Bird, 10.4 miles hiked, 2178.2 miles from Springer
Up for breakfast at the Appalachian Trail Cafe and then on to Baxter State Park. It looked like a decent day until we drove towards the mountain. There were a lot of clouds and it was pretty cool, but some blue skies filtered into the mix as well. No matter the weather, up we went….. Limbo, my Dad (Dave), and I.
About two and a half miles of the beginning of the hike is below treeline, and then you get above the trees and do a mile or so of intense rock scrambling. When we reached the top of the treeline, we left the warmer air behind us. The wind was pretty lively, too.
About half way up the mountain, my Dad decided it would be best to turn around rather than be tortured by his fear of heights. The climb was a lot more serious than he (or us) expected so he headed back down. After we said our goodbyes we had an intense session of bouldering straight up the mountain and then about 1 mile from the summit we reached the tablelands which was much easier walking.
The excitement was very much there as we neared the infamous sign at the top of Mount Katahdin. With hoots of joy we posed for our pictures and cracked a beer open to celebrate. There was no view from the top, but the sign looked glorious and it was enough for us! We didn’t stay for long because it was so very cold and we were under dressed.
So….. we’re thru-hikers now! Pretty Awesome!
On the way down the mountain we met up with my Dad and on the way to car we saw some of our thru-hiker friends. Lisa, Wolfpack, Simpleman, Ice, and Desert Fox. It was a nice way to wrap it all up.
We drove back to the cabins and went out for another wonderful pizza dinner. I will definitely miss things about this great adventure, but for now I’m happy to be going home. I do thank you for being a part of my journey….. you each had a big part to play in our motivation.
BIRD ——— 2009 A.T. THRU-HIKER
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