My son Chris came to New York on August 5th to collect some furniture and move it to use in his new apartment in Cambridge, Mass. I could not resist the sudden impulse to help Chris move and take advantage of the opportunity to climb Mt. Katahdin, the highest point in Maine. So, after a stop in Harlem to pick up his Uhaul Truck, we collected two couches, a table and some assorted personal possessions and were onto Interstate 95 to Chris and Mollies' new apartment, formerly a Fig Newton Factory in a great neighborhood near MIT.
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| The entrance to Chris and Mollies' new apartment in Cambridge |
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| A little history about the building. |
Arriving in the evening on Saturday, I got plenty of pre-climb exercise going up and down the stairs of Chris's old apartment to get the beds and larger items as we tried to use the truck efficiently and finish before dark. Tired, but satisfied we had a delicious takeout meal from a local Indian restaurant and hit the hay for the night.
The next morning, I checked weather reports and it was clear that there was plenty of rain in Baxter State Park for Sunday and most of Monday, but Tuesday appeared to be a good day to climb. Chris and Mollie were gracious hosts for another night and I took the opportunity to shop at REI for the supplies and equipment I would need. Monday dawned without rain and was mostly clear for the 6 hour drive, but I was hit by the occasional squall as I neared Portland and later as I approached Baxter State Park.
Turns out you need a reservation to camp in Baxter and a day use spot to hike Katahdin. God was smiling on me as I got a cancelation in the Abol Campground for Monday night, and the rain had stopped by 6:30 p.m. when I began to set up my tent. Then it was straight to work assembling my new MSR Dragonfly Stove and preparing a delicious freeze dried meal of Beef Stroganoff....yummm
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| Love my new stove!! |
Nothing like a long drive and a meal of Beef Stroganoff to put one to sleep. I went out like a light until about 6:00 a.m. when I heard a fellow camper close his car door. knowing that there are limited day use parking spots, and that they allow outside hikers in the park at 7;00 a.m., I rose and quickly struck camp to claim one of those spots. Happily, I found a picnic table in the parking area and took my time preparing for the hike. Fascinated by the new stove, it seemed a hot breakfast was in order....oatmeal of course. Ranger Corrigan and another hiker were so fun to talk with that I lingered until after 8:00 when I set off on the Abol Trail.
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| A view near Abol Campground |
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| Nearly 4000 feet of elevation gain in 3.8 miles!! |
For the first hour or so I saw no other hikers as I made my way up and through a beautiful forrest. It was a lovely cool, but sunny day. Before long the trail cleared the tree line and began to make its way up a slide and bolder field that continued for the next two and a half hours. The trail was merely steep and rocky at first, but quickly the boulders began to grow and grow. I read an excellent quote about climbing Katahdin, written by Henry David Thoreau in 1846 and taken from my inspiration, a book by Joe Glickman and Nels Akerlund,
To The Top...."The mountain seemed a vast aggregation of loose rocks, and they lay as they fell on the mountain side, nowhere finally at rest, but leaning on each other all rocking stones, with cavities between, but scarcely any soil or smooth shelf......this was an undone extremity of the globe". My translation, there is nothing like this mountain on the east coast of the USA. It is steep, rough and difficult to climb.
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| Looking back on where I came from three hours before |
The trail finally leveled as it reached the table's edge and it continued for a mile with only a few hundred more feet of elevation gain as I neared the summit of Baxter's Peak, the highest point on Mt Katahdin.
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| The alpine vegetation is fragile, stay on the trail is the message here |
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| It Looked as though the weather might come in as I neared the summit |
It was super satisfying to get to the top of Katahdin. I spent a long time on top to savor the view, talk to fellow hikers and even cook lunch on my new stove!
At about 2:30 p.m. I started down the mountain, this time taking Hunt Trail, it is 5,2 miles long, but I believed it would be more gradual and therefore a better choice going down. Let's just say that assumption was not entirely true. Also, it meant that I would need to hike or hitch a ride back to my car, nearly 2 miles away from the base of the Hunt Trail Head. Still, the hike was beautiful and well worth the work. It followed a beautiful ridge with a Irish like countryside and ended near an hypnotic and powerful waterfall by the Katahdin Stream Campground. The lord was watching over me because I met a lovely couple (Ken and Linda Steller) from Connecticut who not only hiked with me all the way down, but also dispensed Ibuprofen, kept up morale and gave me a ride back to my car after dark, when we finally arrived at the end of the trail!!! Sorry that I have no pictures of the waterfall or of the Stellars. My iPhone ran out of juice.
It was an inspiring and successful trip that is beginning to build up my confidence as I approach my attempt to climb Mt Rainier. I can't wait to try Katahdin again from another approach in the autumn when the leaves are in full color. If not this year maybe next. Is anyone interested in going with me?
