Date: 2016-07-14
From: The Birches, Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Baxter Peak, Katahdin, (Millinocket)
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: overcast clouds

We broke camp around 6 this morning to give ourselves some extra time. There wasn't much sleep for me last night. It's all just coming to the end. There's too much to think about, too many emotions. But really it sort of felt like another day on the trail, another crazy climb ahead of us. Wonka had headed out long ago, preparing to finish the trail like she spent most of it, alone. Still no sign of Bananas. But Lightning, Steve, Seal Tree, Goldie and I headed out all together back to the campground with everything still on our back, excited for our last day of hiking. The trail is better worn than just about anywhere in Maine, but it's no joke: Katahdin proved itself to be the scrambliest, toughest climb on the entire trail. The gravel path of the campground turned into the woods, and began to climb through classic Maine evergreens and rock spurs. We passed a father and son around Katahdin Stream Falls, but other than that, we were essentially alone. We were moving incredibly quickly, fueled by adrenaline. The day was overcast and the summit of the mountain was completely clouded over. We hoped it would burn off as the day wore on. The whole trail felt sort of like a ditch dug into the side of the mountain; we were surrounded by rocks and trees on both sides. Slowly we began to climb more consistently up boulders and roots, the pitches of climbing became steeper and steeper as the trees began to thin. Soon we were hauling ourselves up ledges. The few views we had, of the Owl, a neighboring mountain, were foggy and misty. The Hunt Trail truly gets crazy. Multiple sections felt pretty death-defying as we clambered our way up and over big faces and out on skinny ledges. Iron bars helped in a few places, but they were less like ladders and more like pegs that occasionally were useful. Lightning's mother and brother had been planning on climbing up Katahdin right behind us (although lightning elected to climb with us rather than them), and he worried they wouldn't make it up. The white blazes would just kind of appear and we'd go "Huh? We have to get There?" I was leading the group, being the guinea pig for different routes up the scrambles. We were making good time, though. By 8, we hit the Hunt Spur, a small flat section of trail between two areas of pretty technical climbing. We finally entered the fog, and visibility became pretty much zero. No views off the Hunt Spur for us today. I pulled ahead of the group, powering up the climb, which was steeper than the earlier climbing but had fewer technical jumps. I sat down as I reached the Gateway, where the tough climbing ends as you enter the Tablelands, the flat plateau on top of Katahdin. I took a drink and waited for Seal Tree and Steve to catch up. We cruised over the flat land between us and Thoreau Spring, where I filtered a little water. The wind was blowing and it was spitting and misty out, but we weren't stopping for anything long. It was decently warm out, too. From the spring to the top of the mountain was the last mile of the entire trail. Holy shit. After four months of waiting and working, there was only one mile between me and the end, between me and being a 2000-miler, a thru-hiker. For the last four months, the entirety of my life had been measured out in miles. I know I can make three miles an hour on level ground, that I can walk 20 miles a day for weeks, that the last mile of the day is always the toughest, but it'll be done in 20 minutes as long as I keep moving. And this was it. The last mile. The trail was roped in to preserve the alpine zone, similar to Mt. Mansfield in Vermont, where I've hiked many times. It sloped gently up towards the summit, getting slightly steeper the whole time. We were basically jogging. I was in the lead.Then it came into view. The sign I'd been waiting to see in person for two years: KATAHDIN. The culmination of everything I'd worked for and been for the last four months. The balds of Tennessee, the hot days in Virginia, the rocky ridges of Pennsylvania, the slogging mud in New England, the sweaty climbs of New Hampshire, all of it had led me up to this moment. I walked over to the sign and laid down on it, face first. There was some mild applause from the other folks who were up there, a group from a girl's camp nearby. The order of the moment was, of course, pictures. We wouldn't get a view off the top today. Apparently you have to be quite lucky to at this time of year. But I liked the rough gray backdrop, all the more rugged. Seal Tree got up on the sign first, then me, then Steve, who took out a hawaiian shirt and a snapple he had been saving for this moment. It