Date: 2010-10-10
To: Out of the Wilderness, Into Civilization
Miles today: 0.0

It has been 2 and a half weeks since I finished my journey on the AT, and I'm settling back into real life bit by bit. My apologies to anyone reading this journal for my silence since my summit. I now understand what all the hype has been about the strangeness of transitioning back to life after the trail. It is incredibly odd. I still plan to write a longer general conclusion entry at some point, but for now I'd like to at least think back and write about the last couple of days of my journey. Before I do that, I'd like to make a big shout-out to my 5th grade readers at Montgomery Elementary School in Pennsylvania. HELLO!!! They have been patiently awaiting summit photos and more journals. So sorry for keeping you waiting!So... hiking out of the 100-mile wilderness on September 22 was easy and fun. I hiked out with Captain Slick, with Little Aspen and Toothpick close behind. It seemed like we covered about 3 miles in just a short walk. When we got to Abol Bridge, it didn't look at all like I expected. I expected the promised land, with a bubbling stream underneath and green grass all around. Instead it looked like some desolate land out of a sci-fi movie. I got over that shock pretty quickly, though, when I realized that we were still SO close! A big group of us hung out for a while at the Abol Bridge campstore. I drank a Diet Coke (of course!) and at a mediocre breakfast sandwich while others pigged out and stocked up some food for a feast at Katahdin Stream Campground that night. The whole thing was a great party, regardless. Soon, Little Aspen, Toothpick, and I hiked into Baxter State Park. We giggled and danced as we passed the sign marking the park's boundary. It seemed surreal to actually be there. The hike through the park to Katahdin Stream was ridiculous easy (except for a couple tricky rock-hops across streams) and very beautiful. We went just a hundred yards or so off-trail to Big Niagara Falls, where we sat on the rocks and had lunch. Early afternoon, we came to Pack Tote Rd. and hiked across, where the AT follows the dirt drive into Katahdin Stream Campground. I started walking up the road and saw the most welcome sight ever coming down the road towards me- my Mama!!! We hugged each other fiercely as giggles demonstrated our delight. We walked, arm in arm, up the drive to her waiting car, where she had sodas, cookies, and grapes for the almost-finished thru-hikers. We hung out for a little while until Little Aspen, Toothpick, Captain Slick, and I loaded our stinky selves up in the car and headed for Millinocket. We dropped everyone else in town at the AT Lodge and then drove a little further out to our hotel- the Baxter Park Inn. Most of the evening is a blur, because I was just completely overstimulated by the emotional gravity of everything, the delight of having Mom there, phone calls to family with no cell reception in the room, figuring out lunch and snacks for the next day, figuring out what to do for dinner (we ended up pigging out on Chinese), and lots of other little things, still trying to get to bed fairly early. It was a crazy, but WONDERFUL night!!!