Final Progress Map (Week 21)

Final Progress Map
Week 21

Reflections on the Finish

What a last 72 hours it has been. I suppose it started with the morning of the Mount Katahdin summit.

When I woke up, it did not feel like any sort of special moment. Five, Firestarter, and I all headed up together, remarking on the slowness of the day hikers (nothing against day hikers!) and playing infinite questions. But as we got higher, I started slowing down and falling behind them. I think it was seeing the higher reaches of the mountain ahead of me. This was my last summit, the last mountain in a mountain of challenges. 

At the Table Land, a flat alpine area with very little vegetation, it really started hitting me. I thought about Georgia, and everything in between, and all of the hard times. Then I thought of all the good times. And then I thought of everything that was beyond my thru-hike. I thought of my family and friends who were pulling for me with every step and of all the people I hardly knew or didn't know that were also following my journey on the blog. Realizing that I was not alone on the mountain was very powerful. It felt so good to know that I had come through and succeeded not only for myself, but everyone following along.

All of these thoughts flooded my head as I looked at the top of the mountain ahead of me. I could even see people standing next to the KATAHDIN sign. Strangely, however, when I got to the top, nothing happened as I thought it would. There was no crying, no kneeling before the sign, no flood of relief or accomplishment. Even the sign was smaller than I imagined it would be. Instead, I was just in a sort of daze, looking from the sign to the view to the friends around me. My friend Vulture offered to take some pictures of me at the sign and it felt strange standing behind and feeling done. I couldn't make myself feel done!

Slowly but surely, however, it has hit me exactly what has transpired. I'm coming around to the fact that I have no hiking to do tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. And Mount Katahdin is not a goal that lies in the future, its something that I did on August 13th. Even right now, writing this blog update from my computer, I'm realizing that I'm home. I have all the comforts of my house. And I'll be sitting in class in just a few days. It's very strange!

People at home have been asking me, "Is it like you're on another planet?" No, not really. It's more like I'm living somebody else's life! Who is this guy who uses toilets and sleeps in a bed and writes emails?! Me and the rest of the thru-hikers, we all said good bye to our trail names in a way when we said good bye to each other. No one knows me as Scribbles like Tate and Firestarter and Five knew me as Scribbles. I think that leaving this wonderful thru-hiking community will be the hardest part of the transition back.

With all that said, I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to be listening to WCUW, and playing vintage baseball, and watching the Yanks on TV. I'm glad to be in one spot, and playing guitar, and seeing my girlfriend and family and everyone who I've missed. I've already reunited with a ton of people who I haven't seen since March or earlier! Even though the transition's not going to be easy, I am happy that I've hiked 2,189 miles and there is no more to do.

I'm at my mom's in Connecticut right now, seeing friends and re-setting for the real world. More to come soon, as the transition continues! Pictures for sure.

- Scribbles (aka Ted)

8:44 p.m. 8/15/2015

TREK COMPLETE!

0 miles left

I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to collect my thoughts until now, but yes, I am done. I summitted yesterday, the 13th at 10AM. And it felt awesome.

All I think I have the brain power for right now is a sort of string of events. Later today I promise to send the important stuff!

First was Abol bridge, 10 miles before Katahdin. We (Firestarter, 5, and I) got there on a rainy cold day, and were gratefully met by Fives parents. They ended up totally hooking us up, bringing us from Abol to another place where they set us up with dinner and a dry place to stay. They also later shuttled us in to Millinocket. Well, all the trail magic inspired us. We knew some of the hikers that would be at the base of Katahdin, so we decided to suprise them with a little food. In all, we carried 9 steaks, 9 ears of corn, and 3 pounds of hot dogs to our friends Vulture, Obsolete, Caboose, and Mystyr Lynyrd. It felt great to give back to the people who made the trail so special, and the steak tasted pretty good too!

Yesterday just went by too fast. I was on the trail at 7, and three hours later I was there. Katahdin. Done. It was crazy. Another post will go into much more detail about the final summit but I assure you it is a feeling unlike any other. After the pictures were taken and the PB&Js were eaten, we hiked the Knife Edge (full packs!) and descended Pamola. And now I need to adjust to NOT hiking every day. Alright, more will come later. For now, I'm going to enjoy being an official 2015 thru-hiker!

