Date: 2007-07-10
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Mount Katahdin and back to Katahdin Stream Campgro
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Squirrels!!! 7/11/2007 6:00am (morning after 1st day)   It is approximately 6:00am on the morning of our second day. We are at Katahdin Stream campground at lean-to number 8. For the past 15 minutes, I have been fighting off a number of squirrels that have been coming around. Last night we had an incredible down pour. At 3 o'clock I had to run out in the rain and get my pack that was getting soaked and brought it under the shelter. My pack is the one with the food. I awoke to find one bag of gorp (Good Old Raisins & Peanuts) gone and another one opened. I ate the open one so it wouldn't go to waste. The squirrels are numerous and small. They are absolutely unafraid of humans. One actually jumped on my leg and jumped back off while I was sitting. I scared them off for a while by taking one of my sticks and hitting them with the end of it. I hit them a couple times but they keep coming back. Yesterday was quite a day. To officially start we had to hiked up Mount Katahdin to Baxter's Peak, it's a 5600 foot summit. We had arrived at the campground at around 11:30 yesterday morning, maybe a little before that. Two sisters, Christin and Gabriel, arrived at about the same time. Neither them nor us had any clue as to what to do. Since there was no Ranger there and we couldn't sign in, we took the provided day packs and left our packs in the shelter. After grabbing our water, water purifier, cameras, and one meal, and saying good-bye to Mom, we set off up the mountain. You are not allowed to leave for the summit any later than 12 o'clock noon. We left at 11:55. The sisters left minutes before us, but it didn't take long for us to pass them. After 1 mile we hit Katahdin falls. After 2 miles we thought we were almost there. We had been going up hill quite heavily and we thought we had come a long ways until we passed 2 guys who said we had a long ways to go and it got a lot steeper. And it did!!! There is no way to describe it except to say that it was no longer hiking, it was climbing. Rock after rock taller than us that we had to climb up. And then the rock scramble. It's as if an avalanche happened and all these decent sized boulders were ready to come sliding down the mountain at any moment. We were high and it was a long way down on both sides. The height that we went was just mind-boggling. At the top of the rock scramble (which we thought would be the top) it flatten out for a while. A mile and a half later and one more steep incline at the end and we touched the sign. We ate lunch and took about every picture imaginable. In fact, in the one day I think I took over 250 pictures plus some video. We arrived on top at about 3:45 and left right around 4:30. After close to a mile hiking back, we passed the sisters. They still had a long way to go and we hoped they would make it back before dark. The way back was easier than up and we arrived at about 7:15. We built a fire, ate some food, washed clothes, and went to bed. The sisters never showed up (they had left their packs with us before they left). As I said before, a huge thunderstorm came during the night. At five thirty they came by to grab their stuff. They said they had stayed out there on the trail because it got too dark, and they didn't have a flashlight. That must have been a miserable night because they didn't bring hardly any supplies and especially not a tent. Keisha is still sleeping now but soon we will make breakfast and get on our way. The squirrels aren't coming around as much cause I almost paralized one with a rock. The night before we started we (Keisha, Mom and me) slept in Katahdin cabins, in Millinocket. It was a one room two bed little shack. But Skip (the owner) did make us fresh baked cookies at night and fresh made muffins for breakfast. When we first got into Millinocket, we had a hard time finding the cabins. A police officer ended up pulling us over and giving us an escort to Katahdin cabins. Well, Keisha is up now and we need to be on our way soon. So I'll stop writing for now. OK, bye.