The Maine Event: wtf were we thinking?

My loving husband had got it in his head that we were going to hike Mt. Katadhin (Fyi, I will probably spell this differently every time I type it. in fact, i shall call it Mt. K). This is the highest point in Maine, the elevation is 13 feet short of a mile. Which honestly once we got to the top just kinda pissed me off. they should have built something 13 feet high at the top, that we could have climbed so say we climbed a mile. but whatever. Patrick had made reservations at a “hotel” in milonocket ( again, probably spelled wrong). The whole drive he was telling me, its just one night. We wont be there for very long. He was preparing me for this… A motor lodge. eww. Staying there was as horrible as you could imagine. The person above us weighed 400lbs, sounded like they were going to break the floor and crush us to death. And, they also didn’t sleep because the stomped around all freaking night. This fine experience was topped of by people yelling in the hallway at all hours of the night. If you look closely you can see why people were so loud, there were 25 cent natty lights at the attached bar. I think people came from all over, booked themselves a room and then proceeded to get hammered.

With a 4:45 wake up call, we were going on little sleep. but, we headed out with headlamps and flash lights. You have to get to the national park early, or else they give away your parking spot. Which you have to book weeks in advance. Also, we didn’t know how long this adventure would take so we figured we should start early. We hiked 5 miles up. I thought I was going to die. After scaling up the side of a mountain, we reach the top which I mistakenly thought was the end. But little did I know we still had another mile to go to the peak. The reason I didn’t know was because we couldn’t see the peak, why you ask? That’s because it was snowing, 50mph wind gusts, and we were in a freaking cloud.

With some encouragement, and some cuss words on my behalf we made it to the top. It was absolutely freezing. And we couldn’t see anything, just the sign that said we had made it to the top. It took quite an effort to get our picture taken, because there was a man proposing, and a Korean film crew trying to video tape the whole thing. All the while screaming, about making a nice DVD. This was all very sweet, but they needed to get the hell out of the way. I wasn’t going to stand there forever, I wanted to take my picture and get on my way. I was pretty sure hyp0thermia was setting in and I really wanted to keep all of my fingers.

So after taking a picture, we headed on our way out of the clouds. I promptly fell on my butt, cried a little, and then started our descent off the mountain. You would think going down would be easier, but it really wasn’t. The whole path is rocks, so you have to be careful. the WHOLE 10 miles. so toward the end, i of course end up tripping and falling because my feet and legs just no longer work. I cannot physically lift my feet off the ground. But, we survived and I can say that 2 weeks later I am glad we did it. although, there is absolutely no way I am doing it again.

5:30, starting out our adventure.