#33 Monson to Katahdin

9/26: Into the 100 mile wilderness! The hostel we stayed at had an awesome breakfast in the morning! Each hiker got 3 eggs cooked to order, bacon, home fries, and unlimited blueberry pancakes. Shaw’s has been serving breakfast to hikers since 1977 when the hostel opened. There were so many pancakes! We were already full when the cook came out with a pancake cairn that was a good 10 inches tall.

We were stuffed by the time we were done. The hostel resupply store wasn’t open the night I got in, so I had to resupply as quick as I could in the morning after breakfast, and I still held the shuttle up. Oops. I chose not to slackpack because I wanted the full experience of hiking 100 miles without any town stops and carrying everything that I needed on my back, so my pack was very heavy after all of the food. I started hiking around 9, and could immediately feel the difference of the 6 days of food in my bag. I was slowed way down even though the terrain wasn’t too bad. I caught up with Sunshine in the afternoon and we forded a river together. Both of us changed into crocs to keep our shoes dry, but the water was well above my knee at some points. And the river rocks were slippery. And the water was cold. I would recommend a bridge. Anyway, after a little more hiking, it started to rain. At first it wasn’t so bad- just a drizzle and the trees kept the ground dry, but then we were hit with a deluge at around 4:30 that did not stop. We were drenched and the ground was so slick that we slipped around and had to take it slow. There were PA type rocks for .3 of a mile, which may not seem like a long distance, but when Sunshine and I had to move even slower than we were, and all we wanted to do was huddle under a shelter, it felt like a mile of pointy rocks.

As we were crossing a river close to the shelter, Sunshine slipped on a rock and fell in. Luckily it wasn’t deep, but she got soaked. After seeing Sunshine fall in, I sacrificed the last dry parts of my shoes and stepped in the river so that I had better balance. I was mad that I took the time to change my shoes for that first river crossing and stewed on that thought for the rest of the hike. We finally made it to the shelter just as it was getting dark and thank goodness there were two spots open! I grabbed water for both Sunshine and I, and then changed out of my wet shirt before making dinner. I barely took any snack breaks today, so I tried to eat as much as possible. I had a Clif bar, 3ish oz of cheese, and a ramen bomb with tuna in oil and Fritos. It was way too much food and the ramen bomb was hard to finish at the end, but I prevailed! I changed out of my wet shorts and into long johns (the best feeling) and went to bed with everyone already sleeping around me. 15 miles in the books!

9/27: Sunshine and I were supposed to wake up early, but that didn’t happen. The worst part of my day was putting on cold wet clothes in the morning. We got on trail at 8 though, and I took a nice break at the first view. I was moving slow, and it didn’t help that I needed water, and the only source for the next chunk of miles was .4 off trail. I took a lunch break there too, but I realized I was going to have to push to make it to the campsite 14.8 from where I started. Unfortunately there were mountains, and when there weren’t mountains, there were mud pits. I passed the 2,100 marker though! That’s my last 100 mile marker!

I made it to the shelter about 5 miles shy of the campsite at 5:20. If the terrain had looked ok, I would’ve pushed ahead, but there was a rock slide about a mile up that I’d heard was similar to tough sections in the White Mountains. I really didn’t want to be stuck in a boulder field in the dark. So I did a 10 mile day. It was Sunshine, Walnut, Scooby, and me in the shelter and we all agreed to wake up at 5 tomorrow and do a 17 mile day over the next mountain range. After that, the trail should be flat, so Sunshine and I planned to do 20s to get as close to Katahdin as possible. All the northbound thru hikers have Katahdin fever. Everyone has been asking each other when they plan on summiting and checking the weather for their goal day. I’m worried because it looks like it's going to be cold, with possible ice on the ground up high at the summit. Not much I can do about it now, but man, I wish I hadn’t taken so many zeroes! It feels like there are so many unknowns right now about finishing and the full weight of this hike coming to an end hasn’t hit me yet. I only have a week left if I finish on the 4th, and then I have a long drive home. It will be very strange not to wake up and walk anymore.

