Date: 2012-07-23
From: Katahdin Stream Camp

To: Mt Katahdin
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

23 July, 10 miles to Katahdin Summit and back to Baxter State Park.7/23/12 "WE ARE DONE!!! We when we got to the top of Katahdin there was only one man(who took all of our pictures of us), so after a few minutes he left, and we had 'Dad and I are done time'. We carried up  sparkling cider and drank it at the top!! We took 100 pictures(incredibly, the man (Friday) that was there did not hate us after taking so manny pics on different cameras and poses).  It is amazing that we are done already!!!! We have had fun on this hike. The climb up Katahdin was hard, but fun.  We were rock hopping/scrambling most of the 5 miles up.  It is a sad deal that the journey has to end. Although Oregon is calling us home.  We are in the in the car on the way home. We will be in the car eating, sleeping, playing games and watching movies for 6 days! We will stop in Wisconsin to visit our family(have not seen in manny years)!!!!!  We will be enjoying the rest of the summer by spending time with friends and family. We will do some PCT trail magic in Oregon once we get home. We can't wait to go home!!"            ~Sunshine:-D  We are FINISHED!  Sunshine has now thru-hiked two of the three major long distance trails in America at the age of 12.  She has now walked over 4,800 miles in the past 15 months.  I am so proud if her!  We both got a good night's sleep.  We had "the night before Christmas jitters" for a short time, but soon exhaustion over took us and we were fast asleep.  We rose at 4:00 am, ate a good breakfast (we usually wait to eat it 2 hours into the trail), packed up, and quietly slipped out of camp while the others continued to sleep. The first mile was a wonderful forested path shrouded in tall pines as we walked along side the crystal clear Katahdin Stream rushing down the mountain.  Soon we were we climbing with all fours up large boulders so we packed our trekking poles. Now, we have experienced many disappointing false summits in our days, so we never get our hopes up too high when it looks as though we are looking at the top of a mountain. This time there was even a sign, that from a distance resembled the summit sign we've now seen in hundreds of AT completion pictures.  Could it be? No!  Not only is there a very convincing false summit, but there is even a similarly constructed sign on it (but smaller).  Upon closer examination it reads "please don't walk on vegetation".  Good one! You got us Katahdin!  After we recovered from the heart break, we mustered up the strength to continue for 1.5 more miles.  Even then, there was so much glee and excitement in the air.  We sang songs, joked, and quoted Monty Python lines all morning.  At last, we arrived to the end of our 113 day journey!  Sunshine let out such a loud squeal of excitement that I spun around in alarm thinking she had been injured.  We took many pictures, serious and silly.  We even had the summit to ourselves for a while before descending. On our way down, we congratulated the other Thrus as they excitedly climbed their way to their finish, including our friend Biscuits.  We unknowingly passed him a few days earlier, and he had been trying to catch up.  Once we reached the camp ground, we were congratulated by Mother Teresa and Butterfly, then jumped in the car and are now driving cross country as a family.  My parents and siblings live in Wisconsin and our diligence has earned us a day to visit with them on our way home.    We had another great journey!  I feel so blessed and rich to share these times with my daughter. I pray that my involvement in her childhood will have a significant positive impact on a successful adult life for her someday.  She is 12 now and soon will be a teenager.  She still loves to hold my hand when walking side by side and kisses me on the cheek and says "goodnight Dad I love you" just before bed.  I hope she never grows out of that.   We both feel privileged to have traveled the entire length of the legendary Appalachian Trail as it passes through 14 states.  It holds so much history and tradition that you can't help but respect it.  It was so educational for both of us to travel through our nations oldest and most eastern states.  The people, wildlife, trees, flowers, weather, and geology is so vastly different from our small corner of the country.  It really changed our prospective, and even renewed our appreciation for the Pacific Northwest.  We really can't compare the two trails, as they are so different in every aspect.  They both have their own challenges and rewards. Any stereo type we had of the AT before has been shattered and there is no way to generalize the trail as a whole because it changes both subtly and dramatically through out it's length. If you are considering which trail to hike, do your research, but be cautious not to be affected by others bias or fears.  Choose your trail, make a loose plan, and enjoy YOUR hike.     We will be updating over our drive home and will announce our 2013 plan soon.  Thank you readers so much for your support, kind words, and encouragement along our way. Thank you Trail Angles, friends, family members, and random strangers for all the kindness, love, food, lodging, rides, and help along the way.  There was never a time that circumstances did not work out for our very best.  Our timing was perfect!  We missed most of the bugs, cold weather, hot weather, and most of the crazy people (there were instances of crime from vagrants wondering onto the trail) you may have read about in the papers.  There are no coincidences or lucky breaks on our journeys.  There is a clear plan from an unseen hand guiding us along, and we are excited to see where it leads us next.      PS- I have a funny story to post tomorrow. I ran out of time at IHOP to write it today. Also look in our photo album for extra pictures.