push to the peak - the temperature had dropped into the high 40's. A continuous 40-mph wind was blowing, making it tough to negotiate the rocky trail. Hiking over piles of rocks, you've got to watch your foot placement to avoid turning an ankle. The wind was blowing so steadily it often blew our feet this way and that as we were trying to plant our next footstep. Now that we were up at the Table Lands, we were largely exposed to the wind and weather. What had been a mere fog now became a stinging, misting rain driven into our faces by the constant heavy winds. Arwen and I just looked at each other through the mist and the wind with huge grins on our faces. "It's a beautiful day!" he shouted over the wind. Yes, it is. For the last six months we'd been hoping for a clear and sunny summit day. But come to find out, it's not the weather that makes today beautiful. We are so happy to be here, to have made it all this way, to be so close to the completion of our goal. The driving wind and the rain doesn't have a chance of stopping us.By the time we made it to the Table Lands people were starting to make their way down the mountain. Mountain Man and his mom, NY Mule and his sister, Anna and Chris, DaveAndMiranda. Every last one of them was absolutely beaming in their dripping wet rain jackets. By now it was 1:00. We hadn't expected it to take us this long. And then - there it was - a shadow in the fog. The Katahdin sign. It was unreal to see it slowly emerge from the fog in front of our eyes. How long we had dreamed of seeing this sign... and now here we were!Camel was waiting for us. He'd been the first to the top this morning at 8 am, and he'd waited all these hours in the cold and the rain. We celebrated on top together, snapping pictures of us all at the sign. We thought about the friends we started with who weren't here with us now. We thought about all the people who'd encouraged us to make it to this moment. Captian Hook popped the cork on a bottle of champagne and passed it around. We stood there in the wind and the misting rain and we tried to take it all in: we were finally here!