Stratten, Maine

August 6, 2009
The 2009 AT trek is coming to an end as I have only 10 more hiking days to go until I summit Katahdin on Aug. 15. Dad is going to summit with me, and he is going to have a pretty hard introduction to the trail as Mt. Katahdin is a five-mile, 4,000 ft. climb. Once I reach the infamous sign atop the mountain, I must still turn around and walk the tough five miles down.
I'll be returning to Atlanta on Aug. 16 and departing for Saint Louis on Aug. 19. It's not much time to turn around and move, but it's all I have prior to my Aug. 20 teaching assistant meeting on campus. With flights set, an end time established and an itinerary to follow, there isn't much left to do except hike. I have about 175 miles left to go, with 110 miles being in the last six days. I'm hiking as part of a four person crew, including Highlander, the Kid and Loudspeaker. It may be a busy summit day as at least a half dozen other hikers have expressed an intent to finish the same day. Highlander is bringing speakers for his MP3 players, so it may turn into a party.
Further, I'll leave my SPOT satellite tracker in the tracking mode on Aug. 15, Saturday, as I climb up Katahdin so you can follow me up. The tracker sends a position point every 10 minutes or so, which you can check on Google maps via the link on the right side of this blog that says, "Where am I?" I'll be updating photos and my blog in the days following the trip so you can see my summit day.
Sincerely, Steamboat...