Day 172: Katahdin – the Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail, 5,5 miles

I woke up in the morning from the hotel around 5am. I grabbed my backpack and my breakfast and Jukebox’s parents started driving me, Juke and Tennessee towards Baxter State Park. The gates to the park open at 6am and we were there just a little bit before so we got inside to the park quickly. Around 6.30am we started climbing Katahdin again. The first 3 miles were easy today because we had already hiked them so we knew how the trail was. Today I also decided not to carry all of my gear but only snacks and the things that I needed during the day, which is called slackpacking. This was actually the first time I slackpacked on the trail but I was glad that I did because I enjoyed the hike up Katahdin so much more. The climb is quite strenuous so not having a heavy backpack made it a lot of easier and more enjoyable.

I am so glad that we waited for one day before summiting because the weather today was just awesome. It was sunny and clear, just a little bit windy. The climb to Katahdin was a lot of fun. Lots of big boulders and a little bit of rock climbing. And the views were just amazing! I was full of excitement but at the same time I felt a little bit sad because this awesome adventure was coming to its end. I had very mixed feelings because I wanted to stop hiking but on the other had I did not. I had got so used to the life where I was living in the woods and I did not have to stress about anything. I loved the simplicity of life and carrying everything that I needed in my backpack.

Before 10am we got so close to the end that I could already see the sign of Katahdin. It felt unreal. The last few miles to the summit were quite easy, a lot of gradual uphill with an actual trail that you could walk on. When we could already see the sign and we were walking towards it, a weird guy started talking to us some nonsense. Jukebox and Tennessee were trying to be polite and answer to his pointless questions but I thought that this was the moment that I had been waiting for ages and I just continued walking. Before I could even realize it, I was standing next to the sign of Katahdin. This was the moment that I had been waiting for since I started my journey from Georgia. I placed both of my hands on top of the sign and I bursted into tears. I looked to my left and I saw Jukebox and Tennessee and they started crying too. They got to the sign and we all just hugged each other and cried together. The feeling that I had is hard to describe: it was a mixture of happiness, sadness, relief, pain and success. I could not wrap my head around the fact that I had completed the entire Appalachian Trail. I was now officially an Appalachian Trail Thru-hiker. This was one of the moments of my life that I will never forget.

While we were crying, all of the day hikers at the summit looked at us like we were crazy. I am pretty sure they just did not understand that we had just walked 2192 miles all the way from Georgia. We stayed at the summit for about an hour, drank cans of celebration cokes and ate some chips and snacks and of course took our summit pictures. Then we got a little bit chilly so we decided to start hiking down the mountain. This was the first time that I could say to myself that “It is all downhill from here” and it was actually true. We decided to take another trail down, called the Abol trail, which was a little bit steeper but there was a lot more places to place your foot than on the Hunt trail, which is the official Appalachian Trail route.

We were less than a mile from the parking lot when we saw Jukebox’s mom hiking up the trail to meet us. She congratulated us and we hiked down all the way to the parking lot where Jukebox’s dad was waiting for us with champagne, some McDonalds, fresh vegetables and all kinds of good stuff. We celebrated the end of our journey together and shared our stories from today. After that we left Baxter State Park and the trail for good.

I want to thank everyone who was a part of my journey on the Appalachian Trail, especially my fellow hikers and my trail family who made my hike such a unique experience. During these 5,5 months I learned so much about myself and about life in general. What is important and what is not. How living a simple life can make me so happy. How having less is more. How to let go. How not to be too hard on myself. How to enjoy and be grateful of the little things in life. And so much more.

When I started my hike in Georgia, I had no idea where I was putting myself into. The trail was so much more than I could have ever hoped for and it gave me everything that I came to look for and even more. I am finally at peace with myself and I know that I am capable to do and accomplish anything that I want in the future. I am forever grateful having the opportunity and courage to be able to hike the trail and being able to realize all of these things about life in such an early age. Now the next challenge is just to remember to keep all of the lessons I learned with me in my everyday life.

“We had learned the Appalachian Trail parallels life. It has peaks and valleys, joys and sorrows, exhilarating times and ordinary times, sunshine and rain, laughter and tears, healing and pain, and, as in life, the trail has a beginning and an end. Likewise, the end is a new beginning.” – Madelaine Cornelius, Katahdin with Love: An Inspirational Journey, 1991.

 

On to the next adventure,

– Finnish Line

 

KATAHDIN

“You love it and you fear it,

It is wild and harsh and high,

A mass of ancient granite

Towering into the sky.

For Indians who revered it

And the climbers of today,

A symbol of a spirit

That will never pass away.”

