Done! (sort of)...

Holey moley, what a mountain!! 

Mt Katahdin, the highest point in Maine, the Northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, the sixth highest mountain in New England.  5,269 of feet to climb - 13' short of a mile straight up

 I wanted to shout that we “Stood on top of Maine!” 


And we did for the most part….we just did not make it to the summit. Estimate is that we stopped at about 4,450 feet.  (definitely a ways above the treeline)  We did climb it...just not all the way.


There is a lot to be proud of – the personal heights achieved, climbing over many, many boulders, crazy pulls up done to get up and around the rocks and the fact that we made it in and out without getting majorly injured. (there are some interesting bruises though). 

We found out that there had been a chopper rescue up in the boulder fields a few days before we got up there. Yikes! 

Am I disappointed at not reaching the summit? Of course. 

Am I happy that we made it out alive?  Definitely! 

Safety first was the always the priority.  We were about 20 minutes short of the Tabletops when a storm started to roll in. It made for some great pictures – as in “we have reached Mordor!”. 

The other hikers were honest about how much more of a climb there was (a good two hours) and we decided that we would call it - we turned to head back down. No easy feat since it involved climbing and riding down the boulders we had just climbed. The rangers said that we did the smart thing because even they have issues navigating the trail at night.

The total was 13 hours of hiking & climbing in the heat. (and by the way, I had my period) 


I do have to publicly thank a few people that helped make this happen. 

The one that got me into hiking and made sure that I was outfitted properly to start with. 

The one that renewed my interest in hiking by showing me another side of it. 

The one that provided the inspiration for this trip. 

The ones that were cheerleaders before and during this trip. 

I would not have been able to do this without all of you!!!


Katahdin will be revisited – there are a bunch that need to be climbed first!