Date: 2017-09-15
From:  Katahdin Stream Campground 

To: Baxter Peak, Mount Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: few clouds

We were up early on our big day and on the trail by 5:50.  When we woke we found Warren asleep on the ground near our lean-tos.  He had been planning to go up Katahdin with us but changed his mind at the last minute.  This was a relief for the group: we were concerned that he wouldn't be able to make it up and back. At least two of the hikes he did with us he cut short and had to be picked up at road crossings before the endpoint.  There is nowhere to bail out on Katahdin, and a rescue is a very big deal.  (A sign on the trail said rescue may take as long as 24 hours.)The first part of the hike was nice trail, uphill but not too rocky or rooty.  However, there was a long section that was constant rock climbing.  I've gotten pretty good at this and have learned to use all of my muscles - legs particularly - to hold myself in position to make a move.  In places, small pieces of rebar were strategically affixed to rocks to serve as hand- or footholds.  I could not have gotten up without these. I am five feet, five inches tall, and my hands and legs simply can't reach far enough to get up these places.  This part was difficult but fun and, in places, scary. The next section was a long rocky ridge uphill, above treeline, without much actual rock scrambling or climbing.  This lasted about one mile.  Finally we crossed into the Tablelands, a place that looked like a moonscape and was less steep.  A large open space was littered with low boulders. Between the boulders low, mostly red-leafed, plants grew, with an occasional short yellow-leafed plant.  This was a starkly beautiful landscape.  I took many photos, but none captures the exotic feel of the place. Finally we reached the top - Baxter Peak.  The Expedition members and guests who had finished ahead of us greeted us with hugs.  I even got a big hug from Rennie, who just shook my hand after we finished the Whites.  There were a lot of people at the top - probably 20 other thru hikers and 15 day hikers.  We ate our lunches and took group and individual pictures on top of the famous sign.  We arrived around 12:30 and left about an hour later.  It was way too crowded to spend much time there.   Before we left I spent a private moment at the large cairn on the peak.  Many years ago I promised my dad that after he and Mother were both dead I'd mix their ashes together and scatter them at Sebec Lake.  They both considered the years they lived in Maine some of the happiest of their lives.  With this in mind and their love of mountains, I took a small amount of their mingled ashes and left them near the cairn on top of Baxter Peak.  I was numb at the sign at the peak on finishing the trail, but leaving their ashes there made me cry.  We took the Abol trail back down the mountain.  It's a bit shorter than the AT trail (Hunt), but it has a very steep section.  It had been closed because of a rock slide but was newly redone and reopened.  The ranger told us that the steep section was about three-quarters of a mile long.  Well.  The downhill section was extremely steep and treacherous - a rocky descent.  We had to carefully plan each step, just as we had coming up, only it was more dangerous going downhill.  Also, because the trail is newly made it's covered with scree about the size of cat litter.  I slipped on this and fell twice on the way down.  We made no stops going down, and it took forever to get past the steep rocky part.  It took us three and a half hours to go a bit more than four miles.Once we were past the rocks I noticed a sharp pain on the top of my right foot. Several times in the past few days I've experienced this pain when I've twisted my foot a certain way on rocks.  It happened once on the way up the mountain.  And occasionally at night in bed I've had an excruciating sharp pain in one of my toes.  Now the pain was constant.  I'm not sure whether it got worse or whether I just started to notice it when I could ease up my focus on the rocks. I took some ibuprofen and limped to the end of Abol trail.  I discovered that I could alleviate the pain somewhat by walking with that foot flat-footed and not bending it at all.  Bill, Arlene, Rennie, and I have completed our hikes.  Lizzy has a 331-mile section left to do from when she was home with her injured knee.  Terri has about 500 miles left to do from when she was home with her injured knee.  Guest hiker Bobby Joe also has several hundred miles left to do.  He's headed south to meet up with Grey Beard to finish his remaining miles.  Grey Beard has about 500 miles left to go.We had some blueberry pie and soft drinks, then headed to Millinocket for a last dinner together.  Afterwards we went our separate ways.  Terri left with her husband Reid and her son Scott (who hiked up the mountain with her).  Bobby Joe left to take Rennie to Bangor for a flight home.   Bill has agreed to drive the van back to Tennessee for Warren, and I'm riding along with him.  Lizzie and Arlene are headed to Lizzie's family cabin in New Hampshire and will ride along with us to Gorham, NH tomorrow.  It seems strange that my long walk is over.  I'm both happy and relieved: for the last few weeks I've walked on eggshells for fear of injuring myself and being unable to finish.  I can now go back to treating my body with ordinary care rather than as a potentially breakable vessel.  Note to readers: Please take the time to look at the photos of the hike up Katahdin.  It's an impressively difficult piece of trail, and we managed to get some good photos of most of our group climbing.  I still have some leftover subjects I planned to write about.  I hope to do a few more entries on these topics and on my reentry to posthike life in the next few days.  I'm curious to know who followed my journal.  If you are one of these people please hit the button to sign my guestbook.  And a million thanks to all of you who signed the guest book and sent words of encouragement.  You will never know how much this helped in the difficult parts of the hike.