 

 

 

 

 

Day 171: Attempt to Summit Katahdin

I woke up in the morning at 4.30am. I ate my breakfast and packed my things and started hiking before 6am. My feelings were really mixed because this was going to be the last day on the trail. The weather forecast for today did not look too good and it showed rain showers for the whole day. We still decided to start going up so I started my climb up to Katahdin.

The first few miles were relatively easy. It was dripping rain once in a while but the weather was kind of warm. However, when I got to the treeline, the trail got pretty strenuous. I had to climb over huge boulders of rocks which were wet. Sometimes I literally had to crawl up on my knees and pull myself up with my hands because there was not any other way to get up. Also, the weather above the treeline was horrible. The wind must have been about 30-40mph and you could hardly see anything. I was pretty scared and it did not help that I had my full pack on.

I think I had hiked about 0.5 miles above the treeline when I saw Jukebox and Tennessee coming towards me. They had just checked the forecast and it said that there was a possibility of severe thunderstorms so they had made the decision to turn back and try again the next day when the weather was supposed to be clear and sunny. I considered my move for a moment and I ended up turning back too. I just did not want to risk my life and get struck by lightning and I am also really scared of thunderstorms. I also thought that it would be a lot nicer to summit on a good day so that I could really enjoy every moment on the last day. It was kind of funny that I made it 2 miles before the summit of Katahdin and then decided to turn back… However, our friends Rooster, Soulshine and Swiss Miss were ahead of us and had decided to push on despite the weather. Also Cayenne, who was behind of decided to continue.

We hiked 3 miles down back to Katahdin Stream Campground. We took a nap over there on the picnic table in a really hiker trash style while we were waiting for Jukebox’s parents to pick us up.

They arrived after 1pm and we drove to Abol Campground where we saw Soulshine, Rooster and Swiss Miss sitting at a picnic table celebrating. I thought they were such badasses because they actually summited in that horrible weather. About an hour after that also Cayenne arrived. We sat at the picnic table for a good amount of time and then drove to Millinocket where we were going to stay for the night.

I got a hotel room with Jukebox and Tennessee because we were going to summit the next day together. All of us were really tired and we just ordered pizza for dinner and went to sleep early. It was too bad that we could not really celebrate with our trail family tonight. I also had to say goodbye for them for the last time because after today I was not going to see them again. Saying goodbye was really hard because we had been together for over a 1000 miles! However, I was really happy to be in a hotel room and get a good night sleep before the big day.

Day 170: Hurd Brook Lean-To – The Birches, 14,2 miles

I woke up in the morning already around 4am. I packed my things, ate breakfast and started hiking already around 5.30am. Today’s mission was to get to The Birches, which is a camping spot for long distance hikers in Baxter State Park where also Katahdin is located. The Birches is the last place where you can stay before you summit Katahdin. However, the thing is that there is only 12 spots in the Birches, so everyone is kind of competing who will get the spots. You will register to stay at the Birches just after you cross Abol Bridge before entering the Baxter State Park.

I was hiking so fast in the morning because I just wanted to get the spot at the Birches. I had almost 4 miles to get to the registration kiosk and I crossed Abol Bridge just before 7am. From the bridge, there is an awesome close up view of Katahdin and as soon as I saw it I started crying. The moment was so emotional. It felt unreal that I had made it that far all the way from Georgia. I continued to the kiosk and about 0.1 miles before it I saw Rooster and Swiss Miss who told me that they had just signed our whole trail family to stay at the Birches. I was happy to have a spot there and be able to summit Katahdin tomorrow.

We walked a little bit back to the Abol Bridge Store where we ended up staying several hours. I took a shower, we did our laundry and ate breakfast and lunch before we started the last 10 miles to get to the Birches. Those 10 miles were super easy and I got to the Birches already around 4pm. We stopped at Katahdin Stream Campground first to get our permits to summit Katahdin the next day. Then I hiked to the Birches, cooked my dinner and enjoyed the last evening on the trail. As soon as the sun went down I went to sleep because tomorrow I needed to wake up early again.

Day 169: Nahmakanta Stream Lean-To – Hurd Brook Lean-To, 25,4 miles

I woke up from my tent at 4.45am and 6.20am I was hiking again. I slept pretty well during the night which was good because the day was going to be long. I hiked the first 6 miles to a shelter where I took a snack break. Today I had to be really consistent with eating so that my energy levels would be high the whole day.

We only had one big climb today to Nesuntabunt Mountain. Some parts of the climb were a little bit steep but I was feeling good. I was thinking to myself that “This is actually a very good day” and I was happy. However, just when I was thinking about that I felt horrible pain on my leg. I noticed that a bee had just stung me! I felt like that if you were feeling too good, the trail just wanted to throw something at you and make your hike even more difficult. I have never been stung by a bee before and it really hurt. Luckily I was not allergic to it.

