August 24 - 264

Post date: Aug 26, 2012 8:44:23 PM

The alarm signaled the start of the day at 4:30a and "Five Pair", "Triple T" and "Ground Control" beat the sun out onto the road leading the Katahdin Stream Campground at the base of Mount Katahdin. The early start was to give them a head start on "Keeper", "Blue’s Clues" and "Keeper’s" father, Brian as "Five Pair" was confident that a head start was needed to summit at approximately the same time. A quick check-in at the gatehouse at Baxter State Park and just before 6:00a "Five Pair" signed in at the trail, left "packages" for Keeper" and "Blue’s Clues" and the three began the 5.2 mile trek and "Five Pair’s" last day on the AT.

The trail began nicely enough with some roots and small rocks providing minor obstacles but a pleasant enough first half mile but thereafter with each step the number of rocks and their size began to increase. As the trail began to ascend the rocks were fashioned into steps in places and continued to increase in number where soon the trail was completely covered in rock and was for the most part ascending.

At the two and half mile mark the trail turned decided upward, trekking poles were put away and the climbing began. Hand over hand rock climbing, looking for hand holds and foot supports and with that a better understanding as why some hikers of this area wear gloves. From white blaze to white blaze the hikers climbed and crawled their way up the 1700 foot 1 mile long boulder climb with stunning views coupled with acrophobia anxiousness. Some of the “sketchy” climbs (the term used by hiker “Indiana” in describing the boulder ascent of Katahdin) were accented by rebar sunk into the boulders to aid hikers in the essentially vertical climbs or particularly challenging angles across boulders.

The upward hike included teases where the climb would stop for a brief period as the trail wrapped a rock outcrop only to turn upward yet again. At one such location above the tree line and approaching the end of the ascent, "Keeper", "Blue’s Clues" and Brian were spotted coming up. The ascent soon ended at the Tableland, a relatively flat mile towards the summit. During this portion of the hike, "Keeper" and "Blue’s Clues" caught up to "Five Pair". With "Duke" there in spirit as the shirt "Keeper" was hiking in included a previously provided fist sized hole compliments of the canine hiker barred from Baxter State Park, the three thru hikers accompanied by "Triple T" hiked the last half mile 500 foot ascent together and at approximately 10:30a stepped onto Baxter Peak on Katahdin the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

The "packages" the hikers carried were retrieved and corks popped. Various poses and combinations were photographed. At the summit, thru hiker "Bison" was met. Lunch was then had and shortly thereafter, the three thru hikers accompanied by "Triple T", Brian and "Ground Control" began the downward trip. The hike down took a bit longer and the thru hikers met up with the parents of "Blue’s Clues" and more champagne was had at the campground.

At the campground, a Park Service ranger approached the three thru hikers with a form documenting each successful thru hike with each receiving their completion number: "Keeper" 262, "Blue’s Clues" 263 and "Five Pair" 264.

2184.2 miles complete/0 miles to go

Prologue: A celebratory dinner at Scootic Inn was enjoyed with other hikers also being present being "Bison" and "Knief", email and contact information exchanged, and then the hikers who had spent the last five months of their lives on the Appalachian Trail said good-bye to each other and their journey.