We Finished!

Hello everyone from Braintree, MA. We are currently resting comfortably at my mother and step father's house. We summited  Mt. Katahdin on Friday the 17th and ended up having beautiful weather .The forecast coming into the day was 50% chance of showers so we didn't expect much as far as views .The night before the climb we celebrated with 7 other 2010 hikers and 2 hikers from 2004 . We cooked hot dogs and had some beer and champagne. It started raining at about 8 that night and didn't stop for the rest of the night. We started our hike in the rain at about 7 in the morning. A lot of people will leave their full backpacks at the ranger station and borrow a day pack to use for the climb if they are going to return to Katahdin stream campground. Since we were meeting my father and step mother on the mountain and hiking down another trail we carried our full packs. This added a bit of a challenge on the "pull yourself up" sections. As we climbed that morning we were surprised to see the clouds beginning to move out and visibility improving. By 9 o'clock we were getting excellent views of our surroundings. Both of us were a little nervous on parts of the climb, and at times Robin was flat out terrified. In previous discussions with my father I had estimated that we would take about 3 hours to cover the 5 miles and 4000 ft of elevation gain. In reality it ended up taking us almost 5 hours to reach the summit. We both agreed that it was one of the most challenging climbs on the trail. When the summit sign came into view Robin began to sob uncontrollably as we both expected. I felt like something was wrong with me because I had a strange lack of emotion. I don't think the gravity of the moment had fully set in, and I still don't think that it has. While we were on our journey it was very difficult and stressful to think about anything past the day at hand. If you thought about mileage or time on the trail ahead of you it was very easy to get overwhelmed. I sort of feel like we are in that same mindset, and I haven't fully processed that we will not be returning to the trail in a couple of days. So far we have had absolutely no problem returning to society:) There is abundant food and water, and we no longer have to worry about the elements or shelter. Most importantly we don't have to walk if we don't want to. Anyway...... when we reached the summit the clouds were in and our so views were sporadic. We took 3 different sets of pictures with the sign, so we would be sure to have some keepers. In all we spent about an hour on top, and we consider ourselves lucky because the day before it was so cold and windy that hikers could do nothing but snap a photo and get off the mountain. We were able to have a celebratory Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in memory of Robin's father as well as a fine Black and Mild Cigar. We definitely spared no expense on this momentous occasion. We were also able to scatter some of Fred's (Robin's father) ashes that she had been carrying for the entire length of the trail. Right before she let him go the clouds broke all around the mountain and the sun began to shine. We knew that he was there with us as he had been for the whole trip. The whole day was pretty unreal and we both felt as if we were in a dream. Walking off the mountain I was still in disbelief that the hike was over. I still felt like we were just continuing on even though I knew we were going to get in the car and drive away at the base of the mountain. We didn't finish our hike until 6 that night and then drove to Sanford, ME about 3 hours south. The next morning we visited my grandmother and aunts and uncle who lived in town. It was very nice to see this side of the family again because it had been over 10 years since the last time. The next afternoon we continued our drive south to Boston where Dad and Kelly were flying out and Mom and Dave live. We spent the night watching videos that we had taken on the trail, and telling stories. We ate and drank and laughed a lot. I figured we had delayed typing the blog for long enough, so here it is. We really appreciate all of you that have been keeping up with our trip. I think we both agree that it has been the greatest journey and achievement of our lives. We both are amazed that we were able to complete the trip and have learned a lot about life. We are now confident that we can achieve any goal that we set for ourselves. Now it's time to begin looking for jobs and start our new life. The trail has taught us that everything usually works our for the best no matter how it seems at the time. We are very excited to see what will be in store for us. I guess that there won't be any more blogs until our next big adventure. Hmmmm...... PCT 2012? HaHa... only time will tell. I think we need a little break first. Once again we greatly appreciate all of your interest and support and we hope to be visiting a lot of you soon. Take care!