I hiked 8 miles more to the next shelter where I took a lunch break with my trail family. After lunch I still had 11.5 miles to go and it was 2pm. I hiked with Jukebox and Swiss Miss for a while and we had a really good pace. We took a short break next to a lake and from there I hiked the last 5 miles by myself.

About 2.5 miles before the shelter where I was heading to, there was a view of Katahdin again on the Rainbow Ledges. However, Katahdin was a little bit in the clouds so I did not get the greatest view. The last miles were super easy and I got to the shelter at 7pm. I cooked my dinner and went to sleep at 9pm. This was a really long day but I did not have any problems even if I hiked over 25 miles. I think that with the side trails and everything, this day ended up being as long as a marathon and the longest miles I had ever done on the trail. Considering that, I felt surprisingly good.

Just before I closed my eyes in my tent, I heard screaming from the water source. Some poor section hikers had dropped their phone in the stream. It was really unfortunate but at the same time I must say it was a little bit funny.

Day 168: East Branch Lean-To – Nahmakanta Stream Lean-To, 23,8 miles

I woke up from my tent at 5am. I wanted to have an early start because we were planning for almost a 24 mile day today. The rain kind of messed up our plans a little bit so during the next two days we need to hike a crazy amount of miles. This morning I had to put on soaking wet clothes which was definitely not fun. However, the morning was beautiful and we were blessed with sunshine so my clothes dried pretty quickly.

I started hiking at 6am and first thing in the morning I had to ford a river again. Because it had rained so much, the river was so deep and dangerous to ford. The water was like thigh deep and my heart rate was so high because I was scared that I would fall to the river.

First we had 12 miles to hike to our food drop where we were supposed to be at noon. Luckily the first 12 miles of the day were super easy miles so we could average about 3 miles an hour and we got to the food drop spot around 11am. Emily had also set up some trail magic for us which was such a nice surprise! We ended up taking a 2 hour break there. It was so cool to hang out with Emily because she was one of those people who inspired me to hike the trail. About few years ago, I watched a documentary about the Appalachian Trail called “Walking Home” and she was a big part of that documentary. Right after I had watched it, I decided that I am going to hike the Appalachian Trail. Also all of my friends had seen that documentary and recognized her.

After the lunch break we still had 12 miles to go. On the way we stopped at Antlers Campsite because everybody knew that there was cell service there. I ate some more and checked out my messages and Jukebox went to swim to the lake next to the campsite. After the break we had 7.5 miles to go and on the way there was an incredible view of Katahdin. It was so amazing to see the end point for the first time and I honestly cried a little bit when I saw it. It felt so amazing to be so close to it.

I got to camp at 6.30pm which was a good time considering I hiked almost 24 miles today. Also my body felt pretty good and I was not hurting too much. This ended up being one of my favorite days on the trail!

Tomorrow I am going to wake up early again because we have to hike over 25 miles which is almost a marathon. It is going to be a long but possibly very rewarding day!

Day 167: Stealth Campsite – East Branch Lean-To, 16,3 miles

I woke up from my tent around 6am. It was pouring rain the whole night and in the morning too and I had to break my tent in the pouring rain. Just after I left the camp around 7am I had to ford a river again but I decided to ford it with my camp shoes since I did not want to hike 16 miles today with soaking wet shoes. I knew that they were in any case going to be wet after walking in the rain but at least I could have dry feet for a moment.

Today I was just taking my time because it was going to rain the whole day. Since it was raining it was a bit cold but as long as I kept moving I was warm. The mission today was to go over the Whitecap Range which was a lot of uphill but the trail was nice and smooth and the uphills were not too steep. The only thing that was a bummer today was that the Whitecap Mountain would have a beautiful view of Katahdin, but because it was raining we did not have any views. Actually, the weather on top of Whitecap was horrible. It was super windy and I had trouble staying up while I was hiking at the open summit. I definitely did not like the weather but I was just telling myself that I just need to get through this day and then everything is going to be fine.

Before the climb to Whitecap I took a quick snack break at a shelter. I could only stop for 10 minutes because as soon as I stopped I got cold. I just quickly ate a couple of bars and continued hiking. There was not any other shelter within the next 7 miles so I was so hungry when I got to the shelter on the other side of Whitecap. I had already started to feel dizzy and I actually fell just before getting to the next shelter because of low energy.

It was like 2.30pm when I got to the shelter and I ate my lunch there and tried to motivate myself to hike 3.6 miles more to the next shelter. Luckily, after I started hiking again it did not rain anymore. I got to camp around 5pm and just set up my tent. Because I had just had lunch I was not hungry at all so I just went to sleep at 6pm. I am hoping that tomorrow is going to be a better day, hopefully no rain.

