29 September 2002

This day six years ago was my longest day on the Appalachian Trail. I walked 24.9 miles from Rainbow Stream lean-to to Katahdin Stream Campground. The day was only planned as a 15 mile walk but when I and my partners got to Abol Bridge we saw that the following day was forecast to be sunny with a chance of rain the next day. Since that next day was supposed to include climbing to Katahdin summit, the final leg of our 2,100 mile hike, we decided to take no chances that bad weather would close the summit. So we walked the extra 10 miles in the late afternoon of a fine Maine day. The walk was a long one, but it got us to the mountain's base in time for a next morning ascent. Pure fucking adrenalin.