The end of my Appalachian trail hike concludes with my climbing of Mount Katahdin.

I am not a spiritual person nor a religious one. I don’t get emotional over things such as hiking and arriving at my destination. For me the hike was about the journey and the fun times throughout the entire trip and not the mere finishing on Mt Katahdin. However many hikers are spiritual and religious etc… and do get very emotional over finishing such a long journey. Many of the people I met along the way cried upon reaching the top of Katahdin. They worked very hard and put forth a great effort as they forged their paths along their own Appalachian trail hikes. Regardless of who you are or your reasons for attempting such an expedition or your personal disabilities, know that this hike is one of the toughest things to accomplish for anyone.

Each and every person who completed this hike has accomplished a great task and deserves to feel proud and express their feelings individually in any way they feel they need to.

I for one tried my best to express my feelings through my pictures. I hope when you look at the photos throughout my AT Hike blogs you get the same feeling of awe as I did.

I started my day by waking up at about 3am and got my gear packed up by 4am. I headed over to the ranger station to unload any gear not needed to climb Katahdin. I took my backpack, water filter, water, lunch and snacks, camera, rain gear, and my Olight H2R headlamp. At about 4:30am I reached the trail head sign and made a short video. From there I climbed the Hunt trail up the 5267 foot mountain in the dark. The beginning was simple but about half the way up just as I rose above the treeline the trail got very difficult and scary. The were several points where I had to climb over huge boulders and squeeze through cracks. Every step was hard to maintain traction. I arrived at what is called the tabletops just in time to see the sun finish rising over the peaks. I was the very first person September 15th to make it to the top called Baxter peak at about 7:20am. I took several pictures there while waiting nearly 2 1/2 hours for someone to arrive. So I could get my picture taken on the sign. The guy who arrived after me just happened to be a hiker I started with back on April 2nd when Addie and I did the approach trail in Georgia on Springer Mt. He is the hiker in the picture with me doing a fist bump over the Baxter peak Katahdin sign. I took the ABOL trail back down the mountain which is not the official AT trail. I feel going down ABOL trail in daylight was much harder than climbing up the Hunt trail in the dark. Every single step above the treeline seemed sketchy at best due to the sand and loose gravel. But I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way that was climbing up the official AT trail to finish their journey. I arrived at the base of the mountain around 2pm. Then waited for my shuttle to the AT lodge hostel where I spent the night. Addie arrived September 16th in the morning to take me to a hotel and we rested for a day then drove home September 17th.

So to start you off, here is a short video of me starting the trail followed by pictures of the final 5.2 mile hike up the mountain.

 

The sunrise over the peaks and tabletop…

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Here are the pics from my climb up Mt Katahdin…