Going South - The Hardest Part... Part #4

After hauling our way up the final rock slide on the Abol Slide Trail we reached the Table lands a nice flat field of rocks that as of two weeks ago was covered by snow. you can see in the pano shot above there are still some patches that have yet to melt. I was just a mile away from the summit and dreaming of kissing that beautiful Katahdin sign at the top.  On the way up we ran into Duchess and her hiking dog Riffle (Like wiffle but with an R) They stared after us on the hunt trail and made it up to the top well before us. More about Riffle and the descent to come.

Somebody was kind enough to put in boulder steps up to the peak which were hard but the peak and the sign were in sight.

a few more steps and there it was the weathered shard of wood at the top of the mountain that had me push through a grueling climb. suddenly the sore muscles were forgotten and all I wanted to do was give the sign a big wet sloppy kiss..

it had taken us 7 hours to get up there and we were running out of daylight fast, I made a phone call to my wife from the peak and let her know we made it and that I loved her. besides my wedding day this was the greatest moment of my life. I had not even taken a single step Southbound on the actual Appalachian trail

It's all downhill from here.. literally... 

Next up: Part #5 The Descent