Date: 2021-06-16
From: Katahdin Stream Campground 

To: Mt Katahdin
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: few clouds

10.2 miles to Mt Katahdin and back to KSCThe birds woke me up at 4am and I was out hiking at 5:10. I was excited to finally be hiking the final miles to the Katahdin summit sign. I knew that there was going to be about a mile of hands on rock scrambling on the way up. How sketchy it might be I didn¢t know. The weather was cool and windy. I got to the rock scrambling section and just took it slow and steady. I made sure that my foot and handholds were secure and I wouldn¢t slip. They have blazes on the rocks marking the suggested route which helped a lot. The sun was in my eyes on the way up so I would have to shade my eyes to look up and find the next blaze. The rock scrambling was fun and not too difficult. There was a long section where I was on a very narrow ¢knife edge¢ path which was unnerving because the wind was strong. After you get past the steep scrambling sections there¢s a gradual climb up to the summit. Eventually I could make out the famous summit sign. I got there around 8:30. I felt a feeling of accomplishment at having attained my goal of finishing the AT and a sense of relief that my adventure was finally over. No one else was around so I had to take my own selfie summit sign pictures. I stayed up there enjoying the views but it was cold and windy so I headed back down after 30 minutes. I knew that the adventure wasn¢t over until I safely down climbed the sketchy part and then take the final footsteps into the campground. Descending the sketchy part for me was 1 hour of terror. I was so worried about slipping or tripping and breaking something. I was super cautious and spent most of my time on my butt easing myself down from foothold to foothold. Just looking down from the top section towards the people coming up in the distance made me anxious. I tried not to look to far past my next move and inched myself down. I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally got below tree line and the sketchy part ended. I still had to be cautious the rest of the way down because there were many rocks and roots that I could still slip or trip on. I made it safely down to KSC around 12:30.How do I feel having accomplished the remarkable feat of hiking the entire AT? Well in the words of Forest Gump: ¢I¢m tired. I think I¢ll go home now¢.   My shuttle wasn¢t supposed to be here until 3pm so I asked a ranger if he could help me get ahold of the place that I¢m going to stay at to see if they could pick me up early. He drove me to a place where he had cell service and I had to leave a message. So he drove me back to KSC and I tried to send out an Inreach message. Well it¢s now 2:15 and no one has shown up to pick me up early so I guess that they couldn¢t get me early. The shuttle driver arrived exactly on time. The driver is the daughter of the Inn owner. She¢s a Special Education assistant that specializes in teaching life skills to those that need it. The 100 Mile Wilderness Inn is a very nice B&B type place. I had a comfortable bed and room. I went to dinner at the only restaurant within walking distance. I enjoyed a celebratory pizza and beer. For desert I walked across the street to a soft serve ice cream truck and bought a hot fudge sundae and a chocolate shake. Yummy. Happy Trails, Silver StreakNote: I¢m finishing the last 346 miles that I have left from my 2019 thru hike attempt. The mileage includes a week that I hiked from Springer to the NOC.