A Perfect Ending

100 Mile Wilderness Part 1 – Day 173 Through Day 175: mile 2079.8 to mile 2126.5

After a great breakfast at Shaws Hostel in Monson, Poet (one of the owners of the hostel) took us back to the trailhead at the parking lot on Route 15. Before sending us off on the final leg of our adventure, he had a few words of wisdom, having hiked the trail in 2008. His trail name is appropriate as he definitely had a way with words and I wish I had the where for all to have recorded his sendoff speech. By the time we started hiking, it was already past 8:30 am and I had 15 miles planned for the day. I was hoping that the terrain wasn’t too difficult. My plan was to stop at Long Pond Stream Lean-to which happened to be at the base of the next real climb I had to do. I didn’t think making it there would be too difficult.

Like the last couple of days leading into Monson, the 100 mile wilderness continued to have stream and river crossings that required wading in water as deep as mid-thigh, if not deeper in some cases. My first such crossing came in the middle of the afternoon on this first day out of Monson. A couple of hikers were already across and a couple of more were mid-stream when I came to the crossing. I removed my boots and donned my crocs to make the crossing without incident. I was pleased to see that one of the young men that was already across when I arrived had waited to make sure I didn’t have any problems. I thanked him for doing that and told him I had experienced similar courtesy on the trail before but not as frequently as one would like.

I got up early to begin day 2 of the 100 mile wilderness. By 8:00 am, I had made my way to the top of Barren Mountain. I had nice views of the cloud cover at lower elevations and the mountain ranges beyond. I was still not far enough north to get a glimpse of Katahdin, but that day was coming soon.

One highlight that Poet had informed us of was the remains of a plane crash. The wreckage looked devastating, but the pilot and his young son both survived unscathed and walk off the mountain to safety. It was pretty cool to have the AT walk right by the site of the crash, the result of a fairly recent rerouting of the trail.

Those familiar with Monson and the surrounding area know that there is an abundance of slate to be found. It wasn’t surprising to me to see some of the stepping stones used along the trail to help avoid the wet areas were, in fact, slate. I do know from experience that unlike the granite we had been crossing for most of Maine, slate can get very slippery when wet. Luckily most of the slate I came across was dry and fairly level.

I had delusions of grandeur and thought I could make 20 miles on my second day in the 100 mile wilderness instead of the planned 15. I even found enough signal to inform Amy of my plan. As the day progressed and the terrain remained fairly difficult, I decided that 15 miles was indeed the limit for the day. Lucky for me, there was a very nice campsite on the side of the trail just prior to a stream fording. As an added bonus, this location was just 0.2 miles from the parking lot on the Gulf Hagas road where pit toilets were located. I made the journey to the parking lot to utilize the facilities before setting up my tent for the night. This allowed me to assess the trail between my site and the river crossing enough to know that I could hike it with my crocs on and save time changing shoes at the crossing in the morning.

It rained overnight and the fly of the tent got pretty wet, but everything else was fairly dry. The crossing went smoothly and I was soon making good time along the trail. My spirits were pretty high as this would be my last day hiking alone since Amy was poised to rejoin me mid-day the next day. I was feeling so elated that even the white blazes were smiling at me. This was my third 15+ mile day in a row and I ended my day at the East Branch Lean-to which set me up nicely for another river fording just 0.2 miles away in the morning. I plan to repeat the same thing I did on day 3 of the 100 mile wilderness and wait to put on my boots and clean dry socks until after I crossed the river. It worked great the first time, so why not.

100 Mile Wilderness Part 2 – Day 176 Through Day 178: mile 2126.5 to mile 2179.2

The fly of my tent mostly dried overnight but the socks I had been wearing were still pretty wet so I planned to swap them out for clean dry socks once I made it across the East Branch of Pleasant River. I got packed up, draped my boots over my shoulders with the clean socks tucked inside and walked the 0.2 miles to the bank of the river. There was a guide rope to help cross the river but it was fairly high and it looked like the crossing was easier slightly up river from the rope. Choosing to take that route was one of my worse decisions on the trail. About 1/3 of the way across as I stuck my pole into the water to find bottom it failed to do so before my arm was in the water and my balance was gone. I fell over, lost a water bottle, almost lost a pole and by the time I regained my footing, not only were my clean dry socks now soaked, so was everything else. I got to the far bank and managed to calm down after several minutes of shaky hands. Once I got my boots on, complete with soaking wet socks, I stood and took a few steps along the trail before turning back and flipping the bird to the river crossing. The act didn’t make my feet any dryer but it somehow made me feel better.

After the failed river crossing, I still had over 11 miles to hike before I would meet up with Amy along with Rob and Laura at the Jo-Mary road crossing. Rob and Laura were taking the unique opportunity to perform some trail magic by providing passing hikers with some chili and other assorted items. It was still a bit dreary out and the chili would be a welcome mid-day meal. This motivated me to hike fast and I made it to the crossing before noon.