Day 166: Trail Magic – Stealth Campsite, 16,8 miles

I feel like I did not sleep at all during the night. I felt a little bit sick and the night was also really warm. However, when I woke up I felt okay but I was really tired. Birdman had cooked us breakfast, sausages and raspberry pancakes which were so delicious. I got back on the trail around 8am and first we had a long climb as usual. Luckily it is only two more days of climbing and then it is flat all the way until the last climb to Katahdin. However, a positive thing about today was that my pack was really lightweight. A couple people from our tramily decided to slackpack today and I also dropped my food bag which made a big difference. I carried all of my gear but for food just snacks and lunch for today.

I was moving kind of slowly today and I was just taking my time. Today’s mission was just to get over the Chairback mountains. The trail was actually pretty nice and it did not rain while I was hiking. I got to camp after 6pm and we cooked dinner together with all of my hiker friends. Around 8pm everybody crawled to their tents and soon after that it started raining. It is supposed to rain during the night and the whole day tomorrow too. We have not had rain in a long time so I need to mentally prepare to hiking in the rain again tomorrow.

Day 165: Monson – Trail Magic, 13,5 miles

I woke up at 6am at Shaw’s and around 7am we had breakfast. 8.30am the owner took us back to the trail and we started the 100 mile wilderness which is the last strech on the Appalachian Trail!

The trail was nice, full of rocks and roots though but not too much elevation today. We took a lunch break at Little Wilson Falls and then we had about 8 miles more to hike. About 3 miles after the lunch spot we had to ford a river which was refreshing, a short soak for the feet in the middle of the day. We also ate some snacks there before starting the last 5 miles to the shelter.

When we were about 1.5 miles from the shelter, there was a huge trail magic sign. I saw that my tramily who were a little bit ahead of me had went there because I saw their packs on the trail. I decided to go there too and I am so happy that I did. The owners of a small cabin, Birdman and Scout, had coolers full of drinks and they cooked us burgers and hot dogs! They even made Bloody Mary drinks and gave shots of whiskey to the guys.

It was getting late and we had 1.5 miles to the shelter but Birdman offered that we could tent in the yard and he would cook us breakfast in the morning. We could not say no to that kind of offer so we pitched our tents and spent the rest of the evening at the porch of the cabin having a good time. Tomorrow he is even slackpacking some of the members of our group!

This was definitely the best trail magic I had got on the trail and a perfect start for the 100 mile wilderness! I could have not wished a better day on the trail.

Day 164: Zero Day in Monson

I woke up in the morning just before 7am and I went straight to breakfast. Shaw’s Hiker Hostel had an awesome breakfast with eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and AYCE pancakes. After breakfast I hanged out with other hikers in the yard and we did not really do anything interesting during the day.

Around 5pm Emily picked up me and Swiss Miss and took as to the grocery store and me to an outfitter to get my new backpack which Osprey had sent me as a replacement pack. After we got back to the hostel, I quickly repacked all of my food and gave half of it to Emily, who was going to do a food drop for us in the 100 mile wilderness where I am going to enter tomorrow. In the 100 mile wilderness, there is no places to resupply and usually going through it it takes about 4-6 days. We were planning to do it in 6 days so I only had to carry 3 days of food at a time since Emily was doing the food drop after 3 days which significantly made my pack lighter.

I went to sleep early because I wanted to have a good night sleep before starting the 100 mile wilderness. I am very excited to start the wilderness because I have heard that it is beautiful!

Day 163: Stealth Campsite – Monson, 13 miles

I woke up at 5am but I felt tired so I closed my eyes for 30 minutes more. I started hiking around 6.30am and it was nice because I knew that I was going to get to town at a decent time. Today I had my first rivers to ford and I had to took my shoes off and ford the water with my crocs. Luckily the water was not too deep, maybe from ankles to knees.

I made good time and I got to the parking lot already before 1pm. A shuttle from Shaw’s Lodging picked us up and the owner did a tour for us at the hostel. I took a shower and after that we all left for lunch/dinner to Lakeshore House restaurant where we ended up staying for several hours. I got some chicken wings, cheeseburger and a key lime pie. The food was delicious! After eating, we noticed that a massage therapist was giving massages on a dock on the lake. I decided to go and got such a relaxing upper back massage which just made my whole day.

We got back to the hostel around 6pm and stopped at the General store for some drinks. The rest of the night we were sitting outside just chatting about everything. I went to sleep after 10pm and passed out as soon as I closed my eyes.