AT Day 150 - Katahdin. One Peak, Endless Memories
Day 150
We woke up at 3 am from the Abol Pines Campground to have enough time to summit and find a ride into town. I’m not sure how much either of us slept, given our excitement for the day. We broke camp quickly and quietly and started up the Blueberry Ledges Trail. It was dark and cold, but clear, which made the frosty birch forest sparkle magnificently. The trail was well-maintained, and from what we could see, it was gorgeous. Around the time the sun started to rise, we passed the thru-hiker shelter and said good morning to Price is Right. We then stopped at the campground for snacks and water before heading up the famous Huntsman Trail. Most of the trail was easygoing, with picturesque waterfalls and evergreens. The clouds started to clear out around the same time we broke through the tree line, and we were rewarded with incredible views of Baxter State Park. It was about this time that the hiking turned into scrambling.
I attached my poles to my pack, tightened my straps, and started up. I was struggling because of the lack of tread and grip on my shredded shoes. Slowly but surely, we continued up until the toebox on my right shoe completely ripped out, causing me to slip and deeply gash my knee open. I tried to fix it up with some KT tape, but it accomplished nothing. Now moving even more slowly, I crawled up the last exposed portion, carefully trying to avoid further injuring my knee while taking in the views. Once on top, I made the call to hold off on cleaning my leg (which was covered in blood) until we were done, since the act of hiking and climbing was making it worse. As we traversed the top, heading towards the summit of Katahdin, the clouds started to move in, but I did not care as I was already on cloud nine. We stopped again for a brief snack before beelining to the top. And there it was, the sign in all of its glory and splendor. My initial impression was that it was much larger in person! Likewise, I was surprised at how many people were up there. A bit unsteady at this point, we sauntered up and had our pictures taken, now completely socked in by clouds. A fairly fitting finale considering how the weather has been all trail!
We celebrated with a few other hikers we knew up there, before making our way down. To switch things up, we decided to take the Abol Slide Trail down as it was apparently quicker and had better footholds. It lived up to its status as a slide trail (which essentially means that it’s a winter avalanche route), as the top of it felt like a sheer drop of loose gravel. We carefully slid down the first part, and the rest of it was easygoing. Once back on the road, we went and got our purple thru-hiker permits (as the office was closed when we passed through earlier) and grabbed a ride from a hostel owner into Millinocket. We had done it, together.
