Date: 2004-10-08
From: Baxter State Park

To: Katahdin
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

October 8, 2004Katahdin Ascent Day6:15 a.m. and the coffee is on. Last trickle of denatured alcohol ignites in cat-food can stove and I crawl back inside the double bag to give Yazzy some lovin. She gets hers, but me, I¢m hopeless. Still-strained back muscle bad enough that sitting up is tough, so no sex. Coffee made and now already mostly cold in the short space of time spent writing these words.¢Do you feel like it¢s Christmas?¢ Yaz asks. I should. Today¢s THE DAY after all. Frank comes by and gives the forecast. The weather, a heretofore totally ignored factor in daily existence, ignored by me, now essential info, especially today. Today it is vital that the weather be good. And it is. Mostly sunny, 71 degrees F and winds no more than 10 mph. Some two dozen thruhikers will ascend today, a moving, clambering zoo. Time to go.Moments later..In a fit of excitement-driven weirdness, I slip into my Jerky Boys ¢Sal¢ voice and shortly have Frank and Yazzy screaming with laughter as the crank phone caller Sal asks to have a box welded for him to get inside and masturbate. I think I AM excited after all.1:53 p.m.There goes Frank. Bespectacled, bald, skinny, the smile of the happiest of children when you hit him just right. Frank at 52-years old out of the Navy now skipping down the western slope of Katahdin, a ¢made man,¢ a true blue Thruhiker with a capital T, on his way down from the summit and singing ¢Truckin like a doo-dah man¢ as he goes. And that¢s it. We¢re done. We have walked the Appalachian Trail. And me, now sore of feet but feeling fine, back problems of the past few days now seemingly gone and so up the final 5.3 miles to the summit without incident and to the top. I kiss the final white blaze painted as it is, on the rock above which stands the sign, the famous sign announcing a Nobo Thruhiker¢s Grand Finale. And it¢s a zoo up at the top all right! Wow, whatta crowd! Gordy, Ski Bum, Rooster & A-Squared, Spin Cycle, Coyote, Sunshine, Big Stick, Arms & Snax, Chef, A-Dog, Munchkin, Seraphin, Two Dogs Fucking, Yazzy, Frank, me and, and, and.. with each new round of arrivals the cheers go up and resound around the rocky place and everyone is smiling and embracing and posing repeatedly with the sign, and Sunshine, shy Sunshine from my early days in Georgia, she most of all. And then the group shot, ¢The Class of 04¢ and we are a motley crew and I¢m glad, I¢m among them. And though hundreds have summated in recent days and weeks, it¢s odd, but it really feels like we are IT, the iconic snapshot representation of just that shade of character which was, which IS, the AT Class of 04. For now I move on. Tonight we party in Millinocket, some small Maine hamlet that must veritably shake in its boots when thruhiker season peaks. God Bless you, Thoreau. I tried to drink from your namesake spring, but I could not find the source and your stagnant water did not look so hot. Near the bottom of the mountain, I encounter two fortyish women hiking up. It¢s 3 pm, so they can¢t hope to make the peak today.. or can they? When I ask how they are, one replies ¢Not bad, a bit stink, though,¢ and pulls at her synthetic sports shirt for emphasis. ¢Stinky?¢ I ask. ¢Oh, you have NO idea how stinky one can get. Try six months in the same pair of shorts and shirt. You can wash them every week and still they stink.¢ The more fit-looking of the two with apparent hiking experience replies, ¢Fabreeze.¢ Right. Okay, lady. ¢Thank you,¢ I reply, ¢but I¢m done hiking now and do believe I will simply set fire to these clothes instead.¢-RSM