My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning, but I wasn’t the first one out and about. Today was summit today! Red lights floated around the campsite as hikers got their gear in order, packing things up for the last time on the AT.

My day started before sunrise. I had a mission to complete: be at the Birches sign up kiosk before 7 am so that I could secure one of the 12 camp spots.

I didn’t get the best sleep last night. No, it wasn’t because I was overly excited about reaching Abol Bridge today or coming up with ideas about how to celebrate my upcoming Katahdin summit.

I only had 3 more nights left on the AT! This morning I awoke to the sky on fire and then promptly fell back asleep. The sunrise spread a dark, burning orange throughout the sky and I was just lucid enough to catch a glimpse of it from my tent before I decided it was too early to wake up.

I had a big goal today. I needed to get to Jo-Mary Road, about 15 miles away, by 2 pm so that I could pick up my resupply from Shaw’s food drop.

Despite the blue skies, I woke up to a bunch of wet things: my clothes, the inside of my tent, a section of my quilt. *Sigh*.

The morning started off rainy and the day continued that way until I went to sleep. The rain started light enough. As I packed my things up, it had just started to sprinkle.

I had big plans for how I wanted to start the day, but reality had other ideas. The morning started off well. Shaw’s holds a big hiker breakfast in the morning with trail-renowned pancakes, so of course I had to wake up early and join the feast.

Today was one of the last big days – Monson! Last night, it rained pretty hard, but this morning, only a few drops of rain fell from the fog-laden sky. After breakfast, Mace and I hit the trail, ready to get to town.

This morning’s mission was to get to the Kennebec River to meet up with Cheryl so that she could ferry us across the river.