Date: 2017-08-17
From: Abol Campground

To: Katahdin
Miles today: 10.4

We got up at 450 (I overslept from my 430 alarm and I was TopBunk's alarm) and got packed up in the crisp morning air. The sun had yet to rise but by the time we were packed up there was enough light to see without a headlamp and we hopped in the car and drove the 2mi down to Katahdin Stream campground, the first car in the day-use lot. And then I realized that I didn't have my phone after searching my bag and the car. Well shit. We piled back in and drove back to Abol campground and ended up finding my phone on the side of the road just before the campground. I had taken it out of my camp shorts when changing into my hiking shorts and put it on the top of the car and left it there. It had fallen off as soon as we had accelerated out of the campground and was thankfully unharmed on the side of the road. Normally I'm pretty good at keeping track of my stuff, but normally the only place it can be is in my pack. The car is throwing off my routines...Anyways, back to Katahdin Stream and we hit the trail at 610am, the second car in the lot. Though the rangers recommend taking a day pack up the mountain (and will provide one if you need), I opted to take my full pack and gear setup. I had a couple of reasons... 1) since I had no food left my bag was super light and small anyways (at least compared to what I was used to, especially through the 100mi).2) I had spent the last 2185mi optimizing my gear so that I had exactly what I needed to survive outdoors... I saw no reason to now leave some of it behind. 3) I wouldn't say I fall a lot... but I fall often enough on rock and my pack is a great shock absorber. The more I had in it, the comfier it is to land on my back! 4) I had carried this pack and my gear up every single mountain between here and Georgia, I saw no reason to not carry it up one more, dammit.So we headed up the mountain in the early dawn light. The trail started flat and dirty but soon began pretty rocky and started climbing gradually. We came to Katahdin Stream, its aqua-colored mountain water cascading down a series of pools under the wooden bridge we crossed, and then to Katahdin Stream Falls, a larger set of falls which sent water shooting out into the air over a granite cliff. From there the climb began in earnest and we headed up a couple of rocky slabs. TopBunk groaned a bit as we hit that section and, drawing on my previous experiences with this mountain, I smirked to myself a bit... this was still the easy part.The trail continued uphill amongst the trees, the walking punctuated by short scrambles which began more and more common until the trail was entirely rock hopping and pulling yourself up with trees. We both stowed a pole to allow for a free hand to grasp rocks and continued upwards, approaching the tree line over a series of progressively more challenging scrambles, some hard enough that several bypass trails had been worn into the mountain which offered a range of difficulty options in going around. As we hiked it was obvious that the wind was at least matching, but probably exceeding the 25mph gusts that the weather report had called for, and so I stopped for a moment to extract my windbreaker from my clothes bag and stow it in a more accessible location. We finally came to the tree line and emerged into a whole new world. As soon as I had mounted the rock face which jutted above the trees I was nearly knocked over by a gust of wind and had to duck down to stabilize myself. TopBunk was not far behind me and we scrambled from sheltered alcove to sheltered alcove, finding nooks in the rocks to duck into out of the wind for a moment of rest and to regroup.I stowed my second pole, in full scrambling mode now, and donned my windbreaker and then shortly after my puffy under it (which I've never used while hiking before). The wind continued to tear at us as we climbed up the rocky flank of the mountain and each movement had to be planned to take into account the inopportunely timed wind gust which would inevitably hit and force me to brace on a nearby rock. The though that this probably wasn't the safest time to summit did cross my mind, but I hoped that this wind was just affecting this face of the mountain and the top might be calmer. Plus, I walked a long way to summit this mountain... and so we continued on. I even ended up putting on my long johns, which are only ever supposed (according to my rules) to be used in camp, to help me keep a bit warmer as we climbed. And that folks is why I personally don't like to slackpack. Had I slacked today, I would've left my camp clothes behind and would've been without the puffy jacket and long johns which were keeping me warm. Never know what you're going to need!Eventually the trail wound to the other side of the ridge and provided us with a bit more protection from the wind. As we climbed the view around us was awe-inspiring, even compared the vistas I had become used to seeing along the trail. To our right hundreds of lakes dotted the landscape and eventually morphed into distant mountains and I could pick out several of the lakes I had walked by, including the one we had ridden across to get to White House landing. I could see Abol bridge that I had