The rain certainly didn’t let up over night. At one point the lightening seemed like it was right outside the lean-to. The bright flash would wake you up and then the boom brought you to attention. Luckily we were tired enough for the most part to fall right back asleep.
We woke up to some light mist and cloud cover that was casting pessimism on the day. We only hoped that the clouds would clear by the time we reached the top of Katahdin. After some quick breakfast we set off on our climb. The hike started as it did 3 years ago, 1 mile of easy hiking up until the waterfall. At that point you went up and up… And Up. Imagine climbing stairs for about 2 hours and that is what the next part of the hike was like. Once we broke tree-line it was back to the hike that we remembered and loved from last time.
The rock climbing and bouldering was a lot of fun even though the clouds still had not cleared.
I don’t know if it was the excitement or the lure of the end of a long hike, but this certainly did not feel near as long the last time we hiked this behemoth. The top of the mountain is called the tableland and was just as much of a slow incline to the apex as I remember. It was cold, cloudy, windy and 2 miles of ankle-twisting stepping stones.
By the time we reached the top we were ready for one of the bud lights that we carried all the way up there. The clouds would clear every now and then to give you a glimpse of the world below. We had to re-live our hike by taking our summit photo again.
Here is the photo of all 4 of us in front of the Katahdin sign.
As we set off for our hike back down the mountain the weather was as miserable as the way up. Just when we thought that we were going to hike the whole 4 hours back down out of the clouds, the weather broke. In one strong gust the clouds washed over the ridge to reveal the endless mountains and lakes below.
Just to be able to see all of the beauty of world beneath us made the descent that much more majestic. The trail went from a knee-wrenching game of hopscotch to an old fashioned butt sliding.
Once we reached the bottom we hopped in the car and drove to the other campground for the night. This was of course after we stopped for some more beer and snacks. The rest of the night was spent sitting around the campfire, drinking ice cold Maine beers and eating an assortment of food.
Leak Out
Northbound By Foot 
A great commentary and awesome pics! Looking forward to hearing about it this weekend!!!