Day 155 The Birches Lean-to to KATAHDIN

Today's miles 5.2 (plus 5.2). 
AT miles 2185.3

WE'VE FINISHED!!!  What an amazing final day.  We're so glad we took an extra day to finish, one because I had regained more energy and two, because we got fantastic weather.  The day before finishers had no views.

We wanted an early start to beat the crowds going up Katahdin so set our alarm for 4:30am.  We only needed to take a day pack with us today as we were coming back to the same place, so left our other gear at the Rangers Office. We were on the trail for 5:50am.  It was a beautiful sunny day and slightly cooler which was good for us and kept the bugs away.  We had around 4150ft to climb to Katahdin summit 5267ft. 

It was a gentle ascent to start up past Katahdin Stream Falls then gradually got steeper and rockier.  We were back to rock scrambling again which we do enjoy.  I took a '5 hour' energy drink just before the steep rock scrambles to keep me going, it seemed to work.  A few difficult manoeuvres, Nigel had to pull me up a few times over the rocks.  Women do hike up solely, I'm not sure I'd have been able to, not without lots of grazed knees anyway!  Once we got up to about 4500 ft we hit The Tableland, a gentler plateau leading us to the summit.  There were fantastic views with a great cloud inversion on one side of the mountain.  We reached the summit at 9:30 and had it to ourselves.  It was so good to see the 'Katahdin Sign' the iconic symbol of the end of the Appalachian Trail.  There were no happy tears, I thought there may be.  We'd finished the AT! 

No celebrations at the top though, it's unlucky to celebrate on top of a mountain, we hadn't finished hiking for the day.  The AT starts and finishes on mountain summits, we had to get back down again.  We find it strange that a trail starts and finishes on top of a mountain.  A bit of a spoiler.  For us we feel that when you actually finish hiking a trail you want to be able to walk straight to a pub to celebrate or at least be able to get in your car and drive home and celebrate, not have to walk the same 5.2 miles back down the mountain again.  Like at the start we had the 8.9 mile Approach Trail to walk to reach Springer Mountain, the start of the trail.

We made our way back down, passing lots of people coming up, we were down just before 1pm.  We collected our gear from the rangers office and signed the hiker register.  It'll take a while I think to sink in what we've actually achieved.  It feels like it's just another day walking and were heading into town for a rest day, it's become such a routine/lifestyle the last five months.  We're glad to have finished though, there's new adventures to be had now!

We waited on the side of the single lane dirt road hoping we'd be able to get a hitch out of Baxter Park to Millinocket.  It's not a busy road.  We only had to wait half an hour thankfully, we could have been there all afternoon until all the day visitors were leaving the park.   Luckily a team of bridge construction workers were leaving, their bridge moving project finished in the park and we got a ride to Millinocket.  We were dropped off near the Katahdin Inn so we checked in there for a couple of nights.

We showered changed and then walked into Millinocket. Our first port of call the health centre to see if I could get a doctors appointment to get some antibiotics. There first free appointment slot was not until Monday (today's Thursday) but because we're only in town until Saturday they kindly agreed to see me there and then.  Without lab tests, they're presuming I have Giardia, caught from contaminated water, which is what we self diagnosed anyway and have given me a weeks course of antibiotics.  Hopefully that'll cure my stomach 'alien' for good.

We then went to the AT cafe for some food, Nigel had a huge steak and fries and I had salmon and baked potato.  The owner gets all thru hikers to sign his ceiling boards so we signed our names for the 'class of 2014' completers!

So this is the last daily blog post of our amazing AT adventure.  A HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way.  I will write a final summary blog when I get time in a week or so.  We have two days rest - sort of, lots of jobs to do and things to organise and then we're back off into the wilderness on our week long canoe trip along the Allagash River so there will be a blog post about that too.  Then we'll head to a beach somewhere for a proper rest! 

I hope you don't get blog withdrawal symptoms.  I know last year when I was following other people's AT blogs I missed their regular posts when they'd finished.  There'll be plenty more adventure stories to be told, just not so regular.

Day 154 Abol Bridge to The Birches Lean-to

Today's miles 9.9.  AT miles 2180.1

Our penultimate day on the trail.  We took our time getting ready this morning, we didn't have a big mileage day and left camp at 8:30.  I was feeling slightly better and had a bit more energy after managing to eat properly last night.  It was as another pretty flat day trail wise, a slight uphill on the second half.  Early on we entered Baxter State Park where we registered to stay at The Birches Lean-to/Campsite at Katahdin Stream Campground, it only holds twelve people and is exclusive to north bound thru hikers only.

