Date: 2006-10-11
From: the birches

To: BAXTER PEAK, KATAHDIN!!!!
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: overcast clouds

today is the big day! there is so much excitement in the air and so many thru hikers on the trail. prana, iroc, tomato gravy, trailboss, little spoon, shortwave, walker, el diablo, fred, pro from dover, b-cat, riceburner and me.the weatehr seems great, in the 50s and 60s. (and the forecast for tomorrow is 100% rain). i feel sad that tu-tone and two-step aren't with me today. i always imagined that we would all summit together. but i am happy to be here with prana and iroc and tomato and trailboss. the hike up katahdin is awesome. i love the boulders and put away my poles so i can really get into it. the wind starts picking up and then the fog starts to roll in right when i hit the part of the mountain that is really rocky. soon i am being pushed over by the wind and i can't see anything because of the fog and mist. i have to keep climbing into crevasses to put on more layers and try to dry my glasses but eventually everything is so soaking wet that there is nothing i can do. the cold and wind is biting right through me. i am so occupied with just hiking through this that i don't even get to think about how i am really here, how i really just walked through fourteen states and am about to complete this incredible journey. i hear some excited screaming in the distance so i think i must be close to the top but for real i can't see a thing. soon i am surrounded by arms and congratulations but i am still in a daze. i see the vague outline of the sign and go up to it and think here i am but everything is fuzzy because i am so cold. then there is the obligatory picture taking and cigarette smoking and lots of hugging. we are all frozen and soaked and want to hike down but we also want to wait for trail boss. we decide to hike down with the idea that we will hike back up when trail boss gets there. we just need to move to stay warm. as we start to head down we see a figure with big yellow gloves - it's breeze! he hiked all the way from abol bridge this morning and we are so happy to see him. trail boss is there too, so we go back up to take more photos.going back down katahdin was pretty rough. the fog and mist was so thick that i couldn't see anything through my glasses and everything was so wet that i couldn't wipe them off. so i took them off completely even though i am extremely near-sighted. at least without my glasses i could see shapes and colors and could make out where the trail was. it was scary but felt exciting too. finally the mist cleared up about halfway down and i could put my glasses back on.when we made it down and back to the ranger station, buddy from shaw's was there waiting to congratulate us! he gave us a ride to millinocket where we all checked into a hotel and sat around in a daze. every hour or so somebody would say out loud, "we did it! we really did it!" and we would all nod and say wow and sink back into our thoughts.it's two weeks later that i am writing this and it still hasn't really sunk in that i'm done. and now my time is up at this computer, so i will have to add more later, in addition to adding some photos.