-Scribbles (aka Ted) 

10:13 a.m. 8/14/2015

Completed on Day 152

Day 150 - Nesuntabunt Mountain

Nesuntabunt Mountain, 35

After a journey of more than 2100 miles, it's hard to believe that a measley 35 miles of hiking separates me and Katahdin. From this mountain where I'm camped, I can see the end! I have a gameplan, I know how many miles to do each day, what I'm doing after summiting, how I'm getting home, it's nuts! The journey is almost over. 

 

The biggest dilemma I'm dealing with is whether to be happy or sad about the hike ending. The truth is, I am both. On the one hand, here's this awesome accomplishment at my fingertips that I've worked so hard for. How could I not be psyched out of my mind?! Plus I'll get to return to my friends and family, and start yet another chapter of my life, in which I tackle a 5-class workload and the LEEP project in my senior year. It's going to be tough, but I'm very excited.

Yet something is making me feel a bit sad, too. It's the end. A few nights ago I sat at the edge of a deserted lake, alone, just watching and listening to the forest. When's the next time I'll be able to do that? In some ways, it feels like I'm about to witness the death of good old Scribbles as I return to being Ted. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course. I can't stay out here forever! 

 

So here I go again. The plan is to summit Katahdin with a bunch of trail friends on Thursday, then on Friday I return home and revert back to a completely new way of living!

-Scribbles (aka Ted)
8:36 a.m. 8/11/2015

Week 21: Ted is in the Home Stretch! Katahdin!

Ted is in the Home Stretch!
Katahdin is now in sight!

Day 146 - No Service in Monson

That's right, Monson, Maine! I have a mere 115 miles left in my journey and I am at the southern end of the 100-Mile Wilderness.

But how did he get here? And what does he want? You may ask... Well, what I want is simple: to finish up the Appalachian Trail on a sunny day, preferably August 13th or 14th. But how I got here (a MacBook Pro at Shaw's Lodging here in Monson) is quite the story...

We left off when I was just outside Stratton, a few miles past the 2,000 mile mark. If you recall, I had just survived a hail storm, my first real hail-acious experience on the trail. Well, the next day I had the Bigelows to tackle, which leads to exciting trail story number one.
Exciting Trail Story #1: To hail or not to hail?

The day started off great. I got out a little late, but the weather was beautiful. I topped Bigelow and was feeling the best I had since Old Blue. A cacophony of "OLD BLUUUE"s rained down on the Maine lowlands that day. But at the second peak of Bigelow, named Avery Peak after Myron Avery (one of the founders of the AT), I saw some seriously dark clouds to the east. The clouds mostly just made Avery Peak one of my favorite views on the AT so far. I had super dark clouds what seemed like mere feet above my head, then a shadowy area near the mountain, and in between was a sunny greenish-blue area where Flagstaff Lake was. Just incredible! I was admiring the view until I saw a big ole flash of lightning descend from a cloud and hit the lake, followed by thunder, followed by a clear band of rain to the east. Being above treeline, and especially being at 4200 feet, is not a good idea in a thunderstorm! So I admired one more lightning strike and ran down to Safford Gap, which is a little haven of sub-alpine area between Bigelow and Little Bigelow.

Oddly enough, upon arriving at Safford Gap, the thunder went away and the clouds cleared up. What I thought had been imminent hail turned into cloudless skies. "Great, let's do some Little Bigelow!" I thought. So Little Bigelow it was...for about a half mile. Then it got ominously dark...then the thunder came back...then it started to hail. I was not yet above treeline, but I kept going anyway, straight in the direction of the thunder. My thinking was that if I could just keep moving, I'd get to the shelter on the other side of Little Bigelow and be safe from the elements. And all that separated me from the shelter was, well, five miles of alpine zone, most of it above treeline. Oh well, the hail had died down, and I wasn't quite up to exposed rock yet so I felt pretty good about the decision.

I'll tell you what though, having pine trees above your head and a thin layer of needles and branches to protect you can make you feel good about a lot of things. The thunder only got louder, the sky only got darker, and Little Bigelow only went up and up and up. I finally found myself on a treeless slab of rock looking at a big ole storm approaching. And I was scared! The hail wasn't even too much of a concern. It was the lightning. I was definitely the highest thing up there, and I still had miles to go. All I could do was go as fast as possible and pray for the trail to start going down.