walked across yesterday to exit the 100mi wilderness and trace the rivers that I had walked along through Baxter to get to Katahdin Stream campground. To our left the other peaks in the area reached skywards, the huge, sheer cliffs of Owls Nest our equal for a time and four other peaks, standing watch over a huge forested highland plateau. Behind us and to the northwest an endless expanse of trees seemed to stretch to the horizon, only interrupted by a few lonely mountains. In every direction not a shread of civilization was visible amongst the sea of trees and water.The Hunt trail follows a ridge which ascends a nearly-vertical looking ridge, a daunting piece of rock-work to gaze at from the bottom. About a mile of scrambling brought us to The Gateway, a transition from the steep rocky scramble and onto the flatlands of the alpine tundra. From here we could finally see the peak in the distance and a couple spots of color marked other hikers ascending the sloping rockfield towards the summit. Here the poles came back out, as we were back to walking, and we passed Thoreau spring, joined with the Abol trail, and headed for the summit. The ocasional mountain-induced cloud passed over us but overall the winds were much lower and the weather pleasant for us. As I drew closer I could pick out human figures amassed at the summit around The Sign, which grew larger with every step. And then we were there. The Sign. The northern terminus of the Appalachian trail. The iconic summit photo. Right there. The sign was surrounded by a several other thru hikers who had just finished and a number of day hikers, many of whom offered congratulations.I tagged the sign as I walked up and took a couple pictures in various positions with the sign. Not ready to leave, TopBunk and I hunkered down on the south face of the mountain in a rocky nook that offered some shelter from the wind and had lunch and some celebratory apple juice from a can that I had carried up. From our dining location we admired the aforementioned views. I ended up lending TopBunk my sleeping bag liner to use to stay warm with while we hung out on the summit and ate, another item that I was grateful I hadn't left behind.Finally, at about 11am we had finished eating and took a final look around, admiring the jagged peaks and precipitous cliffs of knife's edge which we had elected not to do today due to the winds. All the while we had been up at the summit more and more people had been arriving, those who hiked slower or started a bit later than us finally reaching the top, and by the time we left it was quite busy and there was a bit of a line for pictures with the sign. Not quite the same as the secluded mountain tops that thru hikers often get to experience, but what can ya do? Besides night hike...The descent was pretty uneventful. The wind was still blowing on the scramble section but had calmed since our ascent and didn't cause any problems. We ended up hiking down the mountain with a new SOBO hiker (as of yet unnamed) who was just starting his hike and chatted with him for a while. Eventually we found ourselves back on the flat dirty section of the trail and I ended up a little ahead of TopBunk. The blazes already had a different feeling... I now knew, I had verified that they indeed led all the way to Gerogia. But now they were just leading me back to my car, not out into the woods in search of adventure, back to the real world.We ended up taking a quick survey for a student who had setup camp at the trailhead and was offering free fruit snacks in exchange for a couple answers and then plopped back into the car. On the way out of Baxter we saw a guy walking along the side of the road and stopped to pick him up... time to rebuild some of my hitching karma. We ended up finding two more hikers at various stages of walking out of the park and picked them up too, my car now stuffed with smelly hikers (thankfully I still couldn't smell us) and gear. We drove them out to Millinocket and chatted a bit. The older gentleman had just finished his last section of the AT, a goal that he had been working on for a number of years, and had hiked from Hanover, NH to Katahdin this year. The guy and girl had done the PCT two years ago and had burned through the AT in ~100days and were already planning on doing the CDT next yet. They commented on how they had enjoyed the PCT alot more than the AT, which they found overcrowded and more difficult than the PCT, but, in my inexpert opinion, I could see how you'd think that after pushing as many miles are they were, probably not really stopping long to enjoy the hostels along the trail, and blowing past most of the other hikers out there too quickly to make friends. HYOY, glad they finished. We dropped them in Millinocket, got ice cream, and then hit the road, driving south along the Maine turnpike towards my uncle's house. I will say, I do prefer driving to being a passenger in a car nowadays... having no control over the 2ton hunk of metal flyign down the highway at 80mph just doesn't seem like a very good idea. New perspective from the AT, perhaps. TopBunk and I arrived there at about 7pm and took advantage of the shower and delicious home cooked meal before heading to bed. Still a long way to get back home.