Date: 2005-09-21
From: Shelter, Katahdin Stream Campground lean-to

To: Mt Katahdin terminus sign
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: broken clouds

WOW!!!! Absolutely F***ING WOW!!! That pretty much sums up our day. I guess I should write a little bit more than just WOW.   It was pouring when we went to bed. That was slightly worrisome. This morning the rain was over and done. We woke up early - 0500. We had our coffee and breakfast and were packed up by 0615. We went to the ranger station to leave our backpacks. We were going to the top with Oblivious' pack and with a daypack that the rangers provided. We walked to the trailhead and signed in. The weather report for the day had not yet been posted.    Our official start time was 0630. We were off and completely excited. The 1st two and a half miles just seemed to go by. The trail wasn't too bad. There were roots, rocks, rock steps and rock scrambles but it wasn't too bad. Then we went above tree line. That's when we discovered the wind. It was a¢ whipping around. Blowing like a son of a gun. We could see clouds all around but it looked like they might blow away.   At this point the Appalachian Trail, a national scenic footpath, showed its ugly side again. It went from a footpath to a climbing trail. Now we've done plenty of climbing before but this did seem to be some of the most difficult and scary climbing to date. The huge wind gusts made the climbing especially fun. Yes, the adrenaline rush that you get each time that you escape from possibly slipping and plummeting to your death is exhilarating. It's an even more exhilarating adrenaline rush to watch the people you love the most in the world also escape probable death. I was a little stressed out. Oblivious was a little stressed out. Troll kept us all going.   We kind of started to get worried. No one had caught up with us yet. You have to realize that we were easily the slowest hikers on the mountain today. And NO ONE had caught us yet. We had left before the day's weather was posted. When they post the weather they assign a class to the day. Class I means the best conditions. Class II means climbing above the tree line is not recommended. Class III means that some named trails are closed. Class IV means the mountain is closed and you will get fined if you go up. Yesterday had been class II. We realized that we had no idea what today was. Where was everyone? Was the trail closed and we were the only morons climbing in this wind? Oh well, we were going to get this damn climb done with.             Finally Ug caught up to us and passed us. Squid Jerky and his friend Russ passed us. Iron Horse, an Irish guy whom we hadn't seen since the Smokies, passed us. We got up and over the climbing portion and made it to the tableland. Oblivious and Troll were very disappointed when they saw a sign at the edge of the tableland. It was a protect our fragile alpine plants sign, not THE sign.   It was really cold and the wind was still howling. The mountain had toyed with us a bit on cloud cover. She kept showing herself briefly and then covering up again. When we were on the tableland she decided to stay covered up. We walked through her clouds and over her rock fields. Katahdin is made up of mostly pink granite. You can imagine how pretty her rocks were. Pink granite with pale green lichen. Of course the cloud cover seemed to make everything a little slick. It seemed like we kept going forever. Then the wind blew and we could see a group of people standing around THE sign. That was the last time that Katahdin teased us with a view.   We made it to THE sign. The sign that said this was the end of our 2,174.9 journey. The sign that said we were at the top of this 5267 foot high hunk of pink granite. The sign that was located next to the last white blaze on the trail. It took us 4 hours and 12 minutes. It was THE F***ING SIGN!!!   We cried (me, Troll, Squid Jerky and Ug). We took pictures. We hugged. We celebrated with friends. We wandered around feeling a little lost. We wound up hunkered down next to a rock pile out of the wind. We had a celebratory snack of squid jerky and pemmican. Of course the Little Debbie food group was also present. You can't celebrate on the trail without that wonderful woman. Pickwick made it to the top and we took his pictures and he joined our little warming huddle. Oblivious' thermometer said it was 40 degrees. You mix that with 30 mile per hour sustained winds and it's pretty cold. So we were cold and had to leave.   On our trip down we kept seeing people. We passed the Muppets. We passed Milkman. We passed Leviathan. We passed Hairball, Snowbunny, Bug, Miss Priss, Train, and Raindrop. We passed Just Bob. We passed Cheek and Peas. We passed Pumpkin. We met Milkman¢s parents going down the mountain. Where did all of these people come from?    The trip down the awful climbing part after the tablelands was slow. Troll helped Milkman's mom down the rebar portions. Pickwick was behind me. Pickwick and I were both scared of the downhill. Troll found the safest path and made sure we got down it. He was great. We finally got down to the easier part. We signed out of the trail around 1525.      Then it was so weird. There were tons of hikers: Linux, Papa Razzi, Professor Nutbag, Lion King, Fig, Just visiting, Beartracks and assorted family members. We were kind of in shock. We were done. Literally another chapter of our lives was starting at that very moment. What direction would we go now? And there were all these people asking us how it was. Then Katahdin cleared. Everyone went to look at her. We wondered who, if anyone was on top seeing her like this. But we knew she had been perfect for us and she would be perfect for the group tomorrow and the next day.    We walked to the road and hitched to start our trip home.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.