Date: 2010-10-02
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Mount Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: overcast clouds

After two days of fierce, stormy weather that caused the Baxter State Park people to close the Mountain, conditions improved enough on Saturday and they allowed hikers to attempt the summit. Sue dropped us off at the trailhead, and Jay, Judy, Miguel and I began the hike at 8 am. The beginning of the trail up to the summit of Katahdin is fairly easy for a few miles, paralleling a beautiful rushing, cascading stream with a nice waterfall. As you get higher in elevation the trail gets harder and harder, and the temperature was dropping, and the wind picked up. When we got to the beginning of the boulder scramble at treeline, it was pretty fierce. Judy and Miguel decided that they had had enough and turned back. Jay, being as crazy as me, continued. I had hoped that the past two days of rest would enable my body to recover from the bangs and bruises I have accumulated recently, but the elbow and back were still very sore, and every step was painful. I had visited the local Emergency Room the day before because of the pain, to find out if there was any serious damage and the doctor determined that it was basically irritation of the sciatic nerve in my right hip, so I could hike if I wanted to but it would hurt and take some time to recover. I had always envisioned that when I came to summit on Katahdin after the six months of training on the Trail that I would be like a gazelle, bounding up the trail, skipping up on the boulder climb, dancing across the Tableland to arrive at the summit of the Mountain. But it was not to be. The hike was slow, meticulous, lift and step, lift and step, place feet carefully, avoid any falls or rolled ankels or suddden jolts that would shoot more pain through my hip. So Jay and I continued scrambling up over the rocks. The climb up Katahdin is from an elevation of 1070 ft to the summit of 5268 over a distance of 5.2 miles, so it is a major climb, continually going up and up. Eventually we got over the boulders to the "Tablelands" where the environment is alpine and you must "stay on the trail" to avoid damage to the fragile plants trying to grow in this very harsh, brutal area. The wind, the temperature, the fog were very chilling as we made our way to the summit. As we got closer, we encountered others who had summited and were headed back down. Some were people I had not seen for awhile, including Joe who I hiked with back in Georgia and North Carolina, so there were some joyous reunions. As we got closer, we could see the summit sign in the fog, with a crowd of people gathered around. There were about 30 people at the summit when we arrived, many thru hikers and some day hikers. There was a lot of joyous excitement. Red Lobster, London Joe, Little Foot and his father Big Foot were there, as well as Dune, Bloodhound, Rich and many others I had met over the recent months. We took some photos and ate some lunch, hunkered down behind some rocks to get out of the wind a little, but we were so cold we couldn't stay long. I called Sue to let her know we had made it. Then we started the trek back down. As we started back down, Serentina and Listener arrived. Listener is 72 years old. She had hiked half the Trail last year, and did the rest this year. She is a remarkable woman. Serentina had hiked up with her today to help her along, and they made it. On the way down, Listener started to have some problems with her knee giving out, but Serentina, London Joe, and Red Lobster were able to keep her moving through the cold and wind, and they eventually caught up with us near the bottom. For me it was a long, slow, careful descent. I was extremely glad when we got below treeline, and then past the major vertical descent portion of the trail. At the bottom, we had a small parade of exuberent hikers, and were greeted by Sue, Judy, and Miguel. It was six o'clock, 10 hours after we had started. Sue had brought a cake to the trailhead, and had been greeting all the returing hikers through the afternoon, along with Red Lobster's parents who had a stove going with hot water for coffee and hot chocolate. It was a very joyous time for all, and I will never forget the moment. So many, many thanks to all who have encouraged and supported me in this journey. I will try to put some thoughts together shortly, but wanted to get this out to let people know we made it up and back down safely.