Date: 2012-09-17
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Baxter Peak
Miles today: 5.1

We were waiting in line when they opened the gate this morning. The group of hikers planning to summit was pretty big. I was hoping to have some time at the summit to myself, so I hiked on ahead of the others.Hiking up Katahdin gets crazy. People were telling me to leave my trekking poles behind, I'm glad I did. I was using my hands to climb over the boulders for quite a while before getting up to the plateau. Seeing the sign on top of Baxter Peak was sort of surreal. I was feeling a lot of different emotions as I got closer to it. I knew that when I touched that sign, it would be over. My knees felt strangely weak as I got closer. I started crying without restraint when I stood next to it. I was alone.....or so I thought. A hiker named "Manboy" came out from behind some rocks. He started climbing up at 3:00am to watch the sunrise. He was in his sleeping bag keeping warm where I couldn't see him. He came up and gave me a hug. We had the summit to ourselves for about 20 minutes so we took lots of pictures. Since Manboy summited alone nobody had been there to take his picture.The hikers started to flood in and we continued to take lots of photos. It was very emotional. The Honeymooners celebrated their one year wedding anniversary today by summiting Katahdin. This also marks the finish of their second thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. After 5 attempts and almost 7,000 miles on the A.T., Spirit finally made it. Spirit's trail name suits her well. She made more consistent miles then a lot of younger people out here and eventually passed a lot of them. She is tough down to the core and she'll never give up. I was shocked to see Slow Foot coming up the mountain. Against doctors orders, he took off the cast, and hiked up the mountain while enduring incredible pain. Slow Foot is one tough German. There isn't a trail on earth that can beat him. Every thru-hiker on the summit today has an amazing story to tell.How do you explain what this is like to someone who has never done it? Months of walking through the woods, hours and hours everyday. It's an incredible experience. This has been one of the hardest things I've ever done but equally one of the most rewarding. This hike has been a spiritual high with times of complete misery mixed in. The trail has the ability to soften your heart while hardening everything else. If the trail is calling you don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it, not even yourself...My friend and I took the Knife Edge down from the summit. I had heard about it from other hikers long before I ever saw Katahdin. The Knifes Edge is a narrow path following a steep ridge down the side of Katahdin. You don't want to hike it on a windy bad weather day. There are spots that are so steep you'd surely die if you slipped off the side. The weather was perfect today though and it was amazing! Katahdin is my favorite mountain on the whole trail. The views are fantastic. The camera on my phone doesn't do it justice, it's so big and incredible it just won't fit in the picture.We had an easy hitch from Roaring Brook campground to the gate and another easy hitch from the gate to the car. We then drove 5 hours back to New Hampshire. I feel settled and content. The internal drive has released me. I'm tired...Be sure to check out my pictures on the photo page : )