9/28: We woke up at 5am. 5!!! It was still dark out but the whole shelter was getting up at the same time, so we all had our headlamps on. I hadn’t gotten great sleep, and by the time Sunshine and I started hiking at 6:45, I was stressed out. We had barely done 10 miles over some mountains yesterday, and now we were trying to do 17 miles over a taller mountain range? I was nervous. We had a small rock slide that took us a little longer than it should’ve because we went the wrong way for a hot second, and then the trail was pretty nice for a while. We picked up pace, and I relaxed as we were slated to hike 10 miles by 12. We hit the Pleasant River which we had to ford and didn’t bother taking our shoes off for because it was supposed to rain later. We took a break at the other side of the river and there were a lot of day hikers all telling us that we were so close to the end and asking where we were from. The exciting times as a thru hiker celebrity. We kept hiking and made it to the shelter that was 10 miles away at 12 for a 30 minute lunch break. Thank goodness the mountain range was easy! We were walking upwards of course, but we were walking on dirt and pine needles, and there were no giant steps or large boulders. It was glorious. At points it started to drizzle, but it never rained full out, and most of the time, the trees protected us from the wind. The summit was open though, and if it was clear, we would’ve been able to see Katahdin, but we were in a windy cloud and we were just trying to get back in the trees as quick as we could.

A mile down and we made it to the shelter 17 miles from where we started! Except we still had an hour of daylight and a 3.7 mile hike to the next shelter, so we hiked there instead. Sunshine and I told each other riddles and I taught her some repeat after me camp songs to pass the time. We were using our headlamps by the time we made it into camp, and we were so happy to see two of our friends in the shelter with plenty of space. 20.9 more miles down! We quietly made dinner and stretched before heading to bed early for another long day tomorrow.

9/29: Instead of walking to the privy in the morning, I walked down the wrong trail, which I figured out was the AT, and got my croc slorped up by a mud pit in the process. In my defense, it was dark and there wasn’t a sign. So I got a later start than I had hoped because of unforeseen circumstances. The trail was gloriously flat today. Sunshine and I at least wanted to do 20, but I checked to see how far I had gone, and realized that I was going 3.3 mph! That’s the fastest I’ve ever gone out here! We met up at lunch and agreed that we would be able to do more than just 20 miles today. I had an extra dinner packed, so I cooked one of my rice sides for lunch, which really filled me up and powered me through the rest of the day.

I’m glad that I didn’t try to do big miles like this most days on the trail because I don’t even know what happened during the day. I was in a hiking zone and I barely took any breaks. We ended up doing 23.8 miles, and we hiked the last section together in case it got dark because two headlamps are better than one, but we got to camp before it got dark. I filtered water, mixed in a breakfast essential in one of my water bottles, and pitched my tent in a nice flat spot until tall pines near Sunshine's tent. Even though we needed our lights to cook, it was nice getting to camp while it was light out. For dinner I had a bag of rice, lentils, tuna, and cheese. I got the lentils from my resupply in Caratunk, but it turns out that they weren’t dehydrated, they were just a bag of raw lentils. So my dinner tasted like raw lentils, and it was super gross. I powered my way through 90% but had to put the rest in my trash bottle because I just couldn’t do it anymore. It was starting to get cold, so Sunshine and I holed up in our tents for the night, excited that we had hiked our biggest day yet, and hopefully ready in the morning to do a 25 tomorrow.

9/30: So we didn’t do a 25. The long days had been wearing on us, and the terrain wasn’t quite as easy either. I made it 6 miles by 10:45 to the next shelter and took a snack break. There was a small mountain that I climbed with a great view of Katahdin, and at the top I had service, so I was able to make some calls and set details for summiting. I sat up there for a while, looking out at the lake, the turning trees, and Katahdin’s exposed ridge looming over me.

