Date: 2016-08-30
From: Rainbow Stream Campground

To: Summit of Mount Katahdin!
Miles today: 15.0

After a much-needed afternoon break and lunch yesterday I decided 2 hike on towards the base camp of Katahdin. At a very leisurely pace I got five miles closer to the Big K. It would be my last night alone in my tent out in the middle of the wilderness.   Woke up this morning and floated on air 5 miles into Katahdin Stream Campground where I registered with the ranger as thru-hiker 496 northbounder. As promised after two easy miles this mountain proved to be one of the hardest climbs of the entire Trek. Downright scary. This journey ended with a two-mile massive rock scramble that almost broke my phone as I was crawling on my stomach. Then I saw a large group of people up ahead. There was the sign. This wasn't going to be pretty. As I reached out to touch the Katahdin marker I had to walk away twice to wipe the two small streams coming from my face. It was over. I made it. The hardest thing I've ever done in my life physically and mentally. And that's an understatement. There were only two other thru hikers at the summit and the other 25 people were all day hikers. As a young man saw my contorted face and red eyes he yelled to the crowd "let's give these three people a round of applause for their 2000 mile adventure". Everyone clapped and brought tears to our thru hiker eyes once again.   The climb down was the most painful 2 hours of this hike. I had not done any hills in the last week and going down this very steep mountain my knees where in excruciating pain. And now the storybook ending to what was once just a dream of mine. Like most of the other thru-hikers I had no idea how I was going to get home. I was one of the lucky ones who only had 300 miles to get home while others had to travel cross-country. The plan was to stay at the AT hostel in Millinocket Maine with 35 other finished thru hikers and celebrate. The next morning they would drop us off at a bus station in Midway, take us to Bangor Maine where everyone would fly, take a bus or a train home. But there would be one last awesome act of Trail Magic for this lucky thru hiker. As I literally stepped on the exit road from Baxter State Park, Mother Goose and I stuck out our thumbs and the first car that came by stopped. He was excited to pick us up and told us he would bring us to Millinocket for the night. As we approached the ranger station to check out of the park the driver turned around to me and said "hey the car in back of us has New Hampshire license plates". That's all I needed to hear. I jumped out of the car and as I leaned over to the driver he rolled the window down and started talking before I could. You're the thru-hiker who was crying at the top of the mountain, he stated. These three young men from New Hampshire had just went on a 7 day trip hiking the 100-mile wilderness. Would you like a ride? We're going to Concord New Hampshire. They decided it was close enough to bring me to the front door of my home, unbelievable! The entire 5 hour ride home I just kept pinching myself.   I had them drop me off down the street from my home and then called my wife as I approached. She was happy to hear my voice and after a couple of minutes asked me where I was. She had no idea I even summited Katahdin yet .I told her to come to the front door of the house.Thought she was going to faint as her knees buckled. The rest is history.   I sincerely want to thank everyone who wrote to me or followed my adventure. You have no idea what an important part of the hike you actually were. I will be posting 3 after hike journals. Any questions that you have please ask me in my guest book and I will answer them Labor Day weekend. I will then post another Journal next month and one at the end of the year.   Terodactyle has flown the coop. You can now call me Dan.