Today was awesome. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning, rising as the sun was just starting to come up. I decided to start moving as soon as my eyes opened, as I was too excited to keep sleeping. The air definitely had some chill to it, and I was grateful to have my fleece on. After just a few minutes of walking, I began to warm up, so I took off some layers and hiked in just a T-shirt. The hike started with some easy meandering, walking alongside a stream, then crossing underneath some gorgeous waterfalls coming down the side of the mountain. After that, though, it got REALLY hard. It essentially went straight up, or at least that was how it felt. It first pitched up while the trail was still below the treeline, a bit rough to hike, but doable. Then, when the trail emerged from below the treeline, the terrain got difficult. I was now “hiking” on bare rock, still making my way up. It was necessary to use both hands to scramble up the face of the mountain. I wound up needing to stow my trekking poles in my backpack so I could pull myself up the rock formations. My hands got very roughed up doing so, but oh well. I don’t believe it will be the worst of my troubles. One key thing I learned quickly was how important trees are for breaking the wind. As I tackled the nearly vertical ascent, I suddenly realized that it was incredibly windy. This meant that while I struggled to pull myself up the rock face, the wind tore at me and tried to push me sideways across the face of the mountain. Frankly, while going up, the wind was manageable, and even kind of fun. When making my way back down, however, the wind was terrifying and very nearly made me lose my footing more than once. I was grateful to have only taken a small daypack, and not my full load of gear. While coming down, I ascended backwards. Something about a backwards descent made me very anxious and quickly made the descent unfun. Adding in some concerns about a storm rolling in over my head, I was suddenly very worried about returning safely to the bottom. Regardless, above the sheer face of rock, the mountain was incredibly flat. Near the peak, the mountain evolved into something referred to as “the flatlands,” at around 4500 ft in elevation. At this height, there were cool rocks and very rare plants due to the unique climate at the elevation and location on the globe. At the very peak, where the sign for the northern terminus of the AT was located, the wind was driving low-hanging clouds up along the edge of the mountain and over the top. This meant that one side of the peak had low and brooding clouds that loomed and threatened rain, while on the other side the clouds had been lifted above the mountain summit, revealing a great view to the east. One final note: as I ascended, it got much cooler. At the peak, it was downright cold. I expected to notice a temperature difference, but I had not expected to be so cold that I needed to put layers back on. I blame the wind.
The total time for ascent and descent of Katahdin was 6 hours and 20 minutes. I spent around 20 minutes resting and checking out the summit, and 3 hours ascending, and 3 hours descending. I felt like I had made pretty good time, and was grateful to have started so early, as I was alone at the summit, beating the other hikers up.
For the rest of the day, I hung around the campsite, enjoying my dad’s company, and eating some home-cooked food for the last time before setting off.