In the morning, the sound of the stream made me think it was raining. After I realized that I didn’t hear any pattering on the roof of the lean-to, I thought it was wind. Only on my third try did I get it right and remember the stream a small distance from the shelter. As we prepared our gear in the morning, we experienced large numbers of black flies all over everything. They seemed to have no particular goal or purpose in life – they simply liked to cover everything and anything. It was rare that they actually began biting. We left our big packs at the ranger station and borrowed day-packs for the hike up (and down) Katahdin. I packed both one-liter Nalgenes (those lovely indestructible water bottles), my rain shell & pants, food for the day and my fleece top. Although I hadn't been hiking in over a week, the difference between nearly 40 lbs. on your back and 5 lbs. was immediately appreciated.

    We walked for nearly a mile over increasingly uphill terrain. We encountered a kindly old man who was with the park, walking the trail, trimming plants that had gotten in the way. As it got more and more rocky, I figured we were starting to encounter what the rest of the mountain would be like. Foolish optimistic me. Despite all the slippery boulders we encountered, it was not until we broke the tree line that it became blatantly obvious what the climb would really be like. Enormous boulders with blazes painted on them marked the way. There was no more "tunnel in the trees" to be found to guide us. We had to climb, and climb we did. I soon became upset at being forced to use the walking poles (old ski poles my dad had given me for the trip) to find a way up. I ditched them in an easily noticeable area where they wouldn't be thrown/blown/kicked away and decided to pick them up again on the way down. The climbing suddenly became infinitely easier - I was able to grab hold of the boulders and pull myself up where need be. About two miles into the trail, we found several metal handles driven into the boulders to give climbers a way to get up where it would've been terribly difficult otherwise. I was really enjoying myself. I love climbing, and this was giving my entire body a workout rather than simply stressing my poor legs on some steep uphill walk. Several times I even decided to be rebellious and not follow the trail. The blazes would lead me up a switchback, but I'd see another blaze up on top where the trail came back. Being free of a heavy pack and walking poles, I'd leap over the plants and up to those boulders, pull myself up, and have taken my custom shortcut.

    For a little over a mile, the trail became a ridge walk to the top. This meant that we were traversing a relatively narrow path on the boulders with drop-offs to both the right and left sides. Once we got about a mile and a half away from the peak, the trail continued on a plateau of sorts. The climbing turned back to walking for most of the way, which was a good thing. As much as I loved climbing and as perky as I was feeling, I knew that I still had to get down this thing, which would be significantly more time-consuming if I were exhausted. We were supposed to pass a spring on this portion of the trail, but all we came across was a fairly deep puddle - I could dunk my entire head into it, but that was about it. We figured the spring had to be somewhere else. Moving on, the ascent returned for the last mile, but it was nothing compared with what we had just done. This simply consisted of making sure you could safely step from one large boulder to the next, not any climbing that required pulling yourself up. Along the way I was surprised to discover that Joe's suspicion about snow on the mountain was indeed correct. We reached the top sooner than expected because we misidentified the peak in the ridges we saw up ahead.

    Upon reaching our halfway point for the day, we relaxed briefly at the peak. We had our picture taken for posterity (and proof), and I took several myself before we began the trek back down the mountain. I figured I wouldn't experience such good views along the 100-mile wilderness so I might as well take a few more pictures here. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 We went back down the mountain about a mile and stopped a small spring to eat lunch. When I say "small", I do indeed mean something puny. I could maybe dunk my head into this thing - that's about it. We missed it on the way up, figuring it was just a large puddle and the real spring had to be somewhere up ahead.

    On the way down I noticed the insides of my ears were hurting and realized it must be from the strong winds. I was wearing my rain shell precisely because of those winds, so I figured I'd best put my hood on and protect my aching ears. Now, Joe and I were faced with a problem. As you can likely tell from the various pictures shown thus far, you didn't have much privacy up on the mountain. It had been many hours since we had departed from the campground and nature was calling. It would be a quite a while longer before we managed to get below the tree line again. Joe managed to find a large boulder, one which, if you stood right next to it, could conceal you from the stomach down - but only from the people above us. Thus, I stood watch a bit ways down to ensure that no one was coming up while Joe took care of business, and he did the same for me. I do not blame Baxter State Park as it's really not feasible to put a privy up there.

    Once we had crossed the flat terrain and again came across steeper inclines (or, in this case, declines), moving on consisted heavily of sitting on a slab of rock and carefully sliding down until you hit some place to put your feet. Yet again I was glad to be wearing my rain pants as my shorts would've been scraped up with the constant sliding over rough rocks. 1 | 2 I passed Joe and continued until I hit the stream, at which point I waited for him so we could both fill up on water for the last mile and a half of the walk. As the trail became flatter and flatter the closer we got to the campground, our speed increased and we high-tailed it to the lean-to for food and rest. We got back by 7 o'clock so we had plenty of daylight left. We returned our borrowed packs to the ranger's station and retrieved our gear.

    All in all it was a good day. My legs were very slightly quivering on the climb down from the mountain - the type of feeling that lets you know you've given them a good workout. I loved having a light pack as it permitted me to enjoy the mountain fully. I was a bit concerned since I went through all of my fruit trail mix (approximately 1/5 of my trail mix in one day), but I figured every day in the 100-mile Wilderness wouldn't be like this.

NOTE: Don't expect so many pictures for every day of the journey. This was a special case, as the trail farther south wouldn't have as many interesting aspects or views. Or, at least, so I figured. I generally limited myself to a picture or two a day from here on in.

Joe: My back is killing me. You think that girl up ahead would mind giving me a massage?

Gene: I dunno, you'd have to deal with her boyfriend there first.

Joe: He isn't anything impressive, is he?

Gene: Naw, we could take him. Or, I could take him while you, I dunno, lie there nursing your back or something.

Joe: How about you take him...and I'll take her?

Gene: Man, I always get gypped in these deals.