My original plan had Amy and me taking 4 more days to finish the 100 mile wilderness, arriving at Abol Bridge on Saturday and summiting Mount Katahdin on Monday. I had expressed the desire to possibly summit on Sunday and Amy took the initiative to replan the remaining 41 miles to allow us to summit on Sunday. After consuming 3 bowls of Laura’s yummy chili, I resumed my hike and was once again accompanied by Amy, aka Crafty Girl.

Our first night together in the 100 mile wilderness was spent at Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to. What was surprising about this night’s stay was that we were the only ones there! It was a very nice location with a brand new privy and large tent pads to accommodate our 3-person tent. We had a comfortable night’s sleep and with the only sounds we heard were the loons on the nearby lake. Nothing says the Maine wilderness like loons calling each other in the middle of the night.

The replan for a 3 day exit of the 100 mile wilderness called for an 18.2 mile jaunt on Amy’s first full day back on the trail. Remember, this was her replan, not mine. As the day progressed, it became clear that Amy was going to do just fine covering the miles but I was beginning to get a bit trail weary on my fifth day since Monson. Damp clothes, including socks and underwear, were taking their toll and I decided to reach out to my cousin, Jamie, who lives about 10 miles from Abol Bridge, where trail rejoins civilization. During our lunch break for the day, I checked my phone but did not have any service so we checked Amy’s phone (Verizon vs AT&T) and she had one bar. I sent Jamie a text with my request before we resumed our hike.

Later in the afternoon, we had a little climb to the summit of Nesuntabunt Mountain where we checked for a response from Jamie. He could not host us in his small 2 bedroom home but was able to hand us off to his older brother, Fred. Fred lives just as close to Abol Bridge as Jamie does and I was looking forward to spending only one more night in the tent. I felt a little bad for Amy as she rejoined me on the trail and would only spend 2 nights in the tent. I figured she’d get over it pretty quickly.

The decision to get better accommodations for Friday night was looking even better since I could not get warm in my damp sleeping bag as the temperatures Thursday night dropped into the low 50’s and maybe even touched the upper 40’s. I had to pull out clothes I haven’t put on since I returned to the trail in May before I could get warm enough to fall asleep.

We had 15 miles left of the 100 mile wilderness. We got up early and were on trail at first light in order to get to Abol Bridge before 4:00 pm. Our progress was pretty good but the trail is riddled with rocks and, more often, large exposed roots. We had one more high point to get over as we climbed up to Rainbow Ledges. Unfortunately the weather was damp and misty and we got no good views from the ledges but we did have a signal and could update Jamie with our ETA for Abol Bridge.

We arrived at Abol Bridge around 3:40 pm, just enough time to order an ice cream cone and get a few licks in before Jamie showed up right at 4:00 pm. We jumped into his car and a rough 10 mile ride down the Golden Road had us at Fred & Yvette’s place. We both took a much needed shower and washed our clothes before going to the Big Moose Inn for dinner with Fred & Yvette. We had a great evening with my cousin and his wife and as we climbed into bed for the night Amy had to agree that it was much better than another night in the tent.

Baxter State Park and Summiting Katahdin – Day 179 & Day 178: mile 2179.2 to mile 2194.3

After a nice breakfast of french toast and bacon, Fred took us back to Abol Bridge where we would hike 9.9 miles through Baxter State Park to Katahdin Stream Campground where we would begin our summit hike the following day. Rob and Laura would be picking us up at the campground and taking us to their RV for the night. We would all return the next morning to hike the final day. We knew we would get a relatively late start on our hike and gave Rob and Laura an estimated arrival time of 2:00 pm for pickup at Katahdin Stream. The trail through the park was promised to be flat but we gave ourselves extra time because it is never as flat as the elevation profile leads you to believe.

One option thru hikers have for staying in the park the night before they summit the mountain is to sign up for a spot at The Birches. This process is the park’s solution for thru hikers that cannot predict their completion date and book a spot at Katahdin Streams Campground ahead of time. The sites at the popular campground tend to fill up months in advance. The problem with this process is that The Birches can only hold 12 people and its first come first serve. Signup for The Birches occurs at an information kiosk just as you enter the park, roughly a quarter mile from Abol Bridge. When we got to the ranger manned kiosk, we discovered that there were exactly 2 spots left so if we had planned on staying in the park we would have had a spot. While we were talking with the ranger about our plans, another hiker came up and wanted a spot at The Birches. We felt good that we didn’t take the final two spots so that this hiker would have a place to stay.

The first three miles or so of the day’s hike was indeed flat and relatively free of rocks and roots so we made very good time during this section. Things then got a bit more rough and some minor elevation changes occurred. We also had a couple of crossings to make where removing our boots and putting on our crocs seemed like the best option. One highlight of the roughly 10 mile hike was a set of waterfalls named Little Niagara Falls and Big Niagara Falls. We stopped at Big Niagara falls for a snack and some photos. Other hikers had stopped and were laying on the rocks soaking in the sun.