We had one river ford today across the Nesowadnehunk Stream.  We crossed it twice but managed to rock hop the second crossing.  We arrived at Katahdin Stream Campground at 1pm and signed in at the ranger station there before heading to the Birches Lean-to.  There was only one tent platform which was already half taken by another guy but not really enough room for our tent too.   There were two four person Lean-to's so we set our tent inner up in one of the Lean-to's hoping it wouldn't get busy later and we have to move.  I was not sleeping in a shelter on our last night on trail without bug/mice protection.

Around three thirty we had a small thunderstorm and had rain showers into the early evening.   We went back to the ranger station around 4:30 during afternoon office hours to register our thru hike finish and get our thru hiker finish numbers.  We are thru hikers number 71 and 72 to finish this year.  Two other guys turned up later, so there were five of us in total at camp.

During the evening we had a visit from 'The End of Trail Angels', two hiker loving, trail magic ladies from Millinocket.  They arrived with pizza and donuts for us hikers which Nigel and the other guys enjoyed, I couldnt eat any.  They stayed a while chatting and took away all our rubbish for us too.  What fantastic ladies.

Tomorrows the big day, we summit Mount Katahdin and finish the trail!

Day 153 Rainbow Stream Lean-to to Abol Bridge

Today's miles 15.  AT miles 2170.2

We have had to make a slight change to our final days schedules thanks to my unfriendly stomach 'alien' as we are slightly behind plan and to give me chance to recuperate some energy.   We had planned on being at Katahdin Stream Campsite/The Birches Lean-to by the end of today, just 5.2 miles from Katahdin summit and summiting Katahdin, the end of the Appalachian Trail, tomorrow, but have added in an extra day.  Today we walked as far as Abol Bridge, the north end of the 100 mile wilderness, back to a little bit of civilisation. 

Nigel spotted some Indian Pipe growing near our campsite this morning, an unusual translucent candy cane shaped plant that has no chlorophyll.  We left camp at 7:30, again it was mainly another levelish trail day but still with rocks and roots obstacles.  We walked alongside the large Rainbow Lake for quite a while, we stopped for a break at the waters edge at one point then up and over Rainbow Ledges where there were wild blueberries just ripening.  Down from the Ledges we stopped at Hurd Brook Lean-to for another break, we then had only 3 miles to go to Abol Bridge where there is a campground, camp store and restaurant. 

We arrived at Abol Bridge about 2:45, there was a great view of Katahdin from the bridge.  We headed to the restaurant, we were in need of proper food or something that I actually felt like eating!   Nigel had his usual burger and fries and a beer or two. I had a BLT sandwich and fries and water.  I managed the sandwich, Nigel ate my fries, I still don't have my full appetite back, I get nausea and stomach cramps every time I eat, but need to rebuild my energy levels for the last two days.  We did think about getting off trail at Abol Bridge and heading for Millinocket town twenty miles away to rest, see a doctor then come back and finish the last two days of the trail later on, but that meant a big upheaval to our after trail plans.  I said I'd rather continue adding in an extra day to make it easier and get the trail finished.

We booked a campsite pitch, showered, rinsed some clothes out and had a relaxing afternoon.  I managed to get some Alka Seltzer from the camp store, hoping that that plus good old Coca Cola may help settle my stomach at least temporarily.

How I kept going the last five days I don't really know?   I had no choice but to continue as there is no help or an easy escape route in the 100 mile wilderness section of the trail.  There were a few tears along the way and I cried a few tears when we reached Abol Bridge with relief that we'd made it.  I was just determined to get the trail miles finished, we're just days away from completion - stamina, determination, mental willpower and strong legs saw me through. After 2000+ miles of walking day after day our legs go into automatic mode.  It just shows what your body can do when it has too and is pushed to the limits.

Day 152 Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to to Rainbow Stream Lean-to

Today's miles 18.2.  AT miles 2155.2

The 'alien' bug in my stomach didn't like my noodle dinner last night, I felt rough in the night again and on waking in the morning, such a knock back I thought I was slowly getting better yesterday.  I really didn't want to hike today.  We had to continue though with the trail and the 100 mile wilderness so another day feeling rough hiking.  We left camp at eight.  The first half of the trail today was pretty flat but with lots of tree roots and rocks to manoeuvre around which slow you down and use more energy.  We should have had a couple of rivers to ford along the way but managed to stone hop across them again. The advantages of a dry weather spell.

