At the junction, the Marston Trail turned northeast, heading more or less directly for North Brother's summit - a summit of which we could now see glimpses through the thick fir forest around us. The trail continued to remain easy and flat until we were within less than 1/2 mile of the summit, where it finally turned reasonably steep. In parts of this uphill section, the trail had eroded deeply into the soil.
We soon emerged into the sunshine and open skies of North Brother's alpine zone. There had been no wind at all at the trailhead, but up here at treeline there was actually a fairly strong wind blowing, requiring us to put on a layer of fleece even though it was quite a warm day for the middle of October. Around us, autumn-browned alpine grasses were matted flat against the ground by the wind.
North Brother's summit is a jumble of large, angular boulders. Outlined against the sky, I could see the little square-on-a-stick that was the summit sign. Summit number 115 was soon to arrive!
And so it came to pass that on 9:29 am Eastern Daylight Time on October 9, 2011, I finished my last 'Northeast' 4k-footer peak. It had taken me seventeen years, four months and twenty-eight days from the day of my first 4000-footer summit, way back in
May of 1994 on Wright Peak in the Adirondacks, to complete this journey. Not especially fast, really, but still, it was a nice moment.
Jenn had brought some celebratory champagne - but had deliberately left it behind at the car. She felt -- correctly -- that it would only be time to celebrate when we had complete the outing all the way back to the trailhead.
Taking a bit of shelter in the leeward side of the summit rocks, we took some time out for a snack. And, to have a look at the great views around us. Away to the north and west, the mountainous terrain gradually fell away to the endless flats of the Maine Northwoods. To the east was the high ground of the main Katahdin Massif. Unfortunately, the morning sun made the lighting of this area not so great.