End of the Line

We ended up spending three nights in the town of Monson before heading out into the 100 mile wilderness.  It was raining nonstop and leaving town to wander cold and wet did not sound at all appealing.  We hadn't spent that much time off the trail in any one place and were starting to feel antsy.  The rain had tapered off to a drizzle when we got back on the trail.

 

One thing we hadn't realized is that in the 100 mile wilderness they tend not to have built bridges where the trail crosses rivers.  This means you need to ford them.  The water this time of year is a bit chilly, no big deal, but when it has been raining for days the rivers swell.  The first crossing was running like white-water when we arrived.  There were huge waterfalls upstream and it was only about 50 yards downstream to another deadly waterfall.  The idea of being swept off our feet was a bit scary.  Some other hikers arrived and after checking it out, we all decided that since the rain had stopped we should just camp there for the night and see if the water level would drop by morning.  Indeed it did and we all made it safely across.

 

 

 



 The 100 mile wilderness contains some of the nicest trail we've seen.  There are a few mountains to go over in the first 30 miles or so and then it levels out somewhat and is a lovely path through the forest.  The leaves were now in full fall color.  With your head down walking, it was through your peripheral vision that the glow of the forest would shift from yellow to orange, peach, pink and magenta as you pass under Birches, Maples and Aspens at different stages of color change.  The leaves on the trail shifted from one color to another.  With little breeze in the woods there wasn't as much homogenizing of color and the leaves from each tree tended to cover the forest floor directly below.  The light coming through the tree above would reflect off the same color leaves below and give you the feeling of being immersed in the color itself.

 

 

There are more lakes in this part of Maine than we have seen along the trail.  With this type of terrain there are also bogs.  Thank goodness for the volunteer trail maintainers who build boardwalks across what would otherwise be soggy, mucky trail.  They also do some great work building stone steps.  We always appreciate some good trail maintenance. 

 

Insect eating Pitcher plant in a bog.

 

Trail art.  A friendly bearded rock.

 

 

We moved pretty good after the initial mountains and river crossings.  We began to get anxious.  It is a difficult feeling to describe.  When you have been walking for a couple thousand miles and you get within 50 miles or so of your goal, you just want to keep going and get there.  Then when you get within 10 miles or so you start to realize that it will soon be over and it hits you that you just might miss this.  These emotions are shared by all of us hikers and the log books at the shelters are full of hikers admitting that they don't know how to feel.  We are excited, sad, nervous, elated, and scared.  Some people (very few) do what is called yo-yoing.  This is when you get to the end and turn around and hike back.  I don't know why someone would do this, but I think that it might simply be so that they don't have to deal emotionally with being done. 









 

 

We got to Abol bridge, which is the north end of the wilderness, ate some breakfast and seemed to just float up the ten miles of trail to Katahdin Stream Campground and the base of the last mountain.  Some volunteers with the M.A.T.C. (Maine Appalachian Trail Club) were doing work on the trail here in Baxter State Park and had brought food to feed thru-hikers.  Those of us who were there that night pigged out on spaghetti and meatballs, salad and cookies.  We didn't even have room for s'mores!  The thru-hikers are given a separate part of the campground.  We sat around a small fire, shared some whiskey and reminisced about good times we've had on the trail.  It was cold that night and it rained.  Waking up on the morning that we all were planning to finish, we saw a mountain blanketed in white.  We were still amped and began our ascent.  Not too far up the trail snow began to gather on the trees, then the rocks and then there was ice.  It wasn't looking good.  Some day-hikers had started just a bit before us and we were surprised when some people in winter gear met us coming down.  They said that above treeline it was pretty bad.  Indeed it was.  We got to treeline and the wind (40 mph+) and snow forced us to turn around.  If we had had our winter gear, we would have continued, but with what we were wearing it would have been risking our fingers and toes.  This decision left us feeling defeated, totally bummed and disappointed.  We had come so far only to be turned around 2 miles short of our goal.  We walked back down the trail and hitched into Millinocket where we met up with my folks.  They had driven out from Minnesota to pick us up and we had been talking for months about how fun it was going to be when we reunited.  It was tainted by the fact that we hadn't summited.  We stayed that night and with the weather looking better the next day, decided we'd give it another go.  We bought some winter gloves and loaded a pack with more clothes that my parents had brought. 

Mt. Katahdin from Abol bridge

 

 

Boy are we glad we gave it another shot.  The following day was gorgeous!  We had little need for all the layers we were carrying.  Even above treeline there was little more than a slight breeze, and the bright sun was melting the snow and ice making it easy to get to the summit.  There was a celebration at the top of Katahdin.  Because the weather was so nice, hikers were hanging out, snapping photos, toasting our accomplishments with cheap whiskey! 

 

This time we came down and met my parents in the parking lot, popped a bottle of champagne and toasted a thru-hike complete.  This was the celebration we had been anticipating.  We won!  We did it!  We walked 2,184 miles from Springer Mtn, Georgia to the top of Mt. Katahdin, Maine!

 

 



 



 



 

stay tuned for future blogging about who knows what....