I’d been so caught up in the details of when and how to summit, that it hasn’t hit me yet that the hike is almost over. This is probably (depending on if we can stay in Millinocket on the night of the 1st) the last night I’ll be on trail.

I needed to speed up the pace after my long break, but I also needed to eat so I stopped for that. I also had to filter water, and then I needed to stop and eat some more, so by the time 4:00 hit, I still had 9 miles to go. At a 2mph pace, I would get there at 8:30, which is basically my bedtime. I got on my horse after that and flew as fast as I could down the trail. I got enough miles in at a 3mph pace that by the time it got dark around 6:30, I only had about 3 more to go. Night hiking is eerie and I’m not a big fan of doing it alone. What if I see a moose! I didn’t see a moose though, and besides almost stepping in a bog, I made it to the campsite without a hitch. Sunshine was already there, and so were a few others. It was right by a lake, so Sunshine sat out and looked at the stars for a little bit before we got too cold. Sunshine is someone who I never thought I would’ve gotten close to when we first met, but we’ve really become good friends- especially since Otter started taking naps and not catching up. We saw some shooting stars, which was awesome. Then I had to set up camp. I doubt I will be sentimental about blowing up my sleeping pad- it takes like 30 breaths and it feels like forever. I cooked some food right outside my tent, and ate it right in my tent, which I don’t usually do because of the crumbs, but it’s my last night so I didn’t care too much. I had freeze dried mac and cheese, and ate some of my regular cheese as well, and a Belvita bar. I usually blog after all of my chores are done and I lie in my tent and type about what happened during the day in my Notes app. I’m also usually half asleep by the time I write the blog, so some parts probably didn’t make sense. My mom has mentioned that my tenses were all over the place sometimes. Speaking of being half asleep, it’s time for me to go to sleep for the last time in this tent. Signing off from Rainbow Lake!

10/1: Happy October everybody! Sunshine and I decided to not wake up at 5am this morning to celebrate. Also because we had less miles to do. It rained a little bit overnight, but it was just cloudy in the morning. Sunshine and I sat by the lake and ate breakfast bars. I also ate the rest of my block of cheese. It was peaceful sitting by the lake and chatting. We couldn’t believe it was our last morning like this on the trail- the last time I would have to hear the saddest sound in the world of my deflating sleeping pad. Or pack everything up in the same order so that the heaviest weight is closest to my core and putting things in trash bags in case it rains. I’m excited to not have to do these things everyday. Of course, I usually won’t get a chance to eat my breakfast on a lakeshore either. We got hiking around 8:30 and had a climb up a small mountain. It was misty at the top and I didn’t get any views, so I didn’t stay up there for too long. A little bit later I hit the Hurd Brook Lean-to which is the last shelter I’ll see on the trail. In the log book, there were a ton of entries from hikers- all a little sentimental about the trail. I wrote down the last verse of the song “One for the Money” and also put in the wrong date. Whoops!

I hiked until I got to Abol Bridge and stopped at the little convenience store for chips and an apple fritter for lunch. They were All Dressed chips, which I'd never had before! They were good but confusing. I was officially out of the 100 mile wilderness! I entered into Baxter State park and the trail was nice and smooth for a while. I caught up to Sunshine and we hiked together for the last section next to rivers and even a few cascades. There were two places where we had to cross over rivers and carefully step from rock to rock to avoid falling in. But overall, it was easy, and I wanted to get to the campground with the parking lot as soon as I could to see my mom, Jack, and Survivor. I was also excited eat a lot of food. All of the miles we had been hiking and keeping a strict sleeping schedule had taken its toll. I was exhausted as we walked through the 18 miles. We passed a few waterfalls that were a little off trail, but we didn’t stop to look. Sunshine and I were talking when suddenly I saw my mom in a purple coat and Survivor right behind her. I started running and hugged Survivor. I was so happy to see her again :) And my mom of course. All four of us walked back to the car and talked about our adventures. It was a long drive back out of the park, but we made it back to the Air B&B and Sunshine and I took showers before we went to dinner. Apparently I smelled really really bad. I ate a lot of pizza and then went to bed early, grateful that I could get some rest.