We stopped at Wadleigh Stream Lean-to for a break and top up water.  We had another small mountain, Nesuntabunt Mountain 1520ft to go over.  Not being able to eat properly for the last few days the uphills are a struggle and zap all my energy so Nigel took more weight off me again.  We made it up slowly and were rewarded with a great view of Mount Katahdin sixteen miles away - line of sight only - we still have thirty six miles to do!

From Nesuntabunt summit it was another five and a half miles to the next shelter, Rainbow Stream Lean-to.  We decided to head there for the night as we were (or I was) hiking slower than normal and not continue another four miles further still to Rainbow Lake Campsite which was our original plan.  Those last five miles to the shelter seemed to take forever, the last two especially.  The majority of the last couple of miles followed alongside the quite impressive Pollywog Gorge, shame we didn't feel like appreciating it more.  We arrived at the Lean-to at six.   Nigel cooked pasta for dinner, I managed a few spoonfuls of the sauce, had a cup of tea then went to bed. 

Day 151 Logan Brook Lean-to to Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to

Today's miles 23.1.  AT miles 2137

A long but much easier day today, I was feeling slightly better this morning and did manage to eat some breakfast.  The trail was downhill from Logan Brook shelter, where we left just before 7:30, to East Branch of Pleasant River.  We thought we would have to ford the river but someone had laid a tree branch across the big gap between stepping stones so we could get across without the need to ford.  We stopped for a quick break here. We then had a small Mountain to get over, Little Boardman Mountain and then the trail was a very gradual flat downhill for the rest of the day.  The trail was easy going with not too many rocks and tree root obstacles so we could get a good 3mph pace going for the majority of it.

We stopped for another break at Jo-Mary Road, a forest dirt road then continued on trying to knock off some miles and catch up on yesterdays deficit.  We passed a lovely beach area at lower Jo-Mary lake.  The trail gradually got rockier towards the end slowing us down a bit, plus I was also starting to flag, my energy levels were dropping, I still had no appetite but managed to eat a couple of snack bars today.  We arrived at our intended destination, Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to, just before 5:30.  Although I didn't eat enough during the day, just a couple of snack bars again, I did for the first time in three days manage to eat a normal size dinner of noodles, tuna and cashew nuts.   I'd probably only been surviving on less than 500 calories a day for the last couple of days, about 1000 calories today, not good when I'm burning 4000+ a day.  Nigel has been demolishing all my uneaten snacks very easily though, nothing wrong with his appetite.

Feeling a bit better this evening I finally managed to get the last three days blogs written too. 

Day 150 West Branch Pleasant River to Logan Brook Lean-to

Today's miles 12.8.  AT miles 2113.9

Another day still feeling unwell but we had to continue, I managed to eat a bit of porridge/oatmeal.  We left camp at 7:15 and after a few hundred yards were straight into a river ford, we had to cross the wide, but low thankfully, West Branch of Pleasant River that we'd been camped near.  By the time we'd removed boots, put on Crocs, forded the river, which was no more than knee deep, then dried our feet and put boots back on again and started hiking it was nearly 7:45. Not long after we passed a junction for the Gulf Hagas Trail, an optional 5.2 mile loop trail that features narrow deep gorges and lots of waterfalls, we didn't take it, instead we continued steadily uphill to the Carl A Newhall Lean-to where we stopped for a break. 

Nigel got our stove out and made me a cup of tea, all I wanted to do was drink.  I wasn't hungry but forced myself to eat a snack knowing I needed the energy as I'd eaten hardly anything the day before.  Eating just made matters worse and gave me bad stomach cramps.  After resting about 45 minutes or so we had to continue. So Nigel carried extra weight taking some of the heavier items out of my backpack and slowly we made our way up and over four mountain peaks, Gulf Hagas Mountain, West Peak, Hay Mountain and White Cap Mountain, stopping regularly for a break at each summit.  From the north side of White Cap Mountain we saw our first view of Mount Katahdin where the AT trail ends, albeit very faint in the hazy cloud.  

It was a really nice well maintained trail today over these mountains with lots of stone steps unlike yesterdays rough rocky trail over The Barrens, shame I wasn't feeling well.  These were also the last big Mountains of the trail until we reach Mount Katahdin, we were on easier flatter ground after today.

We descended down to Logan Brook Lean-to where we called it a day arriving about 5:15.  We had originally planned on going to the next shelter 3.6 miles further on.  I was feeling slightly better but still had no appetite so decided after the earlier stomach cramps it best to starve myself overnight, have a good nights sleep and hopefully feel a bit better and feel like eating in the morning.