Date: 2009-09-19
From: Katahdin Stream Campground (The Birches)

To: Katahdin 
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Weather:Light rain in the early morning, high winds (gusts 50-55 mph), ice and snowToday's Hike:Birches Campsite to Katadhin (Baxter Peak) and back - 10.4 milesIf I had to sum up my final day on the AT in a single word I think it just might have to be "insanity". Grommet and I were both up at 4am. Actually I never really slept. I just laid in my sleeping bag all night listening to the wind howl and praying to the weather gods that today would still be a beautiful day. It wasn't until 4am that I actually sat up and packed my bag. After packing up we made our way back to the ranger station to get water and make breakfast. This morning it was oatmeal and coffee, a first for me (well the oatmeal anyway). The wind was still howling and in the midst of boiling water the sky started to spit on us. Are you freakin' kidding me? Really? Today it's gonna rain? Of all the days days it was gonna rain today? No, no, no, no, no. This would only be temporary. It had to be. We at breakfast and drank our coffee under the shelter of the ranger stations front porch. We didn't say much but we were both thinking the same thing; this sucks.After breakfast we made our way down to the trailhead and signed in at the base of the mountain. We were the first two on the trail that day. No one else was ambitious enough to start before 5:30am. At least we had motivation on our side. After registering we continued up the mountian. The first 2 - 2.5 miles were pretty easy going. The rain let up and the sky remained overcast but the high winds kept the clouds moving quickly. We were hoping they were moving away from the mountain and lending way to clear blue skies.Somewhere around mile 2.5 we reached treeline where we were presented with enormous boulders. Holy cow...we had to climb those...for like a mile...straight up......and it was windy....really, really, really windy. Good times lay ahead. We packed away our trekking poles and began our rock climbing ascent toward Baxter Peak. The wind was insane, very remenscent of my first wind storm over Max Patch. Not so strong that I couldn't move (like the wind storm over the humps) but strong enough to knock you around a little. I could totally handle this. Then came mile three on our ascent; three miles down two to go. It was around this point that ice began appearing between boulders, then as we continued to move up in the windy, bouldery terrain the ice between the boulders spread to being on the boulders. Great. Then the ice on the boulders gave way to snow and ice covered boulders. Freakin' fantastic. We took shelter behind a boulder and took a minute to add another layer of clothes. It was then that Grom and I also had a fairly serious come to jesus meeting with the current situation. Keep going up or turn around and go back? This was nothing we haven't been through before, but it wasn't ideal either. If it started to rain, sleet, or snow we would be in trouble. But this was it. This was our one shot at summitting. We had to leave town that night. It was now or not at all. The clouds were moving fast. The forecast called for the skies to clear up as the day progressed. We were going up.The last two miles were slow going as we fought against the wind and maintained careful footing up and over the icey rocks. As we neared the summit of Katadhin, the sun was fighting to shine through. We could see the clouds parting way. It was clearing up, but the winds weren't dying down. Still, something was better then nothing. Ahead of me I could see the summit sign. It was covered in snow and ice. We would be the first to summit that day. We reached the top around 10am and sat down. We had the mountain to ourselves. Grom looked at me and asked if I thought we were "badassess" for continuing our summit. I replied that I thought we were "dumbassess." We both laughed. At that moment the sun came out and the clouds behind us parted offering a clear view of the Knifes Edge and surrounding mountains. Incredible.We took only a few moments at the summit. The winds were still to high, and sitting still for to long was cold and uncomfortable. We stayed long enough to take our pictures and enjoy a sunlit view of what at the moment felt like it could be the top of the world.Our hike down the mountain was incredible. The winds were still ridiculously high but the views were amazing. The sky had completely cleared up and we had nearly 360 views the entire way down. Absolutely breathtaking.When we reached the bottom, Grommet's friend Twix (SOBO 2007) was there to pick us up. We hopped into her car along with Hobbit, Nickers, and Shark who had just completed their slackpack from abol bridge to the birches and headed into Millinocket for food and showers. We at lunch/dinner at the AT Cafe. Round one for me was a veggie Burger and french friens and round two was the Cafe's famous 14 scoop Sunday. Ok, so I didn't eat the whole sunday by myself, I shared it with Grom and Twix, but still, thats like eatting almost a 5 scoop sunday all to myself. Yummy! We also added our signatures to the 2009 ceiling tiles while we were there and had fun checking out who else had finished their through hike at the Cafe.After eatting we headed over to the AT Lodge for a quick shower. By 7pm we were on our way to Boston, MA. By midnight we were at Twix's apartment and by 12:30am I was out like a light. What a day.