Shortly after leaving Big Niagara Falls, we met a couple hikers coming the other way. Amy said hi and then said a more exuberant hi. I though she might have recognized one of the other hikers as someone she knew but it turns out she spotted Rob on the trail before I did. They had entered the park earlier and driven around to areas known for moose sitings in the hopes of seeing one. They did not find any moose but they did hook up with a Mooseboy hiking north on the Appalachian Trail!

We finished the hike to Katahdin Stream campground and sought the ranger to check in for our summit hike the next morning. Unfortunately the ranger had a meeting to go to so we could not check in that afternoon and would have to catch him in the morning before making our trek to the summit. We all piled into Rob and Laura’s truck and headed out of the park for the night. We got dinner at Scootic In before heading to Pine Grove campground for the night. We all agreed that we would leave the campground at 4:30 am in order to get in line at the gate before 6:00 am for as early a start as possible on the difficult hike.

We arrived at the gate early and had to wait for pass holders to go through before we were giving the opportunity to enter. At around 6:25 am, they waved us in and we were at the trailhead just before 7:00 am. We tracked down the ranger and finished the thru hiker registration and received a very nice commemorative ID card for our efforts. It was finally time to start the final hike of my long adventure. It was 180 days since we started the journey and it was almost over. Amy would hike as far as she could before the trail got too difficult and rock scrambling became an integral part of making it up.

The tree line at about 3 miles into the hike was where we expected it to get too difficult for Amy to continue and that is exactly where she stopped. Laura decided she wanted to continue and after attempting the first climbing obstacle, she quickly changed her mind and stayed behind with Amy while Rob and I continued to the summit. The climb was indeed difficult and it took us over four and a half hours to go the remaining 2 miles and return to where our wives waited for us.

At the summit Rob helped me get my completion trophy, a picture with the famous A-frame sign at Baxter Peak on Mount Katahdin. While I posed for my pictures, Turbo, a fellow hiker I had met within the past couple weeks, cheered me on. I could not really believe that the journey was over (well, almost over – we still needed to get back down!). Had it really been almost 6 months of walking an average of 14 miles a day? It wasn’t really sinking in and I don’t think it has yet. I thought I would have trouble holding back tears of joy as I stood on the summit but that didn’t happen. It was a special treat to have a companion at the summit and I can’t thank Rob enough for joining me at the completion of my journey. I do believe he was doubting the sanity of his decision as we made the arduous return trip down the mountain but he assures me he wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Summiting Katahdin is no easy task and it is an appropriate ending for those of us lucky enough to successfully complete a thru hike. For someone who hasn’t been hiking every day for 6 months, it can be quite exhausting. Actually for someone that has been hiking daily for 6 months, it was still quite exhausting!

We tried to send word with hikers descending much faster than us to have Laura and Amy start down ahead of us. I assumed Rob and I would move down the mountain faster and wanted them to get a head start. When we finally got back to the tree line, Amy and Laura were still there but they admitted they were getting ready heading down. It turns out my thoughts that we would be faster than them turned out to not be true and we quickly fell behind the 2 women. I was hiking in front of Rob and I told him I was going about as fast as I could and he replied that if I went any faster I would leave him behind. So we slowly plodded down the mountain with our tired and sore legs and finally made it to the parking lot around 6:00 pm.

We decided to stop at the Big Moose Inn for dinner because it would be way too late to cook after we got back to the campground. While at the restaurant, I ran into some hikers I had met in New Hampshire at The Notch Hostel. They were planning to summit the next day and we gave them information on water sources and how long it took us. Oddly enough, it took us almost the exact same time to go up as it did to come down, roughly 5 hours and 20 minutes each. They appreciated the information and we wished them luck on their final day of hiking. It is very cool to come across fellow hikers that you are acquainted with. You always have something to talk about. For me, receiving congratulations for completing the hike will likely never get old.

Time to Celebrate

One of the things I had hoped to do upon completing the hike was to celebrate the accomplishment with some of my cousins who live in the Millinocket area. I have 2 sets of cousins living in the area, 3 cousins from my mother’s side of the family and 5 cousins from my father’s side. My sister, Becky, made arrangements to have as many of my cousins that could make it join me in celebrating. A newly opened brewery and event center provided the venue where we all gathered for pizza, wings and beer (what more do you need!). This all took place Monday evening, the day after I summited. Had we not modified our plans and summited a day early, this special gathering would not have been possible given how long it took us to complete the hike.

The nice weather we had for our summit day joined by (and helped by) Rob and Laura, and the celebration with family made for a perfect ending to my long journey. I hope you have all enjoyed my blog and other social media posts. I will likely make one more post on this blog sometime in the near future where I will cover some of the statistics of the hike and some final thoughts after it all settles in. Until then, thanks for coming along.

Daily Data

Day	Miles	Total Asc	Total Desc	Steps
173	15.1	3162	3444	45455
174	15.2	4189	4461	47146
175	16.4	4320	3740	46101
176	19.5	2165	2747	51570
177	18.2	2506	2142	50280
178	15.0	1706	2142	42131
179	9.9	948	459	26955
180	10.4	4165	4165	28416