Date: 2013-08-08
From: Millinocket, ME

To: HOME
Miles today: 0.0

2185.9 Miles Millinocket, MEWhile we were staying with Mike and Terri Stasiowski they took us to Wal-Mart to re-supply. We soon realized that we had way to much food to fit into our packs. We had bought enough to get us from Caratunk to the other side of the 100 mile wilderness. About 10 days worth. Teri said that we could just take enough to get us from Caratunk to Munson, about 3 days worth, and she would meet us in Munson with the rest. This saved us a lot of trouble. Once again, I can't say enough great things about the Trail Angels like Mike and Terri that I have met along the trail. They went way out of their way to help me.After they dropped us off at the trail head beside the Kennebec River, Mot and I headed for Monson. There were only a couple of big climbs on the way, Pleasant Pond Mountain and Moxie Bald Mountain. We made the approximately 35 miles easily and hitched into Monson early on the third day. We walked to Shaw's, a hostel in town, and I called Teri and her and Mike showed up in an hour or so with the rest of our food. We re-loaded and they drove us out to the trailhead and dropped us off to start through the 100 Mile Wilderness. The terrain wasn't to bad and we made some good mile days. We decided to pull up and do a 10 mile day just before we had to climb the last 4 larger peaks before Katahdin, Gulf Hagas Mountain, West Peak, Hay Mountain, and the 3650' White Cap Mountain. All 4 came back to back in about a 5 mile stretch of trail.After that the trail is pretty much flat as a pancake, (food, we always think about it) with a couple of little bumps, until Katahdin. When we got within 100 miles of the end, we really began to get excited. Every day, as we hiked, we talked about things that happened to us on the trail and other people we had met. Once we hit the flat trail we started knocking off some 20+ mile days. It wasn't all easy walking. A lot of the trail followed streams and rivers and we were constantly on roots or rocks or both. The twisting and turning and constant attention to where you were stepping wore us down quite a bit, but it never slowed us down. We heard someone say they call it "Katahdin Fever". We had it bad.At the last shelter before we went into Baxter State Park, Mot built a nice fire and we finally relaxed. We new we were very close to the end. We must have either been too relaxed or worn out, because the next morning we slept in until 6 AM. Usually we are hiking by then. So we didn't get started until about 7 AM. It didn't matter, we did the 13.5 miles to Katahdin Stream Campground easily. We were there by 2 PM. Then it was up to the Ranger Station and register as thru hikers. Mot was #98 and I was # 99. The campground has a special camping area for hikers that have hike 100 continuous miles or more. It's call The Birch's. There are 2 shelters and some tenting sites.Next, my main concern was trying to get in touch with Gloria. I had planned for her to climb Katahdin with me but the weather was setting in and we only had a small window of opportunity to climb the mountain. The forecast called for rain, or a chance of rain, the next 3 days. Rain meant wet rock and poor footing and very bad visibility up that high (5268'). So the Ranger at the office told us that we might get cell phone reception a mile or so up the trail. So Mot and I hiked about a mile and a half up the trail and got a couple of bars and some spotty service. After losing Gloria a few times, she convinced me that we should take advantage of the weather and go for it the next day. After hearing that I was really pumped up and ready to go.   That evening we ate almost everything we had left in our food bags and left enough for breakfast the next morning. I had trouble sleeping that night, knowing that tomorrow my journey would be over. I was very excited and was wide awake from 1 AM to 3:30 AM, thinking. But at 4:30 Mot and I were up and going through our regular routine of packing and eating. The Park provides smaller day packs for thru hikers that are climbing Katahdin. Because of all the hand over hand climbing they are less bulkier than our full packs. Mot and I relished the fact that it felt like nothing at all on our backs. When you're used to carry 40 pounds, 3 or 4 pounds feels like nothing.So we dropped our bigger packs off at the ranger station and about 5:30 started our final 5.2 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Once we got into the bigger rocks, it felt like the mountain was pulling me up. The rocks were dry as a bone and my shoes stuck to the granite like glue. A couple of times Mot had to remind me, as Gloria would have, we're not in a race, and I would slow down a little. We stopped and talked to, and thanked 2 trail maintenance crews on the way up. On the way up, we met Foxtrot and some other hikers coming down. They left in the dark so they could catch the sunrise from the summit. The trail gains a lot of altitude in the first 3.5 miles with a lot of rock scrambling and hand over hand. Then it levels off on what is call The Gateway or The Tableland, then makes it's final climb up to Baxter Peak and the sign marking the Northern Terminus of the AT. About 1/4 mile away, I saw the sign for the first time and the emotions started. When we reached the end, Mot and I shook hands and hugged each other. Since Mot left Springer before me, I let him kiss the sign first and get his pictures taken. Then it was my turn to climb onto the sign and celebrate. Delia, a section hiker that we had hiked and camped with on and off throughout New England, was there and she gladly took our pictures. Mot and I had each carried a small chunk of rock from Springer Mountain, Georgia and we left them at the base of the sign.One interesting fact was that down in Georgia, I said goodbye to Gloria and my daughter Angela in the Springer Mountain parking area and started walking. It was 10 AM exactly. When I reached the sign on Katahdin, it was 10 AM exactly. I finished 160 days exactly to the minute.While we were celebrating and taking pictures, we hadn't noticed the throngs of other day hikers that were coming up. So we decided to head back down, it was over. On the way down we must have passed 30 or 40 other hikers coming up. Some only 2 or 3 together, others were in groups of 12 or more. So we had to step aside and let the up hill hikers have the right of way many times. More that often they were so winded they would tell us to come on just so they could get a rest. It took us 4 1/2 hours to get up the mountain in the morning but we made it down in 2 hours and 45 minutes. We were floating. When we got back to the campground we had to figure out how we were going to get to Millinocket, about 20 miles away. We found out that the road out of the campground was the road into town. It was time to put the golden thumb to work one last time. The second vehicle that came by picked us up. Jim was the driver and he already had some hikers up front with him so we climbed in the bed. a quarter mile up the road we picked up Delia and headed into Millinocket to celebrate. That night 6 of us went out for dinner and had a great time. We were all staying at the Appalachian Trail Lodge which is hostel in town. I even got a chance to see Willis again. The section hiker I met down south earlier in my hike. I had a great evening talking to everyone and I was up until almost midnight before going to bed. The next morning, as usual, Mot and I were up at 5AM. We went for breakfast and Delia came in and joined us. Mot, Willis, and another hiker had arranged for a shuttle to take them to Bangor airport to fly home. So about 8:30 I said goodbye to my hiking partner for almost 1800 miles. I'm sure we will stay in touch.I'm probably only going to make one more entry before closing my journal. It will be a very difficult one to write and I want to give it a lot of thought.Until then I'm going to try to upload more pictures that everyone may not have seen. So some may be duplicates of ones I already posted. I also have some video and I'll try to upload that whenever I find out how.Happy TrailsPunkin PieSomewhere on the Appalachian Trail