Date: 2003-09-03
From: The Birches 1,090

To: Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: broken clouds

There was only one way for me to truly know if I could thru hike from Springer Mountain, GA to Katahdin, ME. That way is to do it. I did it. Now I know. I summitted Katahdin today. I summitted alone. Homerun, Suds, and Dharma Bum took breaks on the way up. I couldn't. This was the day I would kiss that sign and I couldn't wait nor could I sit still to take a break. We started hiking at 7:20. I touched the sign around 11:00 I think. Time didn't seem important to me. When I got within a tenth of a mile of the sign and got a good look at it, I had to stop because I was moving so fast and became very emotional so I started to hyperventilate. I got my breathing under control and walked the rest of the way and just sort of fell against the sign crying. It was as if every emotion I had ever felt on this 2,000 mile journey flooded through me. The negative emotions washed away and the positive emotions intensified. I felt stronger than I had ever felt in my life. I felt invincible. I laughed and I cried and the three people who were up there just stared. Two were day hikers and one had just begun his southbound thru hike. He looked at the day hikers and said, "This is it for her. She just finished a thru hike." The day hikers seemed a bit worried about my reaction, but they took my picture anyway. The climb up Katahdin is a bit blurry for me. I remember a lot about the terrain, views, weather, etc. but I think I had so much adrenalin flowing through me none of my thoughts about any of those things really registered. I felt no pain in my feet or anywhere else. I talked to no one and stopped for nothing. I felt like I was running up the mountain to reach that sign, that pinnacle I waited so long to reach. To finally touch it gave me a surge of energy like none I had ever experienced.A few minutes after I summitted, I watched Homerun, Dharma Bum, and Suds finish their last leg of the journey. We all hugged, took pictures, and congratulated each other. We ate lunch, took more pictures and Molasses joined us as well. We stayed up there for about two hours. The sky was blue, the view was amazing, and the company was superb. I tried to look at the views, but couldn't keep my eyes off that sign. The other three said what they had done hadn't really registered for them. It registered with me. We began our descent which seemed to take forever. The climb was easier than the descent for me. I was finished. Coming down off Katahdin didn't count, so to speak. It was just what we had to do in order to get back to the campground and meet my friend Butch who was picking us up. He drove all the way from Nashville, TN to pick us up. We finished our descent at 4:20. The other three were all going to upstate NY and Butch and I were going through there in order to get to Pittsburgh, so we said we would drop them off. Butch picked us up around 7:00 and we drove to Millinocket, ME for the night. We had dinner at some place I can't remember the name of and Molasses was there as well. I had buffalo wings, a huge calzone, and the biggest molasses cookie I have ever seen. Then we got a hotel room for the night. I was exhausted and elated at the same time. Butch brought a cooler of Mt. Dew and Pepsi so I had three sodas and couldn't really go to sleep. I tossed and turned the whole night. The next morning I ate three bowls of cereal and milk at the hotel. It was sooo good! Then we drove almost to Bangor and ended up eating at Johnny's in Old Town because they serve breakfast all day. Then the five of us piled in the truck and we were on our way to NY. There were a lot of bathroom breaks it seemed, but we finally dropped Homerun off in Binghamton around 11:00 I think, then we drove to Keuka Lake and stayed in Suds' father's cabin for the night on the lake. What a beautiful place! Thanks Suds! Butch and I left the next day around noon to drive to Pittsburgh where we visited a friend for two days. I am home now in KY for a while. I am visiting family and friends in KY and TN before I go back to Tucson. I am also getting a car and I have to pick up my dog in Ohio in a couple of weeks on my way out west. I had all of this planned before I even began my hike, but that doesn't make the transition to the real world any easier. I am not having difficulty with anything so far except noise. Everything seems so loud - restaurants, traffic, household noises, stores, even just more than one person talking at a time. I can't concentrate and I seem to have lost my ability to do two things at once. Everyone around me is so busy and seems so stressed. I try to be understanding, but their stress frustrates me. People seem to be angry over things that don't matter and stressed over things that seem unimportant to me. I felt this way before I hiked the trail, but that feeling has intensified it seems. I am enjoying the convienence of running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, and the use of a kitchen. I am a bit nervous about driving for the first time in six months, but I love to drive and will get over that quickly I think. I'm sure the cliche "It's just like riding a bike" applies to driving as well. I can tell my feet are starting to heal, but I tried to run today and my legs are too stiff and they cramped up on me after only half a mile. So I walked everywhere today from my sister's house and it felt good to walk in running shoes with no pack. I think the transition back to real life will be easier for me than for some who hiked, but already I am finding it is not as easy as I thought it would be. There are certain aspects of trail life I miss already. This is a surprise to me because at one time I was so ready to be finished and thought I may never backpack again. I will. I said I would never hike in the rain again. I will. I said I would never camp in the cold again. I will. I said I would never eat trail mix again. I will. I might even attempt pop-tarts at a later date. I said I would never hike or camp in the snow again. I might. I now have access to all the things I missed while walking in the woods - sodas, convienence, food, people, music, TV, you name it. I find what I craved most was music and I cannot get enough of it. I am listening to CMT as I write because I couldn't figure out how to turn on the radio at my sister's house. So many buttons...The next entry contains some things I wanted to say to some people I met on the trail and others who helped me complete this journey. I hope you will read on.