Buttsweat and Tears

       Mt. Katahdin is the highest peak in Maine at 5,267 feet. The guy driving our shuttle from the AT Lodge, where we stayed last night said it is known as "the beast." We had a lovely, sunny day- it seemed unseasonably warm. The person who owns the lodge said we had a successful hike because we made it up and down the mountain safely, so hurrah! This statement was a reassurance to my comment about how brutal hiking Katahdin was for us. At one point I had the thought, "If I don't want to work and I don't want to do this- I guess I should just kill myself." Now of course I know this is unreasonable. And managing negative thinking is always a part of backpacking, but I had some dark moments today. The hike was definitely physically challenging, but I think I would have been ok if I had not gotten dehydrated so quickly. I was dealing with headache and nausea two-thirds the way up the mountain, so that was three hours in with five more hours to go. Seth faired pretty well for most of the hike and was very encouraging when I felt badly, but his feet started to hurt him pretty badly on the last mile. They looked slightly swollen when we returned to the lodge. I focused on some mantras while I was hiking: "this step, every step," "keep swimming," and "slow and steady wins the race." Trying to turn my mind from physical discomfort and negative mental state. The owner of the lodge this morning said his most important piece of advice is to keep a positive attitude and stay away from negative people. So that was my real battle today. Previous backpacking experience has taught me negative thoughts that turn into negative words makes everyone, including the speaker, more miserable, so I did my best to just keep it quiet. I mean, you could tell I was struggling, but there's also no other choice to continue, so just gotta push through best I can. 

       In the end, we friggin' hiked Katahdin. Seth had fun basically the whole time except the end. I had fun on certain parts of the hike and the smell of the trees. The bright sunny day afforded beautiful views, which hikers don't get when it's cloudy. I learned about the value of a snack. One really hard hiking day is done. This is the most out of shape we're going to be on the entire trail. We did not get blisters! And we've taken 800mg of ibuprofen to set ourselves up for success tomorrow! 

First white blaze!  

Beginning of the hike- smiles are big!  

I was having a lot of fun during this part of the hike because there were a lot of rocks to scramble over and we started seeing the great views! Those same rocks became our bane on the way down.  

Seth coming around the corner of the bouldery area where we had to climb over lots of big rocks.  

Seth said I looked like Gorton's Fisherman. He has also said this hat makes me look like a baby with a pool hat, so I think he really likes this hat. 

Panoramic.  

Hunky Seth. 

The summit! Classic Katahdin pic  

AT Lodge in Millinocket, Maine.