Sept. 20: Last night, last supper, last shelter

It was 10 miles or so from Rainbow Stream Campsite to Linda's Store at Abol Bridge. I sat down at a picnic table along with Holmes and Watson, a hiker named Nina, Tord M. Johnson [Tord is the creator of Rock and Crawl, an AT cartoon strip everybody's been enjoying in the trail registers along the entire trail] and a parks official/AT ridgerunner.

After six days in the woods, a couple of burgers, even microwaved ones, as it were, and a couple of Long Trail Ales hits the spot.

Entering your last night on the northbound AT feels like being ushered in to the launch facility for a space shuttle flight. You have to start hiking the 10 mile trail to The Birches, the final shelter, before 5 p.m. because you have to register there [and pay $10 cash only] before 9 p.m.

The ridgerunner escorted me and Holmes to a point where we had to sign in before entering Baxter State Park. Watson had to go to a dog sitter in Millinocket because no pets are allowed in the park. The ridgerunner handed me a pair of binoculars to study the top of Katahdin. He pointed out the approach: Up the horn on the left, past Thoreau Spring, across the middle section that juts out and finally to the tiny speck that is the pile of rocks 30 feet from the sign.

Through the binoculars, I could see a very tiny cluster of moving specks. The top was busy, it being a weekend and a sunny day. The Knife's Edge trailed off the peak to the right.

I already knew from trail registers that I would be summiting along with Early Bear and Lil Dipper. From the register at the edge of Baxter I learned that Wis-pee would be up there, too, and Holmes had increased her pace to arrive at The Birches on the 20th.

Great crew to summit with, if you ask me. After all, my first night on the AT I spent in a shelter in Maryland with none other than Early Bear. Full circle! And entirely by coincidence.

At The Birches, it was just us, along with an older hiker named Chris and Wis-pee's girlfriend, with the beers we'd packed out from the store, a good fire and the final night of noodles or chili or whatever in our pots. It truly felt like any other night on the trail. But it wasn't: We had entered the final stage of the final leg of the home stretch. Our names were in the books, our dates with Katahdin were booked. The next day, Monday, we would finish our hikes on the AT...