Legs and Borders

"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 a...

"Last night I slept on a baseball bat" Roper I've arrived at the Baxter Park rangers kiosk just past 6 AM, there were two other section hikers waiting for him to come, soon after we got joined by Trademark and Diehard. Promptly at 7 AM ranger Donald Duck rolled in to give us briefing and open sign in sheet for today's 12 spots at the Birches Campsite only available to thru hikers (or people who continually hiked here from Monson, 100 miles away). But before he started we saw Little Foot and her tramily of four walking down the road towards us, they made it here just in time! Donald told us about an additional sing in and free permit we needed to get from ranger inside the park to summit Katahdin tomorrow (it was all a bit convoluted but it worked out well). After all the information about "conservation first, recreation second" has been passed to us, we were free to go. Everyone but the two section hikers chose...