Date: 2018-09-24
From: MT KATAHDIN SUMMIT

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well after a few days digesting figured it was time to type the tale...Friday the 21st was a ZeroRestDay and went well. A great celebratory dinner probably involved a couple more rounds of beverages than any of us should have had (given the task early the next day) but hiker midnight (9pm) found us back in the AT Lodge and hitting the bunks. Did not sleep very well though and, when Projigal¢s alarm went off at 4:30am, popped right up and got dressed¢it¢s Summit Saturday! At 5:07am walked through the door of the AT Cafe down the street and had a big breakfast. At 6:10am our van, piloted by NoKey, hauled 13 hikers to the Ranger station at Katahdin Stream Campground to attempt the summit. (Ultimately, 5 of us would make it. The other 8 turned back due to weather conditions on the way up the mountain. The Dudley Trail and Knife Edge Trails we¢re closed due to the hazardous conditions) At 7:34am my registration & safety discussions with the Rangers were complete and I began the ascent. The first two miles were an easy climb and passed a myriad of day hikers as I moved up to the end of the tree line. The sound of the wind and the temperature change began in earnest in that last 1/4 mile before the alpine zone. Breaking above the trees, the howling wind cut thru my T-shirt and long sleeve base layer. More clothes were needed so I ducked behind a boulder to retrieve my ¢puffy¢ coat, stocking cap, scorpion gloves, and rain jacket. Having suited up for the below freezing temperature, I moved up around the boulders to find 3 hikers under a rock ledge waiting. Went on up the trail just as two more young men came back down around past me hollering, ¢it¢s blowing too strong up at the...¢ and then I was hit by the wind. Blowing 40...gusting 50... I got low and crabbed to a rock wall. Bolted into the top edge of it, 9 ft above, was a rebar handle. Put a toe in a crevice and reached up to it¢-pulling myself up when WHOooSHHH! From low and left was struck by the wind, lost grip of the bar with my left hand but held fast with the right as the gust tried to throw me off the shelf. Holy shit!In a virtual panic, dropped back down and looked for a place to get out of the wind. Jumped into a low spot and grabbed my head in my hands. I had almost been blown off the mountain! To my right, the mountain fell away about 30 feet sheer to the tree tops. Dammit! I can¢t go on. I can¢t go over that.  What the hell? I can¢t finish... adrenaline coursed through me and I racked my brain to think coherently. Deep breath...I can¢t make it. 2,187 miles ...and I can¢t make it!You have to go! No! No, you can¢t be that guy that walks all this way and does some completely stupid thing and dies! Thought about my wife and kids. Their faces raced through my mind...I can¢t risk it. I can¢t make it.  Then a figure runs over low and jumps down next to me. It¢s Gusher. He looks up and shouts in the gale, ¢what¢s up?¢ I said something like we have to go up ...but I tried and couldn¢t make it. Started babbling about wind, and that I almost died but held on...(Later, sitting around victoriously in the bar, Gusher would say that the look at that moment on my face scared the crap out of him) ¢What do we do? There are about two dozen people back under that ledge¢ he hollers.¢We wait¢ I told him.The wind kept screaming. Two minutes passed. (It felt like much more) Then the noise subsided a bit as the wind held steady without gusting. Three people appeared on the trail up from the ledge below, stared at us, and the first guy grabbed the bar and went up. Stood and watched him turn into the wind and move low across the shelf above as the next guy went up. I turned to Gusher and said, ¢This is it! C¢mon!¢ Right on the heels of the third hiker, I went upAnd overAnd then to a rebar hand hold and dropped into a rock cleft. Twenty five  feet later we were past the knob, and we moved up thru the clouds. In a mile we reached the ¢table land¢. This is the flattish alpine zone leading slightly upwards to the summit. The wind was sustained 25-30mph here, and it was at our backs, so it was like walking on the moon. Was ¢flown¢ across the table land in big lunging steps holding out my arms like a sail ... visibility was just 30-40 yds in the clouds then, in the last 100 yds, the wind picked up. Then the infamous sign emerged from the mist.While crossing the table land my mind raced. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that had been coursing through me all day but it got emotional at times. Thinking about family, the course of events leading to this Moment, the miles (so SO many miles) that came before... emotions stared roiling inside me. A few memories forced tears to well up ...but after a moment things would come back under control. Then the summit sign appeared.Wow. Even if you¢ve never been up there, if you are reading trail journals, you know what that sign looks like. I did. But I had no idea it would look like THAT. All of it. All the memories. All the what if¢s and wonders. All the great friends. All the shitty rains. All the delays, the hopes and dreams. ALL of it hit me. I stood about 15 feet away and tears came. Joyous ones. One tough endeavor conquered. It took much longer than imagined and tested me every step. Yes!Walked up to the icy wooden sign and slapped the rough surface a few times (play like a champion today). Yep, real. Reached into my pack and pulled out the ¢Bamahiker¢ stone i¢ve carried since picking it up in Fontana Dam 2,000+ miles ago. (Took a picture of it to send to Ms. BStyles) Handed my camera to another hiker to take my pic on the sign. The wind was howling (and it was hard to stand on) but got ¢the photo¢. Unfurled the flag that was carried from the start, having been signed by 100s of hikers that walked with me on the AT, and got ¢the photo¢ with it as well. Then I went to just sit away from the sign and soak it in. Gusher arrived (put on an orange Tuxedo) and got his photo. Then Liam arrived. Followed by Eavesdropper and TreeHugger. For a moment it was all of us there in the clouds celebrating. Sincere congratulations and adulation for each other¢s accomplishment. We all walked the same trail but everyone hiked their own hike. Quite a moment after the all the anticipation building amongst us for the last few weeks. The temp & wind forced some to head on back but Gusher and I decided to stay for awhile. The clouds were lifting and visibility improving. After 45 minutes or so the ¢Knife¢s Edge¢ to Pamola Peak appeared. Soon the cloud ceiling rose up from 3,500 to over 10,000 ft and we could see for miles. The walk down offered amazing vistas I had no idea existed (as the ascent was up through the clouds). We moved slowly and safely. Reports from other thru hikers we met on the way down were later confirmed on the rangers clipboard...dozens of hikers had turned back at ¢the knuckle¢ in the morning. (Many finished on Sunday- Congrats!) Even in the afternoon clarity and diminished wind, this was the windiest section on the way down as well. Once in the trees we strolled and chatted. Technically speaking, our ¢hike¢ was over so I guess we were simply friends strolling thru the woods. Giant silly grins and laughing all the way down... In the last 1/4 mile, a figure stood in the path and a few hikers in front of me passed him. I know that guy: Mike! My buddy, who texted me ¢Good Morning¢ every day of my hike without fail, had flown up from Tennessee to join me. (In 1994 we had sat in my room in Highlands, NC as I weighed my gear and packed mail drops for the AT walk that would quickly fail) He gave me a big hug shouting ¢Way to go!¢ and the other guys realized he wasn¢t just another day Hiker. All came over to say hello, then we walked to the car, grabbed beers (well done, Mike) and sat in the Park toasting the journey. It was early & since the shuttle would be hours, Mike drove a car load of smelly hikers back to Millinocket. We went by the AT Lodge, picked up the gear left there, made plans for later, and went to Park Edge inn. Cleaned up and joined other hikers for dinner at the Scootic In bar. It was one of those nights. The joy of the day wasn¢t easily extinguished. Kind strangers picked up our tab for us. (Was being paid forward all around the bar) Debbie, the hardest working waitress in America, kept the pours heavy so we stayed ¢til our lids were heavy. [Note*she had served my breakfast up the street at 5am this very morning, as she had the day before and would again tomorrow] Lying in bed trying to make sense of the last 20+ hours was impossible. The adrenaline had finally given out and the day closed. {update: The next day we drove to Acadia down east on the coast. My flight home was made with enough projected cushion for a slower pace, bad weather event, or some other unknown. The wonderful weather of the past few weeks allowed me to get ahead of schedule. As well as a chance to see another aspect of this amazing state, Maine. Walked along Cadillac Mtn, largest mountain on the Atlantic coast, this morning and could see Saddleback and Katahdin almost 100 miles off to the northwest. Stunning...another reason to keep walking!}Life is Amazing. Find YOUR reason ...and Keep Walking!Summit SotD: Terrapin Station - 5/17/77