Team No Sleep: Summiting Katahdin!

Planning the end of our thru-hike started at Shaw’s Hostel, but when we got to the final days it was a lot of early rising with very little sleep.

We arrived at the Abol Bridge Store Cabins in the early afternoon. We were overcome with awe at the colorful leaves changing on the bank of the Penobscot River with Mount Katahdin right behind it. I could have stared at it all day, but we needed to resupply and eat dinner quickly. 

The Tramily decided that staying in a cabin was the best plan because we wanted to arrive at the Ranger Station first to get our reservation for staying at the Baxter Park Shelter that night. Many times the Shelter fills up and then you have to stay further away at a campground. I didn’t want to risk that since I knew I was going to need to start climbing as early as possible to make it up and back down before 5pm.

We all turned in early and set our alarms for 4:00am. When the alarms went off, we all sprung into action.  Nothing was going to get in our way: SUMMIT DAY!

We arrived at 5:00am, patiently waiting until the Ranger arrived at 6:00am. We faced another nail-biter waiting for the Ranger to tell us the weather for Summit Day. Thankfully, we got good news: no rain was coming tomorrow. That statement evoked a cheer, even though we were all sleep deprived.

Our plan was to go back to the cabin, pack, eat donuts (Thanks to Hey Google!) and then hike out by 10am to make it to the NEXT Ranger Station at the hallowed Baxter Park to get our passes to hike Mount Katahdin.

I was shocked at how easy the hike was leading up to Baxter. We arrived in the late afternoon and got in line to get our passes. Ranger Pete told us to grab a day pack, so we could go lighten our backpacks. My initial thought was to just USE the day pack instead of my backpack for the last hike. 

We arrived at the shelter at night fall to find a campfire already glowing. Ranger Pete arrived and gave us the rules for climbing Katahdin. We asked a lot of questions, and that’s when I decided to take my mostly-empty backpack.

My heart was racing as I got into the shelter for the last time on my thru-hike when Ranger Pete left. I did not sleep much again that night, regardless of the fact that we had decided to hike out at 4:00am.

I woke up to “hug a tree” at 2:30am. Bill was awake when I arrived back from “tree hugging”. Like kids on Christmas morning, we tiptoed around the camp making our way to the shelter  a quarter of a miles away, where we would leave our extra gear to pick up after we finished.

We labeled and left everything right on time. Our headlamps lighted the foot path for us. Wow! It was a climb. But I was prepared! I had hiked the whole trail to prepare for this. I struggled, but the trees were my best friends. I used them to hoist myself up for the first several miles. Our Tramily had all decided to leave early, and the first one to pass us was Purser. We high fived and said we would see her at the top. She was on a tighter schedule than us, and she caught us coming down while we were still going up.

The hike became far more technical after the sun rose. I knew it was coming, and Bill and I had a plan for it. So Bill climbed up. I handed him my lighter backpack, and he carried it up the technical parts for me. He dropped off both our packs and came back to coach me through. It was SLOW. But I made it through the technical climb. Boujie Doc and Hey Google caught up to us during the technical climb. We let them pass because I needed a rest. I knew what goes up must come down, and I would need my strength to get to the bottom.

The rest is the climb up was easy. But I was tired, so it wasn’t fast. We arrived at the summit at noon, and I was famished. After the obligatory photo (which I couldn’t even stand up for) I sat on the ground behind a rock and ate every snack in my pack. Afterwards, I drank a full liter of water. That was all I consumed all day. Adrenaline is powerful.

Food and water kicked my brain back on, and the weight of what I had just accomplished hit me. And I cried a bucket of happy tears. Then it was time for the REAL photo op. Sadly, Purser had to go because her ride was arriving earlier than ours, so she wasn’t in the photo. But I will photoshop her in someday. Regardless, the photos made me feel triumphant. But then, it was time to leave.

We had decided to go down Abol Trail. It was a hellish descent and my legs were spent, so I spent the rest of the day scooting down the mountain on my bottom. It was completely worth it when we got to the views. Fall in all of her glory. Our summit was completely clouded over, so we had no view the top. But THIS view made up for it. 

The rest is the descent was a dream because I realized I had DONE it. I beat the odds. Nothing was able to stop me. Bill and I had made it to Katahdin through every pain and tear. Because I was so slow I was alone for a portion of the hike. Usually this would have caused me stress, but I was as light as a feather. Fear and doubt had finally lifted. I knew I was a thru-hiker.