Date: 2006-10-04
To: KATAHDIN - A Dream Come True
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

by RightySunday, October 1, 2006 was our day of reconning. It was the day we had been striving for for almost six months. It was also the first day of breast cancer awareness month which was so appropriate for us. Sitting here, now, two days later at this computer, it's hard to believe that the journey is done and this stage of our life is over. Soon, we go back to our jobs and our "real" lives. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity to see a dream come true and to share this experience with my daughter. It was both challenging and rewarding and we'll have memories to last a life time. Here's the story of our last day, the day the three of us summited Katahdin. On Saturday, September 30th, we set out to hike 15 miles to Hurd Brook Leanto. While we were hiking, Lefty suggested that we keep moving and try to get to Abol Bridge campground that evening. This would make it a 23.4 mile hike which Lefty could do easily but was a stretch for Bouy and myself. Her thought was if we could get there Saturday evening we would be close enough to try to summit on Sunday, October 1. Originally we planned to summit on the 2nd but the night before we heard a weather report and Sunday was supposed to be a decent day with only partly cloudy skys. Monday through Wednesday the weather deteriorated and called for rain each day. We had heard that you absolutely do not want to hike up Katahdin in bad weather. In fact, the park rangers will NOT let you go up if the weather looks at all bad. So, with this in mind, we raced through the woods in order to get to Abol Bridge campground that night. We were all out by 7pm and found the campsite easily. By 8pm Lefty and Buoy had their tent set up and I had found a space in the nearest shelter. We were in position to do the big climb the next day. All we had to do was get to the base of Katahdin the next morning and be ready to hike before 9am. We had heard the rangers wouldn't let you leave any later than 9am.Lefty was up at 4am to hike the 10-mile white blaze to the ranger station at the base of Katahdin. Bouy and I were up at 5am and hiking by 5:30am to hike the 5 mile blue blaze trail into the same place, just a shorter and we hoped easier route. I had gotten little to no sleep the night before, probably because I was over tired from the long hike the day before and possibly because I was so anxious and excited about our final assent the next day. On the hike to the ranger station, I was barely functional. I kept slipping and stumbling. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I had this overwhelming fear that I was just too tired and weak to make the climb.We met Lefty at the Ranger station at 8am, filled out the forms for the ATC and were ready to start our final hike, the assent of Mt Katahdin at 9am. Katahdin means "greatest mountain" and it is the single biggest climb on the AT. There is more than 4000 foot in elevation change in less than 5 miles to reach the 5,267 summit. The weather was partly cloudy but appeared to be clearing. We started out slowly and I had to take several breaks early on to get myself hydrated and eat some candy bars. Slowly my light headiness and dizziness subsided and I felt stronger. The first mile and a half was pretty mild with a gradual uphill and I began to feel more confident and was able to pick up the pace. Then it got a little steeper and there was about a mile of some minor rocks and boulders. The last two and a half miles were above tree line and were unbelievable. I still can't believe that I was able to do it. It was a serious boulder scramble, a vertical nightmare! Some of the boulders were as big as houses and there was a lot of hand over hand climbing. Poles were useless, in fact, were in the way and Lefty carried mine most of the way up. Many of the places, Lefty and Buoy had to pull or push to get me up and over. It really is a disadvantage to have short legs. It was actually very scarry and I'm not really afraid of heights. You were just holding on by your fingernails on some boulders with a shear drop behind you. The mountain was very deceiving. You'd be climbing and think you were coming to the top then there would be another rock pile above you. You'd think after over 2100 miles of hiking we'd be conditioned for this and it would be a piece of cake; but it was the hardest climb I've ever done. When I kept seeing yet another layer of mountain ahead of me, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it to the top. Then I got a second wind or adrenaline kicked in and I knew I could do it. I hadn't hiked all this distance NOT to reach that infamous sign. The last mile and a half was across the ridge of the mountain which was still a boulder scramble (more the size of cars than houses) but on a narrower plane so now you have winds howling around you and actually blowing you off balance. And, this was on a GOOD day! Finally after 5 miles of climbing we made it to the top at 2pm. It was a bittersweet moment. There were tears of joy and excitement and a sence of accomplishment. The views were incredible and Lefty got lots of great photos. We were lucky to have a group of Canadian hikers on the summit with us and they took photos of the three of us together. It was too cold to stay on the summit very long and I was already getting nervous about the trek DOWN. It seems to take me longer to go down than to go up and it was already 2:30pm. I did a lot of sitting and sliding down on my butt when it was too steep or looked too threatening to handle in an upright position. In some spots it seemed easier to go down; but overall, it's a lot scarrier when you're looking down hill and can see how far it is to fall if you misstep. Needless to say, we all made it down in one piece. We were back at the ranger station by 7pm.