8/06/06 Sunday: AT...Mount Katahdin: The Final Ascent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(5.2mi UP)

PICTURES:
1. Taking a moment to look back during the ascent up Mount Katahdin on the AT
2. Thats Brian on what we hoped was the push passed the Gateway onto the Table Land...
3. Brian and I taking a break at The Gateway, a transition point from the steep 3000' climb the walk levels off for a mile before a final ascent to the Baxter Peak...
4. Thats Brian, alias "Speedy Gonzalez" at the summit a bit ahead of me.... He was #2 atop the Mountain... I was #3...
5. Our Portugese friend snapped this shot of Brian and I at the summit...
6. Brian with Baxter Peak in the background while I'm standing on South Peak...
7. Chiminey Pond from South Peak
8. Thats me with Knife Edge and Pamola and the background taken from South Peak...
9. Thats me again with the Table Land in the background... Thoreau Spring was producing quite a bit of spring water there...pretty amazing at that altitude...
10. Thats me again standing on a 13' cairn which makes Baxter Peak a full 1 mile high...
11. Mac and his boys at Baxter Peak
12. More than 200 hikers would summit this day... This is one of the groups... I was up there for about 4 hours and witnessed many hikers passing through...
13. Mac, Brian, Shawn, Me, and Kevin at the famous sign atop Mt Katahdin
14. The gang heading down the Saddle trail back to Chimney Pond Campground and then out to the car at Roaring Brook Campground...
15. Taking a break before heading down the steepest part of the Saddle Trail.
16. Descending on the Saddle trail... Tricky footing and kinda steep too..
17. Picture taken at Chimney Pond Campground with Katahdin in the Background

The big day was finally here... Brian and I were up at dawn and had a snack for breakfast before heading to the Ranger Station to drop off our packs and pick up some lighter day packs for the ascent... We started at 0630 and walked at a brisk pace up the 1 mile high mountain... This would be an initial 3000' sustained climb for 3 miles with a one mile walk across the table land before the final 1000' climb in the last mile... In all the highest sustained climb along the AT with bonuses... You get to do some "bouldering" that having to climb up and over large boulders sometimes on rebarb... Lots of fun... Brian and I made it up to the top by 0900 and were the 2nd and 3rd people atop the mountain on this day... We met the first gentleman, from Porgtugal who now lived in Quebec... After pictures were taken we all chatted a bit and watched the throngs of day hikers aproaching from 5 different trails... Within an hour 40 hikers were up there in the clear blue of the morning sky, all admiring the excellent views, possibly out to the Atlantic some 100 miles to the SE... Brian and I decided to tackle South Peak which leads to the knife edge and Pamola... We were thinking of walking out there too but I had planned to meet my brother in law at Baxter Peak at 1100... We arrived at South Peak about 1030 and decided to leave knife edge for another day. We returned to Baxter Peak and witnessed a different and larger group of up to 60 hikers milling about admiring the views and taking pictures... By 1200, Brian and I decided to head back down since Mac had not yet arrived. We took different trails, Brian went back the way he came and I decided to head down a side trail that passed the Cathedral Trail, the one Mac was suppose to take with his 3 boys. I caught a hiker just coming to the top of the Cathedral Trail and ask if she had seen an adult and 3 kids hiking... She said they were about 30min behind and listed the boys by name... I decided to stay at the head of the trail there at that point and wait for them... I waited an hour and returned to the summit to chat with some of the other hikers before heading down to the bottom. As I reached the summit I came across Mac and the boys having lunch... According to Mac, they had all taken a short cut to the summit... Anyway they had some extra snacks that they shared with me and we took some pictures before heading back down the saddle trail and back to Macs van around 1400... Kevin, Brian, and Shawn, had never hiked Katahdin before and were feeling the effects of the 4000'ascent and the subsequent 4000' descent... We all reached the car at about 2000 and drove over to get my pack and gear at the other Ranger Station, finally leaving BSP around 0845... We stopped for burgers in Millinocket before getting on the I95 for home...

8/05/06 Saturday: Rainbow Lake (west) to The Birches Shelter, Baxter State Park (23.9mi)

PICTURES:
1. Scene from Rainbow Ledges, site a the tremendous crop of blueberries
2. Just a shot of some of the blueberries that we harvested...
3. Katahdin from one of the Rainbow Ledges as we begin our descent toward Abol Bridge...
4. One of the more pleasant trails encountered north of Rainbow Ledges...
5&6. View of Mt. Katahdin taken from the entrance trail to BSP (Baxter State Park)
7. Largest catapillar I've ever seen!!!
8. Brian on one of the better "groomed" trails inside BSP
9. Interesting tree and root formation over large boulder...
10. View of Katahdin from Elbow Pond
11. View of Katahdin from Tracy Pond inlet..


I really hate putting on wet socks and boots, especially in the morning... Last night I had given up rock hopping, and just walked through the puddles, thankfully the water never went over the top of my boots... Anyway, I wrung out my socks again as I had done last night and slipped them back on, put my damp clothes back on and hoped for clear skies and warm temps... When I exited the tent at 0630, I noticed the sky was blue and another beautiful day was donning... I was instantly energized and fininshed packing and once again headed north to our base camp in Baxter State Park. I stopped at the first spring I noticed along the way to replenish my water supply, and while treating it Brian walked up... He had stayed at the campground with the boyscouts the previous night and had difficulty sleeping with all the late night commotion... We were happy to meet again and began moving north again... He pulled ahead again and I spent some time fixing some water bars on the trail until we met up again on top of the Rainbow Ledges... Here, with plenty of sun, was a tremendous bluberry crop... Brian was busy picking blueberries and already had half of his 1 liter bottle full. I decided to join him and we both decided to remove our boots and socks and put them in the sun to help them dry some... We stay up there for over an hour until we had both picked 32Oz of blueberries and eaten an unknown quantity in the process...;)... At this point it was 1000 and we were 16 miles from our shelter for the night. We both made great time walking at nearly 3.0 on dryer more level terrain... We also knew the trail inside Baxter State Park (BSP) would be a nice walk. We stopped next at the Abol Bridge Campsite store to get some lunch and buy some snacks for tonight and the ascent of Katahdin tomorrow. It was 1300 and we had only 10 relatively easy miles left, so we relaxed and finished drying our boots and socks while we carb' up with all sorts of stuff only hikers would eat... Little Debbie products, cookies, ice cream, sandwitches, pizza, snickers, and a whole host of other packaged products...:)... When your burning 5-6000 calories daily you can eat just about anything I suppose... The local ridge runner dropped by for a chat and mentioned there were no other thru-hikers at the birches yet tonight and that the following days weather looked excellent... We were psyched and by 1430 we were off to finish the last 10 miles to the base camp, The Birches... The walk through BSP was nice and for the most part smooth, but did require one ford... I arrived at the Birches at about 1630, and met up again with Brian who had arrived 30 min earlier... We decided to eat in the common area near the Ranger Station, which had plenty of sun to help dry some of the rest of gear, and warm us too... Our camp site was nestled in a white birch grove with little sun penetrating through... We finished our lunch and moved to the camping area where we were joined later by one more thru-hiker before we all retired for the night...