Red carpet to our finish line

Mt. Katahdin is located in Baxter State Park near the town of Millinocket, ME. It holds the norther terminus of the Appalachian Trail and is located 2,185.9 miles north of Springer Mountain. How excited do you think we were to see the sign for Baxter state park.

The hundred mile wilderness really beat us up. Having to do that many miles (100 in 4 days) over that terrain really took a toll on our bodies. When asking each other where we hurt, we used to pick the localized place and explain the feeling. By now the response had become "everywhere from the hip down". 

A cool AT cutout someone had placed. 

We were excited to be entering Baxter because it meant that we were only 15 hiking miles away from the top of Katahdin, but also because we had heard about the easy miles leading up to it. Most of the trails in Baxter are pretty well maintained, and because of them being covered in pine needles and leading up to the final summit, we named it "The Red Carpet".

Easy, flat, beautiful trail. It only took 2,174 miles to get there. We were pretty excited. 

We walked along the river for a while and the rocks allowed you to get right out to where the river would normally be and watch it flow by. 

We could also get up real close to the waterfalls. This one was roaring not two feet in front of me. It was neat to be able to get that close. 

Puddin happy to be at the falls. 

A view of the falls from further back. 

This part kind of sent the water launching off of a ramp that had been carved into the stone. 

This picture is hung up in the ranger station of Katahdin Stream Campground where we stayed the night before our summit. It is a picture of a part moose, part eagle, part man who is the guardian of Katahdin. We forgot his name. The interesting thing about this picture is that it was drawn by the animator for the movie Bambi. Also, the setting for the movie is at a pond down the road in Baxter State Park. 

The land for Baxter was purchased by the once Governor of the state with the stipulations that no new road or changes were allowed to be made to it. It is one of the most remote wilderness areas in Maine. 

A more popular picture of the guardian of Kathadin

PaddyCakes happy to have a flat spot to sleep for the night. 

Our camping area for the night. They keep the hiker trash far away from the rest of the campers. 

We knew that our big push through Maine had caught us up to some of our friends that we hiked with way earlier in the trip. There was a huge summit group of through hikers going up on the 24th. We couldn't make it to summit with them that day, but we caught them on the way back down. Here we are with E.T. and Spanky.  We just missed Fatty because she chose to go down the other side of the mountain.  We basked in their glowing happiness from having made it to the top of Kathadin and their joy of knowing they had finished their hike. We listened to the details of their summit and looked at their pictures and videos. It really never sunk in that tomorrow we would be doing the same thing and our hike was only 5 miles and a big climb from being over. I don't think that there has ever been anything I have ever been so dedicated to as the AT. We have spent 8 to 14 hours a day hiking for nearly 5 months. You dream about the day that you will be done, but when you do something that much for that long, you just never really feel like the end will come. Well, tomorrow was the day come rain, shine, hell or high water. 

- PaddyCakes