felt so good to stand on top of the world there. This was it. Goldie came up a few minutes later, and we cheered her as she approached and gave the sign a big kiss. We all sat around on the summit. It was 9 oclock, we were making great time. The ranger had given us some very overblown estimates. I spose that's his job, but still. Not good estimates for us as hikers. There was a large raven hopping around the sign, which was strangely morbid. I called my mom and tried to call ali. A message got through to her. It's funny saying "It's over." There's no denying it's a special summit, though. The next few minutes were filled with discussion. We all had planned on doing the Knife's Edge, but Lightning was having second thoughts, in that he wanted to wait for his mother and brother to arrive and summit with him. We told him that he needed to make this decision himself. Eventually, he decided that he would just descend back down the hunt trail until he found his brother. Then, he would climb back up to the top, then find his mother, and they would drive home to St. Louis. This was Lightning's goodbye, then, to all of us. Lightning is a defining character of my thru hike: I spent longer with him probably than any other single hiker. We are compatible in speed and temperament, and I've had just an amazing time hiking and joking and tripping with him. We started the same day, and met on the second day of both of our trips, and here we were together atop Katahdin. I remember pointing out we had matching packs on day 2, to sitting together on the tinker cliffs in Virginia to finally meeting up in Stratton. Wow. I can't even imagine what it's like for Seal Tree, who's been with him since new york, and Goldie, who have seen each other every moment of the day since Harper's Ferry. It's crazy how trail families work. Every conversation we have had revolves around meeting people, who we've seen, when was the last time we saw so and so. This trail has united us and brought us together for these fleeting moments, the memories of the people inextricable from the trail we've walked on. And then, they're gone forever, down into the mist.The other four of us paused another moment at the summit and took a few parting photos before heading off. It was 10 now, we'd spent an hour on the summit. We decided Knife's Edge was the only proper way to complete a thru-hike, so we headed off along the narrow, rocky ridge, with the wind blowing and the world falling away from us on both sides. The clouds were flying up from the southern ridge to our right. The rocks were reminiscent of the ones up the side trails to the Presidential range, large and boxy, requiring pretty big steps. I thanked the powers that be that it wasn't raining. As we descended, the skies began to clear. There were a few moments at which the clouds would part from the ridge and we could see away back to the mountain's bumps we'd already climbed over. Then, like day and night, we exited the cloud layer, and the rest of the Knife's Edge sprawled out before us. Holy Hell, what have we gotten ourselves into. The ridge curled out and away like a dragon's back, nothing but sheer rock to either side of us. We were on a narrow corridor of flat rock that swung along the ridge, curving up and over all the bumps and ravines. Suddenly, we could see away to the surrounding ponds and lakes, and down to Chimney pond, impossibly far below just on the northern side of the mountain. We kept moving. The Knife's Edge was absolutely the most spectacular part of this entire hike, and unlike anything I've ever done. I'm so happy to have added it on to the end of this trek. The trail went over narrow ledges skirting summits, and up two-foot wide slabs of rock, the only way to move forward between the cliffs. Katahdin is perhaps the most spectacular mountain I've ever been on, with huge sloping faces of granite just sliding down thousands of feet. I'm so glad the trail ends here. The clouds slowly cleared away from the summit of the mountain. We were not too envious, we would've had to wait another hour to get views from the top, and we would've been too cold. Plus, we were getting the views now from the Knife Edge. Baxter really is something special. There was one bad scramble coming down from Chimney peak to a col between Chimney peak and Pamola, the final hump on the Knife Edge. It involves a short sheer drop, but we all made it down fine. Seal Tree Steve and I hung out in the col and ate some food, waiting up for Goldie, who is a little more careful on the crazy rocks. We watched a number of people struggle with the scramble going uphill and tried to yell advice. It was truly lovely down here in the col, out of the wind, enjoying the sun and the tremendous views. This was the first moment I looked back and thought about how I really