Date: 2009-10-12
From: Potaywadjo Spring Lean-To

To: Rainbow Spring Lean-To
Miles today: 18.2

It was a VERY, VERY cold morning. We wanted to get an early start, but we were just so damn cold that we couldn t get out of our sleeping bags. I sent Jungli on early and then I left the shelter next. At one point, I stopped to check my cell phone service, just to see if I had any messages, as friends and family were left wondering what the hell was happening in the wilderness. If they only would know...As I stopped, Chucks came running up to me with a huge smile on his face,  Dude, did you see that back there?   See what?   Oh my God, you have got to go back there...it s the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It s a viewpoint of Katahdin...and....she has snow all over . Even as I m writing this now, I m getting chills just thinking about it. Here I was, having walked 2,130 miles, chanting  Katahdin! Katahdin! Katahdin!  and I m about to see it for the very first time. So, I took off running through the woods, making a video in the process, displaying my sheer emotion. And then, I approached the clearing, allowed my eyes to adjust to the sunlight and realized why the Native Americans had named her  Greatest Mountain . It was breathtaking...and I little bit nerve-racking, too. There was snow on the upper third and it just looked like it came out of nowhere and that there was nothing else around it. I ran back to Beechucker, who had used my phone to call his girlfriend, and we were both awe-struck. All I kept thinking was,  Holy shit, we are this close to finishing . I then pushed on, but took some time to appreciate the fall colors at the base of Nahmakanta Lake. The views were absolutely spectacular. I continued hiking and then met one of the few southbounders in this section, who was just hiking from Katahdin, through the wilderness, all the way to Monson. He had just come from summitting Katahdin and said that it was absolutely crazy. Snow squalls came through every 25 minutes and the wind was so strong that it blew him over on multiple occasions. He also told me that Jungli was just 15 minutes ahead and that Chef and the BC s were at the shelter when he had left. I couldn t believe that we were that close to them!I arrived at the shelter to find Jungli just finishing up a snack. Chucker arrived a few minutes later and we discussed the fact that we were really moving quite fast. Jungli continued to push on and Chucks and I read through one of the last registers on the trail, enjoying the various comments of our friends who were preparing to finish their thru-hikes. We were truly the last thru-hikers of the season that far north and there was some sense of pride with this. As we climbed up Nesuntabunt Mountain and enjoyed more beautiful views of Katahdin in the distance and of the Nahmakanta Lake down below, Beechucker told me that he wasn t even going to summit Katahdin. He said that when he set out to hike the Appalachian Trail, it was to enjoy six months in the woods and that one last mountain didn t matter to him. He said that he was so ready to be done with the hike and be back home in the comfort and arms of his girlfriend and that he was going to retire from walking for life. Crazy kid, Beechucker is. Today would be a big day through the wilderness, but we hiked well into darkness, having to take out our headlamps just to find our way through the woods for the last two hours. We even became lost at one point and had to backtrack through an old riverbed that had thousands of large rocks, thereby impeding our passage. Then, there were precipitous drops directly to the right of us as a raging and steep stream flowed its way down into the valley. We continued to climb and were wondering when we would be arriving to the shelter. Although we had talked early on, for the last 30 minutes, we didn t say much as we had to concentrate on each step...and also because we were so friggin  cold. I started to smell smoke in the distance and I knew that we were getting close to the shelter. We approached the shelter and saw a fire burning out front and then greeted Jungli who didn t have any of her belongings with her (Beechucker and I were carrying these). She said that she was very proud for starting the fire. Jungli had heard from StickMan that the next day, it was going to snow...only an inch or two under 2,000 feet and then anywhere from 4-12 inches above 2,000 feet. We knew that this meant Katahdin would be getting DUMPED on. We cooked dinner together, discussing with angst and anticipation of getting the hell out of the wilderness. When I went down to the adjacent river to fill up my water bottles, I stopped on a piece of land that literally just gave way and sank into the freezing cold river. My sock and shoe had become completely wet. Funny enough, Beechucker then went down to the river, attempted to fill up water in the same spot, and did the exact same thing. We were left cursing because we knew that our socks would not dry due to the cold and that we were going to have some very wet and cold feet in the morning.