Date: 2014-06-06
From: Millinocket, ME

To: Baxter State Park, ME
Miles today: 5.2

Katahdin is the northern terminus of the AT located in Baxter State Park and is the first thing that hikers must tackle on a southbound (SOBO) thru-hike. Of course to get to the top you must first climb up! So even though I only hiked 5.2 miles of the AT today I really hiked 10.4 miles. Some hikers I have met so far were blessed with sunny skies and amazing views (and even then some still didn't/couldn't summit). I, however, was not. What at the base of the mountain was a gentle warm drizzle turned into sleet and 40 mph gusts at the top. The group of 7 hikers that I started with quickly thinned out along the trail according to different hikers abilities, with me somewhere in the middle. Most hikers turned back about halfway up, especially once they were above the treeline. Not me though! I doggedly pressed on, determined to make it to the top and down that very day. I felt like it was a test from God, and I passed! The route up is fairly steep to the 5268 foot summit. About half of that is below the tree line where you at least had some cover from the wind and rain, mostly roots and rocks. Once you past that though the next section contains huge boulders that you have to hoist yourself up. Some are so ridiculous there are places where rebar has been drilled into the stone for you to use as a grab bar. What was super scary about that section was the wind gusts that literally could have blown you off the mountain if you were not paying close attention. Some people were complaining of hail there as the reason for turning back. It wasn't really hail though, just rain and sleet. But the force that the wind hurled it at you made i feel as if it was hail. Next is the tablelands where the mountain flattens out a bit for the last 2 miles of the climb. The park rangers have the tablelands cordoned off in an effort to help restore some of the delicate alpine plant growth. Fabulous. But what that means is that you are stuck hiking through a tunnel of mud up to the summit. By this point I had been hiking in the rain for three hours. My boots, despite being gortex, had puddles inside of them. My pants and coat were soaked through. I was cold and miserable. By this time I was second guessing not only my decision to actually hike Katahdin today but also the entire hike. I kept praying for God to take either the wind or the rain away, but in His infinite wisdom he chose to do neither! I finally did summit, but unfortunately there was no one else up there at the time to see me. I snapped a quick selfie and immediately started back down. I took absolutely no time to ponder the feat that I had just accomplished but instead hustled back as quickly as possible, cursing the whole way. It had taken me just over four hours to summit and downhill always takes me longer. It took almost six hours to get back down. The path was extra slick because of all the rain so get down the aforementioned boulders, roots, and rocks was tricky. It was rather intimidating to do all by myself, but I made it! After checking in with the park ranger (super nice guy with a great Maine accent) I set up camp. Luckily ( or ironically) by this time it had stopped raining. I set up a line to dry all my clothes on, put up my tent, ate a cold dinner and went to bed. I slept for twelve hours straight of the most glorious, dead-to-the-world sleep I have had in years!