Day 1
June 15, 2010The climb of Mt. Katahdin was great for about two hours. The next seven hours however were ether spent getting rained on and walking in a wet cloud. Once we reached the summate we were faced with rain and sleet, every so often the clouds broke open to produce some amazing breathtaking views.
At one of the ranger stations we were shown a couple trails on maps that we could take to get to the top of the mountain, we chose to go up Abol and down the Hunt trail. This would have given us a nice round trip, or so we thought.
Most of the hike on the Abol Trail was a beautiful. Then it turned into steep paths, and out of nowhere the trail turned into hand, over hand, pull your self up giant rocks, kind of trail. This is right about the time it started to rain on us. Perfect timing too because dry rocks are too easy to climb. I prefer to have a chance to slip and fall to my death on nice wet ones. I think it was right around this time when I had to stop and pause just to say to my self “I am literally climbing a mountain,” just incase I forgot what it was I had been doing the last two hours.
Around this time my body took a moment to remind me that it was a little over weight and out of shape. I believe it gave me the option to turn around at that point or hurt for a long time to come. I gave my body no such satisfaction. I kept going. It was only muscle pain, and that can be taking care of by some Ibuprofen. When I got back to camp I made sure to do just that.
Seeing the summit sign was truly amazing. I was tired, out of breath and looked like a drown dog. All and all the climb was hard, cold, wet, painful and beautiful. About half way back down my legs started to give out on me, I had the people I was hiking with just go ahead with out me so that I could sit and rest. The best way to describe what I did is to have you climb up and down staircases or sky scrapers for 8hrs straight with a back pack on .
I am now in my tent on the A.T. my legs are starting to get the feeling back in them and yes it is still raining. Tomorrow should be interesting.
Posted by Christopher Burks
We all dream of adventure, only the true adventurers will step out past the known world. These are the voices from the sunset trail. This blog will not only tell of my adventures on the Appalachian Trail but it will also tell the stories of the people who cross my path.
