Mount Katahdin

I got the chance of a lifetime to hike Katahdin with my son, Robert, who his starting his senior year studying geology at Virginia Tech, and my good buddy from law school, William Daniel, on August 15. We started up Abol Slide trail at 10:30, the clouds lifted briefly at 11 for some great pictures just below the tableland and then it clouded over again at the point we reached Thoreau Spring. But it was wonderful and we hit the top for some great video shots at exactly 2 p.m. I'm thrilled to say we were well prepared and had a great climb down on the Hunt Trail following those trusty white AT blazes all the way down. Got to the bottom to cool off our feet in the Katahdin Stream waters and then were lucky enough to hitch a ride from the campgrounds for the two miles back to our car. We will carry this memory with us a lifetime. Katahdin will be forever burned into our hearts as a sign of all that is natural, good and true. At sunset, just before the full moom began to hit the skyline bigtime, we stopped to photo and video a huge bull moose taking a bath in the lake along the road on the way out. I have hiked the AT in Va., Pa., NJ, NY, Vt. and N.H. with day jaunts that refresh my soul. It;'s really contagious how others pick up on the high energy that the mountains give off. And can you imagine, Henry David Thoreau hiked it in 1846. If you want to read a great account of a church group that first hiked Katahdin in 1858, check out www.bts.edu/library/Bulletin/essay88_2.htm and enjoy. Or you can read Thoreau's personal account in his "Complete Works" I love reading the journals of those who have hit the summit. Next year we're back again the third week of August to do Mt. Washington. "Forever Wild, Baby."