Now that Exciting Trail Story #1 has you excited, I might as well give you the most anti-climactic ending possible: just when I thought I was about to get slammed with the storm, the trail DID start going down. And I made it to the shelter. And I didn't get hailed on. And you all feel slighted after having read the previous three paragraphs.
It actually got sunny again, and I got to Flagstaff Lake to swim and camp. I was right on the edge of the lake, in what was probably my best camping spot ever. And the next day, I had the best hiking day ever, and I also had Exciting 

Trail Story #2...

Exciting Trail Story #2: Ultra-Marathons and Blueberry Gods

I'll try to keep this one a little shorter. Basically I hiked 34 miles on Wednesday. BAM.

The terrain was just oh-so flat, after a month of it being oh-so mountainous. And I am currently reading Born to Run, about the Tarahumara indians in Mexico who can run forever, so I was very inspired. I was going to stop at 25, but if I stopped at 25 there would be no reason to include "Blueberry Gods" in the title to Exciting Trail Story #2.

I got to a shelter at 4:30, and being relatively tired and having done 25 miles, felt that it was a good place to end the day. But amidst a friendly conversation with some section hikers, the names "Five" and "Firestarter" were brought up. Some of my best trail buddies? Just left here at 3? Next shelter? Forget camping! I got my stuff together and started the last 9 miles at around 5. If I hustled, I'd be at the next shelter around 8.

After slamming a considerable amount of Mio, I sprinted up Pleasant Pond Mountain and was down- wait! No, how can I leave this mountain when there are literally too many blueberries to eat up here!? I considered my options; keep going and get to the shelter, pick some berries and get there at night, pick some berries and camp short of the next shelter... Naturally, I chose "spend an hour picking a 591 mL Smart Water Bottle full of blueberries and then run (literally) to the shelter to avoid night-hiking." That evening, after running the final 7 miles to the shelter in a little more than an hour, and arriving with blueberries for all, I became Scribbles, God of Blueberries.

And that's my last few days! I skipped over yesterday, because it was a terrible 20 mile day that I want to forget. But today will be an easy  10-ish day whenever I start, and I'll be entering the 100 mile wilderness! I'm very excited. Crazy to think that I have about a week left out here. No promises with the service in the Wildy, but I will do the best I can to provide more updates!

- Scribbles (aka Ted)
10:54 a.m. 8/7/2015

Day 143 - Cranberry Stream Camp

Cranberry Stream camp, 186

I was going to send an update from Crocker Mountain, but a thunderstorm chased me down before I could...and then it turned into a hail storm. Some of the craziest weather I've faced on the trail. Marble-sized hail, and so much of it that when the storm was over, there were places where you could scoop a couple dozen into your hand! I even had to stop hiking and take refuge under a tree.

I have now hiked 2000 miles, 2003 to be exact. I kicked off the new millenium of hiking with a bad night of sleep however, resorting at one point to reading until tired. Maybe I was just looking forward to this update! Anyway, it's time to hit the trail and hike Bigelow. The last 4000 footer until the end! Also, I have a preliminary goal of summiting August 14, with the 15th a bad weather/way too tired backup. The 14th would finish me under 5 months (remember it was the Approach I did on March 14), and the 15th would be 5 flat. So I gotta keep up the pace!

- Scribbles (aka Ted)
9:34 a.m. 8/4/2015

Day 141 - Saddleback

Saddleback, 215 

 

I'm back! I just took a weekend off the trail to hang out with some friends from home. It was great!! We had a nice campsite in Blue Mountain State Park, we hiked a 13 mile section of the AT, and got to swim in some awesome ponds. Without a doubt, the highlight was a canoe adventure on Webb Lake, where two of my buddies capsized and had to be helped back to shore. Everyone was all right, of course. What an experience though...

With the fun times with friends past me, the main event now is getting to Katahdin. There are no more big meetups planned. The next thing to look forward to is finishing. It is me vs. the trail for the next 200 miles. Hard to believe I'm only about 2 weeks from finishing!

A few more quick notes: As usual, the views here are incredible. Maine is a rugged, beautiful state and I have loved every minute. Saddleback, where I am now, is a 3 mile above treeline stretch with views in all directions. Amazing! Also, I ascended Old Blue after Moody Mountain and although Moody didn't make me too moody, Old Blue made me feel a little blue. It went up and up and up and my legs were absolutely on fire. By the time I reached the top, I was as tired as I've ever been on the trail. I did relish yelling "OOOOLD BLUUUUUE!!!!" upon summiting however! I think yelling that phrase might become a habit...

-Scribbles (aka Ted)
6:34 p.m. 8/2/2015