Date: 2007-06-30
From: The Birches Shelters

To: The Summit-Mt Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: scattered clouds

This is it. The final day. 5.2 trail miles to go. 5287 vertical feet to the summit.We've walked 2170 miles to get here. Fruitfly woke me @0215. It's very dark. And it's raining heavily.He tells me they've been talking for a few minutes and he and the Fellas agree. Rain? Pish. You only live once. They're goin for it.I'm all in.I rise, pack and snack.Just a few items for the daypack - water, snacks, champagne.Everything else gets packed in my regular pack (my Maripossa). I hope Scott & Scott are up already at their shelter on the other side of the park. Likewise for Groove (camped with his sister)In a sad momemt for me I told Guthook I'd see him up top and left the shelter. I really respect him for waiting for his family-at least to start the hike up. But I'm equally glad I didn't have to decide to wait for my friends.We dropped our real packs at the Ranger station, and woke up Groove who was already packed and ready in just a few minutes. We hit the trail @330am. A little late, but hey, who cares. It has stopped raining now, but it's very foggy/hazy and quite dark. Headlamps are a must so Groove's sister and friend had already decided to wait for daylight and meet us up top.We began the hike up in shorts as usual even for rainy weather as we will soon be sweltering from our effort during the climb up. Hiked the beginning in our rain shells, but soon Ant & I had to stop to remove them-plenty warm while we're climbing. Steep climb, but we're up for it. Everyone is moving very fast today. Ant is perhaps the strongest, fastest so he eventually will catch the pack, not so for me.Hand over hand climbing up and around boulders, slick spots, roots of trees, and steady up and up. Tough, but we've seen worse in the Whites.Eventually the sun is reflecting enough to add daylight. Headlamp is only minimally necessary. We reached the exposed top 1/3 and it instantly gets much colder, the wind is whippin at 30 - 40 mph. I quickly redon my wind/rain jacket. Nobody is in site ahead of me, though at times I hear voices and shouts of rejoicing when they hit plateaus or small peaks on the way up. White Blazes on the rocks are mostly easy to follow, but the route is definitely straight up, no switchbacks here or wrapping around the mountain.As I climb I keep wondering how much further til we meet Abol Trail where Scott & Scott should meet us. I climb and climb. My jacket was a little wet earlier before the exposed part, now the wind dries it mostly. But as I climb higher the moisture in the air quickly changes that. It seems like a light drizzle but it's blowing sideways. My hands are cold, and grippin the rough rocks is oh SO pleasant, but I don't care.Eventually I reach the table lands, a flatter part of rocks and finally I see a signpost. The Abol Trail. Scott & Scott are nowhere in sight. Visibility is very limited so I can't see much more than a few hundred feet ahead. As I hike further a little more of the mountain appears, then I hike to that point and a little more apears, and so on. It's another mile to the top from the signpost. I push on. When I finally reach a point where I can see the summit sign, I notice a couple figures moving about-it's one of The Fellas-I think. When I reach the summit sign I see everyone is here-and they errupt instantly! We've reached the summit!Instant feeling of mega excitement!We quickly rally and rush to touch the famous Mt Katahdin Summit Sign where everyone takes photos. We count to three and all touch the sign at once! What a feeling! Everyone screams!But everyone is cold and wet. Shivering and moving about quickly. There is no view whatsoever. Last time I was here a year ago with Scott, Scott & Ben we could see for miles. We had big hopes to Rally, take pics, chill, hike the Knife Edge to Pamola Peak and just hang for hours. And wait for the rest of the group-especially Guthook!We never dreamed the weather would be a factor. The wind is whipping about 40 mph, pushing us about at times by surprise. We take turns each moving beside the sign and somebody tries to snap a photo. Various people group up and somebody else grabs the camera. Everyone's hands are frozen and shaking. We all wear our hoods-even for most of the pictures. We all grab our champagne for the photos but nobody cares to open it let alone drink it. It's way too cold. Ant finds the strength and spends forever fighting with it trying to open it. Finally he pops the cork and sprays us all-especially Fruitfly who gets a close up shot of the spray!We're wet anyway so nobody cares. But we all notice how much colder we are gettin.The group picture was cool as hell with everybody chillin round the sign. But there was nobody else at the summit to take the picture. (It's still just after 530 am!) Fruitfly's hands were too cold to get his camera to cooperate so after a couple failed attempts to set up the timer he gives up. And everbody else is too cold to mess with theirs. Our hands