Katahdin is a beast. It is not a mountain to be trifled with. It is a craggy, bouldery, heaving, towering menace, and it shows no mercy to hikers, weary or not, young of old, green or tried and true. It's also breathtakingly beautiful. We didn't summit Katahdin today. We approached the tableland with our daypacks, and by that time the wind had picked up significantly, rain was pelting our faces, and the temperature had dropped. Gloves and hats were soaked. We decided to turn around. Cutting my teeth in the Whites, and spending nights reading the tales of slowly-unfolding missteps that result in death and close calls in books like "Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire", I didn't want to take any chances. "Inclement weather" are the key words in the mountains, and like I said before, Katahdin is not a mountain to be trifled with. People have died - and come close to it - on Katahdin, just as on Mt. Washington, of hypothermia and exposure, even in summer. (The ranger at Katahdin Stream related a harrowing story of a man who had to be rescued from just above treeline, last July, when a sudden storm blew in. Dozens of people assisted with the effort, and he barely made it out alive. The ranger said it's common for people in a severe hypothermic state to "give up" when help arrives; they let go of whatever was keeping them going because they feel they are now safe, and he just relaxed and went limp. It took them hours to get him down. I literally shudder when I hear stories like that.) We made it pretty far, nearly up to the tableland, but we turned around, and made it back down the cold, slippery, steep rocks unscathed. There are scambles and handholds and technical areas where you're closer to rock-climbing than hiking. It's no wonder people are encouraged to bring a daypack instead of a full pack; loaner packs are available at the ranger station (they are all damp and smelly). Back at the campsite, Scott left us, kindly leaving his extra food and loaded us his headlamp. So we will be at it again. Tomorrow is looking like a much-improved weather situation, sunny an d in the 70's. Our legs are sore now but I'm hoping we will make it up, all the way, so that we can be on our way, down the trail. Lots of lessons today.
Rainy, 50's.
PS - an adorable chipmunk chewed through my unattended bag of nuts.
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