Summit Anniversary #2!!!!!

I decided that the acknowledgement of my 2nd Summit Anniversary needed it's own post. That's a day I won't easily forget. It was a Wednesday. I had gotten to Katahdin Steam Campground the Friday before and would normally have summited on Saturday with my "croo" but because my partner, Dennis, and my daughter, Dana, were coming up to summit with me, I decided to meet them in town on Friday night, hang low on Saturday, camp out at the campground Saturday night, and summit on Sunday. Good plan. Didn't happen. It rained Saturday night in the lowlands and snowed and iced on Katahdin. Class IV. Mountain closed.

Monday, still Class IV, can't climb. And now the campground is closing and we have to move to Millinocket, the closest town. Get a room at the motel.

Tuesday, Mtn closed. It was a beautiful sunny warm day so we go for a hike. By now the town is filling up with hikers. More coming in every day. All waiting to summit. Some I knew, most I didn't...because they were behind me. They knew of me. Had read my entries in the shelter registers. We start hassling the rangers that we need to finish. There's been no place else on the whole trail that they've said whether or not we could hike it, why here? We're going on Wednesday whether they officially open the mountain or not. By this time, 25 hikers have collected and are chomping at the bit. We ready! We've hiked 2,170 miles to get here and we want to finish.

Wednesday dawns...no that's right, we're up before dawn. We have to get to the gate to Baxter State Park by 6 a.m. so that we can get into the park. They only

let a limited number of cars in and we don't want to be shut out. Nutella, Sir Privy Winks, and Luna are getting a ride out with us. These are hikers I met during my hike and I'm excited to be summiting with them. Bluebearee, a ridge runner, and the ranger are there at the campground to

greet us. And off we go!

The first mile or so are a slow climb in the woods, past a waterfall, over some boulders. Then the boulders become more prominent and larger. And larger! And pretty soon we're having to really scramble our way up, sometimes grabbing metal bars in the rock to hoist ourselves up...and

up...and up.

All along a rocky ridge line. And then we hit the tableland which flattens out. The ice is covering most everything. It's beautiful! It's winter again. I started in the winter in Georgia and I'm finishing in the winter in Maine.

INCREDIBLE!

And up and up and up. A hard climb for Dana and Dennis, as I can only imagine. (I had had 7 months of conditioning.) And then I see the "sign". The thing I walked 2,175 miles to touch. Dana was hiking in front of me. Dennis was behind trying to video and hike...(not an easy thing to do). And Dana stepped aside and said, "The moment is yours, Bag Lady!"

And on I pushed, up and up.

And then I was there!

At that old, faded maroon saw-horse shaped sign that has printed in washed-out white letters, " Katahdin, Northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, a mountain footpath extending from Georgia to Maine."

And the emotions are unlike anything I've ever known. Intense happiness, joy, tears, sobbing, disbelief, wonderment, undefined.

I did it! I said I would!

Step Lightly,

Bag Lady