Sunday 16th September

It was dark.when I got out of bed
I dressed and went to use the bathroom then put on the kettle for tea, yes a kettle.
At 6.10 I took my pack downstairs and loaded it into the mini bus . There were 7 of us heading out with another being picked up along the way .
We were soon on our way,Once out of town the tarmac soon was replaced by a dirt road. It was a beautiful morning and we were all looking forward to some great views once we began climbing
“Old-Man” the owner and our driver put on eye of the tiger ,(Rocky) as the mountain came into view.
What a great choice of song ..it had the desired effect on all of us
We drove through the gate house and into Baxter Park. We were here.
I signed In  and got my permit and I was ready, hoisted up my pack  and strolled across the bridge and onto the trail THIS IS IT !!
As usual the trail starts gently winding slowly up .. as rounded a corner I saw Bilbo who was hiking with his brother , we grabbed a photo before continuing on.

As I crossed a stream there were about a dozen friendly faces all watering up. I quickly caught up on the gossip then I was off.
The climbing started not too bad, but still a scramble that progressively got harder and steeper.

It was time to put my poles away . Okay here we go and typically the clouds began to roll In . I was climbing in the mist, Omg some of the climbs were high and hard as you had to pull yourself up although there were iron holds it still required effort. This workout lasted about 30 minutes before it levelled out. On the other side were Twinkle and several other hikers who were taking a break ..

See you at the top guys I said and walked past I was now on a path that was bordered with string . Come on sun I thought to myself …as I made my way up. I met two old friends coming down.

Spider and feather who I hadn’t seen since Dalesville months ago .We hugged out then I pushed on .

it was about another 40 minutes and  I was there .I was at Baxter Peak, the top of Katahdin. and oh so many friends were there.

I waited for my turn to climb the famous sign . My hiker buddy The invisible man took my photos and videos. So Big Thanks. Invisible Man

Omg my hike is done, it’s done, I’ve bloody done it .

I started April 11 and I have been on trail for all these months and taken over 6 million steps .
I sat on top and just relaxed taking my thoughts .before the inevitable Down There is another amazing down called the Knife edge   But on a day when you can not see Shit!   It seemed a pointless route  so i took the more traditional route called Saddle,  I followed the path down ,the invisible man soon past me as most other hikers do. I then caught a lady and her two daughters who had driven 3 hours to climb the mountain and also hoped for for a view. I spent the rest of the morning  leapfrogging her
I left the top about 12.30 and was down at the rangers station by 2 pm The Invisible man was relaxing in the sun and of course the cloud was lifting as I made my decent.

The lady with her daughter’s offered to give us a ride back to town but they wanted to stop on the way back for ice cream, that of course was fine by us .
Once back at the hostel my first chore was to remove my beard, followed by a shower  then beer .

We went to the bar and had a few beers and I had the food sampler that was bloody tasty I kept looking at the lobsters in the tank..maybe another day !!.
while there my mates from home Face-timed me which was great ..home soon guys.

We then returned back to the hostel with a 20 pack and watched a few films on Dvd.
I didn’t want to be late as I wanted to hike a 10 mile stretch that I missed

Night. all

Start. 2186
Finish. 2191
Miles. 6
miles left. ZERO

.