Date: 2012-09-27
From: Bangor, Maine

To: Rockland, Maine
Miles today: 0.0

SOS here:It seems like yesterday that Trail Mama and I were leaving to hike the trail and today we are done. I averaged about 2 miles an hour; this means it took approximately 1,092 hours to hike the complete AT. My younger friend thru hikers could hike about 3 miles an hour - age and caution does slow you down.The one unexpected moment for me was that summit would come with so many other thru hikers I knew. The summit was packed with hikers and their friends and family who hiked Katahdin with them. I was pleased to summit the same day with Headnout and Tagnalong, Nice Lady, my son-in-law Jon aka Surefoot and my son Courtney aka Kodak Kid and Helping Hand. It was a near perfect day to summit. It was very windy and cold on top but that is the norm.The climb to the top is a 4,200 foot elevation change with no downs just up. The climb to the top is very strenuous and would be very difficult if you were not in good physical condition. There are places as you climb that require you pulling yourself up and at times rebar has been placed in the boulders to assist you.At one point in the climb, the hikers bottlenecked in a difficult spot. It was here that Helping Hand earned his name. I had him scramble ahead of those having difficulty to pass this spot and he began to patiently assist each one of the hikers to get past this spot. Helping Hand only continued on himself after all were safely beyond this spot.As we continued to ascend Mount Katahdin, "Helping Hand" also known as the "Kodak Kid" became more pleased with the experience and kept saying, "look at that" and smiling at the challenge before him to get to the summit. I was happy and pleased that he was having such a great time and also very pleased to have my son-in-law Surefoot joining me for the third time on my quest to thru hike the AT.When we reached the top both "Surefoot" and "Helping Hand" had decided that I should be the first to Summit, because I had hiked the entire AT from the southern terminus to the northern terminus. It took us 3 1/2 hours to hike the 5.1 miles, but the last 2 miles took us about 2 hours.At the summit everyone was having their individual Kodak moment with the Katahdin Summit sign. I had mine, but also made sure that I would be photographed with Headnout and Tagnalong and also with Nice Lady and with my son and son-in-law. God blessed me with Nice Lady joining me for the last 250 miles of my thru hike. Nice Lady's trail name is very appropriate, because she is a very nice person who fusses over other hikers and me in particular to be sure that we are all OK and the hike was going well for us. After all the individual kodak moments all the thru hikers on the summit gathered around the Katahdin summit sign for a group photo - there was 27 of us in the picture - a very big group for this late in the thru hiking season. There was at least 15 cameras that people had handed to Surefoot, the Kodak Kid and a third person to take the group photo on their cameras - this probably took 15 minutes to get all the photos taken. We would meet the third photographers sister by chance the next day in Bangor at an antique/coffee shop. What are the odds.One of the amazing statistics in my hike was that I would lose a cell phone, a handheld GPS and my rain cover for my pack on the trail. They were all found by other hikers and returned to me the same day they were lost. I was, also always losing my AWOL maps and plastic bags and Nice Lady or Headout and Tagnalong were always picking them up and returning them to me.Two couples that Trail Mama and I had met on the trail would get engaged on the top of Katahdin. Lobster proposed to Chickadee the day before we summited and Hungus proposed to Pace the day we summited. Hungus had Pace turn and face away from him while the other hikers facing each created an arch she would walk through to Hungus who was on his knees where he waited to propose to him of course she said with tears in eyes, "yes". He did not hand her a ring but instead a piece of gold that the ring would be forged from, which he had carried with him every step of the way from Springer, GA to Katahdin, ME. What a guy! If they can hike together and still be in love after 2,184.2 miles - I believe they will have a long and happy married life together.It took us 4 hours to descend the Mountain. It is always more dangerous to descend than to climb. Helping Hand fussed over me all the way down and kept telling me to stay down and go slow to be safe. I love my children. Of course Trail Mama was waiting for all of us at the bottom and she had this spark of savouring the moment by having all the thru hikers sign her journal at the bottom with their trail name and real name. She ended up with 29 signatures. What a fantastic day it was! TRAIL MAMA here: I second all the above that SOS has written. While they were climbing, I was waiting...but this time with no small town to explore. I cleaned out the car, updated my leather journal, read, knitted and talked to other people waiting. At one point, I was sitting in the car with the door open. I sensed something beside my foot and there was Chippy (the resident little beggar campground chipmunk) He had jumped INTO my car but I had to tell him NO...so he jumped back out. I don't know what I would have done if he had stayed in the car...there is so much in the car he could have hidden for days! I also gathered up all my Trail Mama treats that were left in the car to pass out one last time. Margo Mainiak had given me many packs of gum which I had saved for this time. I offered hikers one treat and one pack of gum. The gum was very popular! THANKS, Margo!! (Father Man and the guys say, Hey!to you) It was a sad day for me to have to say goodbye to so many new friends. We shared so much for so long that it is hard to realize that I would not see most of them again. Jon and Courtney had to leave us today to fly home. Courtney's flight left at 6:30am so Jon kindly offered to take him. Jon, SOS and I went downtown to explore more before he had to go. We went to the Friar's restaurant which is run by friar's who bake and sell bread beside running the restaurant. We had lobster rolls which were very good. Courtney had a 4 segment flight so he texted me from NY, then Philly, then Atlanta and finally from Indy! He made it home to Terra Haute safe and sound .... as did Jon later to his home in Michigan. We loved having them share our adventure and getting to meet some of our hiker friends. Two of the hikers remembered Jon from July. We drove on from Bangor to Thomaston where we went to a movie (we have missed seeing movies) and found a hotel for the night in Rockland, Maine.