did it, how we weren't just climbing down to some road crossing to resupply, that we were heading down to leave the trail, to go home. Goldie was held up by the people going up and she came down the drop. But she is literally a climbing instructor at home, so she had no trouble (although when we told her to throw her poles down, she basically threw one off the mountain, and I went to fetch it for her downhill). We sat for a while longer than headed up to Pamola, named for a native deity thought to live up here. The Knife edge was behind us, all the craziest parts of Katahdin and the trail now done. Now it was a long descent off the top of the mountain. We took the Helon Taylor trail down. It is amazing just how much vertical climb there is up Katahdin. This descent took for ever, even longer than off of Madison or anywhere like that. It also began to kill on my knees, and also my palms, which I consistently used to push off of boulders as I descended. I had heard some people climb Katahdin with gloves on. I hadn't stopped to realize that this is for the descent, not the climb. The views away into the wilderness were astonishing. Eventually, we came back under treeline. There were some difficult scrambles, but none that would've been as hard as going back down the hunt trail. I paced with Seal Tree through the woods, stopping for a bit by a lovely brook, where I filled up some water, which we'd been without since Thoreau Spring. Once again I had the feeling of the trail taking longer than I thought it would, but this time, I felt like I truly didn't want it to end. I wanted to stay in these woods, to spend more days with these people. But I also was excited to get out. We hit the Chimney Pond trail and headed along the flat ground and into a parking lot. For a while Seal Tree and I just sat and waited in the sun, talking, snacking. We were headed into Millinocket, and we'd been told that it would not be hard to find rides there. Steve and Goldie showed up pretty soon. The parking lot was pretty empty, not really anyone milling about, so we sat for quite a while. We thought we might catch a ride with some big groups of what looked like students, but they were just moving to another part of the park. Goldie, though, on the way back from the privy, struck up a conversation with two women who were headed back into millinocket, and agreed to take all four of us! We would crowd in the backseat of the car, but we really didn't care. They also had some extra granola bars and baked goods that they sort of threw on us; we couldn't have been happier. It was about an hour's drive into millinocket, and they took us all the way, congratulating us on finishing. They dropped us off right in front of the Appalachian Trail Caf©. First things first: food. This was one of my absolute favorite food stops on the whole trail. Everyone ended up getting fried ice cream, which actually came out before our meals. I got a generous and super tasty burger. Some nasty kids were rude to our server, so I made sure to give her a big tip. She was very sweet and told us to make sure to sign the ceiling tile that was in the corner, a tradition for AT hikers. The whole ceiling was covered in signatures from past hikers. Next, we walked over to the appalachian trail lodge, an AT hostel in Millinocket. On the way, we met up with Seal Tree's mother and cousins, who had come to meet him and take him back home! I can very much see where Seal Tree comes from from his mother, who was very sweet. They had all been planning on staying at the AT lodge, and when we got there, the owner OleMan (downright rudely) informed us that they were full up for the night.In a very generous move, Seal Tree's mother and cousins decided to forego their spots in the hostel and go find a hotel, and would not hear of having us reimburse them. I'm guessing that their decision was made easier by the fact that the hostel was not exactly what they were looking for in terms of stay. So they all went off to find a room and we moved our stuff up to the top floor of the hostel, which is pretty minimal but in a big house. I took a short nap and then a shower. The Ballmans had brought up a huge spread from the deli where Seal Tree works at home, and invited us all to have sandwiches down outside the hostel. We thanked them all very much as we devoured the cold cuts and Italian-style condiments. We ended up walking over to an ice cream truck on the green and hanging out before saying goodnight to the Ballmans. Tomorrow, I will grab a ride with Steve from a section hiker named Forecast to Bangor, where we then will catch a bus to Portland. Steve will hang out in Portland for a couple days, but I will meet up with my parents, who are visiting our friends the Stetsons who live very nearby on a beautiful lake.I'm a thru-hiker. I did it.