1/3: We took a zero on the 2nd to wait out the weather and take a rest before we climbed Katahdin.

I lost a game called “odds” way back in PA so I had to eat a half gallon of Mac and cheese, which I did successfully, and Abe came over and said hi! She was a counselor with me at camp and lives in Maine, so we caught up and hung out for a few hours. On the 3rd, we got in the car at around 5:30am to drive to Baxter State Park and get an early start to summit. By the time Survivor, Sunshine, and I started hiking, it was around 7. We took a mile detour around a “temporary” broken bridge except they had a wooden sign installed and the bridge had been out for a while. We got back on the AT and started going up. As we climbed higher, we had to be careful of the bits of ice on the rocks we were stepping over. It wasn’t too technical until we got higher, and then once we were out of the treeline, we were boulder climbing more than we were walking. We could see the top though! We scrambled up the mountain, Survivor doing something like this for the first time, while Sunshine and I had encountered many obstacles like these in the Whites. I felt bad for Sunshine because she is afraid of heights, and if we looked behind us we saw a steep drop off going down, and Sunshine was hanging on for dear life. We climbed and climbed up the rocks. At some point, there were metal rebar pieces that were bolted into the rock that we grabbed onto to hoist ourselves up. It was very slow. The top of the mountain was getting closer and finally, I could see a brown wooden sign at the top. I climbed up, my mind churning, and the sign read to please stay on the trail. This was a false summit and I laughed. We still had a little over a mile and a half up to the end of the trail. We walked along, all of us now anxious to get to the actual top. We saw Thoreau Spring which was fun except that the trail was covered in sloshy ice. We took a snack break. As we neared the top, I could see figures standing by the sign and we climbed up to it. I walked slow and followed Sunshine to the end of the AT. At first we got up there and we did the llama which is a goofy thing Keebler taught us back in TN. Then I started crying and didn’t stop for a while. For all of my wishing that I was somewhere else instead of hiking everyday, or wishing that it was over, wishing my shoes were dry, that it would stop raining, that it would be warmer at night, that I could hike faster, that my feet didn’t hurt, that my pack was lighter, that I could eat better food, and that everything would stop being so difficult- I was going to miss this trail like hell. I didn’t realize how much it was going to hurt when I finished, I thought I would’ve been ecstatic, but instead I felt like I was losing something. I started feeling better though and took some pictures with the sign.

It was the most gorgeous day possible up there and the views were a phenomenal farewell to a beautiful (almost) 7 months. We ate cheese, bread, and avocado for lunch at the summit, and after a while, we walked back down Saddle Trail, which was easier than the AT. It was still steep, and we had to go very slow, but there wasn’t any rock climbing involved. We made it down to a campsite, and then had 3 more miles to where my parents were picking us up. My mom had a big sign and was very happy for me. I stopped tracking on my gps. From there we took the hour drive back into town, got a late dinner, and I went to bed wondering what had changed from when I started.

So far I’m adjusting well back into society! I’ve managed to not use trees as toilets and have instead used the flushing kind. I’ve slept in a bed and driven car. I’ve even eaten a vegetable. The last part of my blog ended up being more sad than I expected, but I think it’s just going to take some time to get used to the idea that I did it. Getting to Katahdin has been my goal for the past few years even, and now that I made it, I need to find a new goal, and it probably won’t be one that’s accomplished so cleanly. I am so grateful for all of the support I‘ve gotten through this journey from family and friends. Especially my mom. And also Survivor, who has been there for me since day 1 and has continued to encourage me to eat more than 1 vegetable now that I don’t have to carry them. I’m going to continue to walk and hike in the meantime to keep moving and now that I have these amazing memories under my belt, I’ll move on to the next adventure with confidence and a new love for dehydrated potatoes and ramen.

Happy trails!

-Hawk