Appalachian Trail (day 99) - Birches Campsite to Katahdin / mile 2198 [The End]

"When you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing." Jack Kerouac 

It is over, and what a bittersweet feeling it always is, my body is ecstatic that it can get some well deserved rest but my mind would like to keep on going.

We started the ascent onto "Momma K" as people tend to call Katahdin around here at 5 AM I left the campsite with Trademark and we went all the way to the end together which allowed for extra remarks and pictures along the way. We left some of our gear by the ranger station so the packs would be lighter on the way up, it was almost like slack packing. Hunt Trail was our chosen path up, it was steep and technical but in a fun and challenging way, good weather was definitely a deciding factor why this was the case.

Around half way through the trail plateaued and has been quite easy from here all the way to the top. Views were spectacular with rock gardens, alpine plants and all the surrounding peaks clearly visible. About hundred metres before the summit we spotted the famous Katahdin sign and that's when the emotions flooded my brain, I could see with my own eyes the end of 99 days of hard work materialize only few minutes away.

We ascended just before 9 AM, there was no one else on the peak yet, but we could see many people hiking our way using both Hunt and the Knife Edge Trails. All sort of celebratory pictures were taken with the sign, then we sat down nearby and waited for others to arrive. First came Diehard, then two section hikers who stayed with us at the Birches and finally Diesel. 

All other day hikers started to flood the peak and soon enough it was full of people, we stayed for fifteen more minutes and started our descent along the Abol Trail back to the ranger station where we left our tents and sleeping bags. Abol Trail was also quite challenging and steep, we just hopped from one boulder to the other for two hours until we reached the gravel road leading to our destination. 

Once back at the station we repackaged our gear and helped Trademark catch a hitchhike back to Millinocket as he forgot to book the shuttle with the hostel, it was his first ever hitchhike as well so he was a bit nervous about it. Myself and Diehard waited in the carpark for another two hours until the shuttle arrived. In the meantime Tree House tramily hiked in and we shared all our final ascent information and congratulations with them, they were super pumped to finally be here, we on the other hand were a bit confused and couldn't quite believe it was over.

Shuttle arrived just past 4 PM, taking us and Little Foot tramily back to Millinocket hostel. We got informed on the way back that it was Joey's, one of the tramily members 40th birthday, what a way to spend it, by finishing the Appalachian Trail! We also saw a glimpse of a moose by the road which got everyone excited as some of us have not managed to see one yet.

At the Millinocket we checked in and went to a pizza place to eat, now all the adrenaline was gone I was zooming in and out of conversation, trail became the background topic pretty much immediately and people started to talk about the next points of interest.

My next move was to get a hitchhike back to Shaw's Hiker Hostel at Monson and spend there a week or so "work for staying", relaxing and decompressing after this gargantuan experience. I was looking forward to remain around the trail for a bit longer and vibe with the people who were still hiking it.