Date: 2009-09-02
From: Katahdin!

To: Katahdin Stream
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up around 6 and told myself to roll over and stay in bed and I did. I finally got up around 8. Taking stock of the body, I am pleased. My biggest area of sore muscles is my abdominals and rib muscles from coughing so much. (I surely wish I would stop coughing.) Next in line are my pecs and shoulders from so much hauling myself around or doing push-up butt hitches on rocks. My right quad is a bit sore too, but not too bad. I have a little scratch on my knee and my ankle from biting rocks and another big blister on my calf from my brace. That is really not very much considering what climbing Katahdin was all about. Since I was not signficantly sore, I guess I am in fair physical condition. I am just slow. But I got there and got down, safely. And I was very happy to have done so in the company of another 68 year old female. I had the spaghetti I was supposed to have for dinner, for breakfast. I mind carrying 2 extra packets of oatmeal less than carrying an extra dinner. After breakfast I washed some sox and undies, bra and bandanas and some of myself. ( A little hard to do a good job in a public campground, but some is better than nothing) I spent a lot of time getting caught up on trail journals. It took a while, both because I am wordy and because my campsite is one away from the trailhead. About 30 thru-hikers went up Katahdin today and many parents and assorted well-wishers kept going by to put up welcome and congratulations signs. I chatted with them too. After lunch I took my pack back to the ranger. As I passed by where the returning hikers were celebrating I was asked to join them for a while. I met Loon, Hot Sauce, Plunger, Mr Right, Stretch and Tin Man and their parents. It was fun for me especially because I had gotten to know Loon through her trail journal, one of the better ones this year. It is a considerable accomplishment to do the whole AT in a year and they are to be congratulated. Back at my campsite I met Old Goat and Check Six. I had read some of their journal too. Check Six had to get off the trail because of some falls that left her dizzy and OG had gotten off too. But when they heard so many of their trail friends were summitting today they had to come and join them. The trail community is like that. Just before I ate my diner I met Bookworm. He is interviewing hikers and collecting stories. He hopes to somehow turn this into visual art. He was in the Peace Corps in South Africa and also taught English in Korea. We had an interesting chat as he interviewed me and he talked about what he has done and is doing. He will be headed SOBO but will be much faster than me. I also met an older couple headed SOBO. But everyone is so much faster than me that I doubt if I will see people more than once or twice. I had an interesting chat with a guy in the leanto across from my tent site about church growth. He is from a declining, struggling Anglican church in Maine. It is early, not yet 7:20 but rapidly darkening. I am going to bed in hopes of getting some sleep. I surely do wish I would stop coughing. But it was a good rest day and life is good.