shake taking just one picture, then pulling our hands inside our shells. Finally I agree to take the group picture. I don't blame anyone, but I was a little saddened as I later realized that there wasn't gonna be another big group picture. And As we packed up to get the hell off the summit, I realized what we all knew. We couldn't wait for Guthook either. Everyone was freeeezing.We gotta go now. Gotta get off the exposed summit. It's a mile just to Abol Trail and then still a long way down the exposed top 1/3 of the mountain. Everyone is moving quickly to hike as fast as possible to get down. I'd already decided to hike down Abol Trail to meet Scott & Scott. I really hoped they would understand after driving 6 hours (flying!) just to hike to the summit with me. But I had to get down. NOW. Just before we hit Abol Trail we met Scott Dykema. As each NOBO passed Scott he congratulated them and they mumbled thanks and kept walking fast. No time to chat now.Now I met Scott. I stopped and he gave me the big congrats hug. I was shivering, my hands shaking, my words barely intelligible he later said. I'm still in my shorts (like the others). Scott Cummings was somewhere behind him climbing up. We were roughly a mile from the summit. But I knew what I had to do. The only right thing. These were two of the three guys I hiked Katahdin with last year. One of the biggest reasons I was here today. I had to resummit with them. I wanted to find shelter behind a rock to wait for Scott Cummings. But there was no shelter. Dykema said he had to keep moving, to the summit. Too cold to stand still. I agreed. I knew I needed to put on my rain pants now but it took a moment to get psyched as I knew it would take some work, behind cold and fumbling. But I got them on. Then Scott and I headed for the summit.When we reached the Summit I was pretty cold, but glad to be moving. I hadn't noticed, but Scott had on a pretty big daypack. He told me they wanted to surprise us. Then he broke out his bagpipes! He said Scott also had his and they'd planned to reach the summit ahead of us and pipe us in standing beside the Summit Sign. Wow! How awesome would that have been?!(Imagine carrying 20 or so EXTRA lbs to the summit!!)He fumbled to assemble his pipes with his already cold hands and began trying to tune them up, faltering. After some fiddling and a few attempts he managed to start playing a bit and broke into a tune. As Scott Cummings approached he said he could hear the pipes and began hollering to us, but it was unintelligible in the wind. I used Scott's camera and snapped a few photos of him piping by the signpost and he snapped a few of me. When Cummings reached us, we each posed with him by the sign post but again we had nobody to take the group photo. Bummer. ....the best plans.....Quickly Scott disassembled his pipes and after a brief rally we began the hike off the table top to the Abol Trail down. It was about 650am. Guthook would be starting the hike up about now. I was pretty cold now. But damn glad to be moving. I was ready to fly like the start of our first descent, but I think Scott and Scott had less adrenalin running through their veins and I didn't wanna separate any of us at this point. So I hiked ahead then paused, then hiked on again when they caught up. Finally we reached Abol Trail and began the much longer slower descent. After quite a while we had descended enough that the wind was less intense and the sun was starting to warm things a little. I felt much warmer and now only wanted to fly down the mountain and rally with my fellow NOBOS.But I was pretty pumped to have summited with my friends Scott & Scott.During the long descent we slipped and stumbled over scree and other loose & slippery rocks. We passed numerous hikers going up, as the weather improved more and more. Eventually the summit might even clear, but for us it was over. The 3 of us had seen it all last year. For that I was glad.Finally we reached the base of the trail and the car. Yea hah!!!!DONE! OVER! FINI!We packed up and suddenly a carload of crazies pulled up. It was Groove in his sister's car-AND the whole NOBO gang (Minus Guthook who was probably on the summit by now!)We exchanged congrats again and told them of the bagpipes plan. They all agreed that was TOO cool an idea. Thanks for your efforts guys!It was a bitter sweet parting as they drove away to Millinocket to check for a bus option outta town for the Goodfellas & Fruitfly to get back to their car near Mt Washington. (Just the beginning of their adventure-The ride home!!)We cruised the parking lot & Guthook's family campsite, but they were already packed up before the hike up. I left him a note, but really wished I could've been there to congratulate him on the summit. I'm sure his family & friends made up for it.We headed outta the park and part of me was glad to be done.Part of me was just beginning to understand the feelings it would stir deep inside me.It's been a great journey.All the folks at the hostels tried to tell us. And they were right. It wasn't about the miles.