Date: 2018-09-30
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up at 5:30, it was freezing out. Bean and Mozy got up as well. I packed up my stuff and headed over to lean-to #7 to meet the Snooze Crew. We all ate breakfast and headed out around 7:15 am. Jim was going to meet us at Abol campground after we got down from the mountain. He was slacking our gear since we were not going to be camping on the mountain tonight.  The initial climb was pretty flat but it slowly got more and more steep. We were flying though. Since it was Sunday there were a lot of day hikers on the trail. We would pass several of them going up. We made it 2.2 miles up the mountain in an hour then took a drink break. We started pushing again. The rocks got larger and larger. When we finally got above treeline there were massive boulders that we had to climb. Mozy was sick and had vertigo. He was so close to the top but decided to turn back since he felt so sick. It must be really hard to make that decision. We offered to hike with him but he wanted to go back down. The boulder part of the climb was like Mahoosuc notch except it was a 25 percent grade up. There were a few sections with metal posts that helped us climb up. I scraped my knees a few times and they started bleeding. I just let them go and kept pushing up. Every 25 feet was a new puzzle to figure out how to climb. I still felt like I could keep going with all the hiking experience behind me. We came to a false summit then looked up at the ridgeline with more boulders.  It was another half mile then we came to the table lands. It was a large flat section that lead to the summit. We came to Thoreau spring. It bubbled up from a boulder and was unusual to see a spring on top of a mountain. A sign said we were only one mile from the summit! We could see tiny figures on the ridgeline where the Katahdin summit sign must have been. We were all stoked and pushed to the top. About 150 feet from the sign we could see a large group of people taking pictures next to the sign. We got closer to the sign and couldn't believe it. Reggie started shedding a few tears. I couldn't believe I was finally here after 6 months of being on the trail. Charms, Sticks, Reggie, and I all touched the sign at the same time. It was finally over! It felt strange to finally be at the end, but I don't think it has hit me yet. We all got our summit pictures with the sign. I even got to do the Mouse King pose with Mouse King. There were several other thru hikers at the top as well. Mouse King, Baby Bird, Frolic, Toast, Blaze, Freak, Stretch, and many others were up there. I sat on the other side of the ridge where you could see knife's edge. It looked really gnarly with parts of the trail that fell 400 feet down if you walked off. In the valley below was huge expanse of trees that were turning all sorts of yellows, oranges, and reds. The mountain below was exploding with color. I sat and just marveled at the landscape. I couldn't believe I hiked over 2000 miles but it was worth it. I had met amazing people on the trail who I shared this adventure with. Through blood, sweat, tears, rain, boulders, steep climbs, and all the other things the trail threw at as. It was through these challenges that we all became closer and relied on each other. It couldn't have done with without my trail buddies. My tramilies. My friends and family. My partner in life Theresa.  I would like to thank Scissors, Kamikaze, Theo, Booger Bear, Giggles, Rebel Yell, Too Crows, Scatter, Rosie, Lupine, Maga, Scooter, Stealth, Stretch, Speneli, Wizard, Lit, Charms, Reggie Rocket, Sticks, Pumpkin Spice, Poncho, Bandito, Chill, Silver Bullet, Sunnyside, Blaze, Mouse King, Cosmic, Too Sweet, Butters, Baby Bird, Frolic, Miss Janet, Ron Howard, poptarts, poop talk, singing in the rain to CCR, toads, circus mice, soft pine needles, beer, summit beer, honey hoops, Is this Katahdin?, town clothes, toads, newts, hot snakes, poop talk, trail drama, being in the moment, eating garbage, bagels, sour patch kids, running down the mountain for Taco Bell, river showers, deli blazing, the creamery, ice cream, hitches, townies, sweet smelling day hikers, trail magic, hugs, the legend of the AT, Myron Avery's yetis, the legend of Zelda, careless whisper, here I go again, trash pandas, friendly post office workers, pizza, ear plugs, sleeping in, never being the first out of the shelter, swimming holes, ponds, free canoes, life jackets, hiker seals, being a kid again, laughing to tears, side winks, smooth trails, blueberry pancakes, blueberry lady, trail zoos, talking about food that wasn't in your pack, ayce pancakes, package drops with delicious food, comfy hotel beds, sunsets, seldom sunrises, cloud oceans, cloud waterfalls, hut croos, business bros, ultralight bros, gold bond, bathroom shelters, safety meetings, Chacos, and my life support Theresa.