Appalachian Trail #16 MT Katahdin, Northern Terminus

  Photo From the AT:

 

I am almost sure this antique coal truck was in Monson Maine, just north of here is the start of the 100 mile Wilderness, the most isolated part of the AT.

So for today:

Thinking this is too much Trail, I will slow it down with a few more photos.  I hope I don’t do too much repeating since they aren’t in order.

(Even just a glimpse of a water fall about makes me giddy!)

Hiking about 1900 miles on the trail, during which we both had some minor injuries, sore heels, strained groin muscle, Lime scare, etc. We realized  the White mountains of New Hampshire might be just too much for us, but we wanted to see Mt. Katahdin.

So on our next to last trip north we drove to Mt Katahdin. WE chose to climb Katahdin via the Abol Trail and descend the AT (or Hunt Trail). No one is allowed to spend the night on the mountain, so the trip is up and down in one day. Average trip 8-10 hours. We carried light packs and water.

 (So many places we would see stacked rocks)

Climbing was steep, with chances of sliding, BUT very few ‘dangerous ledges or drop offs’. WE reached the top and took pictures then 

..........started down the AT on the Hunt Trail.

At one point on top of a boulder about 4-5’ across and pretty much straight down 50-100’ on one side. Sherry appeared frightened for the first time. “I can’t do this!” she said as she sat on the boulder. 

“Honey we have no choice, we must head on down.” The down trail side was only about 8 to 10 ft down. With some steel rebar about halfway.. I threw the packs down, dropped down and held my hands over my head to get her feet as she slid off on her belly.  That was the toughest thing we encountered. But we had already been on the trail about 14 hours.  We wondered what had happened to that 8 hours round trip. LOL

On down the steep trail, I turned to look at Sherry and she had just slid down easy on her butt and lay back on her pack. I started to help her up and she asked, “Can’t we just lay here for the rest of the night?”

“No Babe, that trail mix you have just might attract a moose or bear, we gotta go.”  So we did.

The trip took us mid 60yr old people 22 hours.  Fortunately, we did have lights in our packs. LOL

So we may not have finished the whole trail but we did get both ends and most of the rest. ;-).

Thanks for reading, and remember, this whole AT backpacking thing, was HER idea.  But I had a ball and it opened our eyes to another world.

Nite Shipslog

PS: Thank YOU ALL, YOUR visit means a lot and  makes us smile. You make our day better to know you have visited.