U.S. State Highpoints – Mount Katahdin (Maine)

After getting warmed up in Stratton on a few of Maine’s less well known 4000+ foot peaks, it was off to Baxter State Park to take on the most famous, most challenging and probably the most picturesque of Maine’s mountains – Katahdin! The plan was do do this one as an overnight and also tackle another 4000+ foot peak in the park, Hamlin Peak, which is a spur of Katahdin but meets the prominence and isolation requirements to be classified as a separate peak in the Northeast 115.

When initially planning my trip to Baxter State Park, I was eyeing the Chimney Pond backcountry campground, nestled in the south basin of the Katahdin massif, as it looked like a pretty cool place to stay and also offered a number of trail options to get to the summit. Unfortunately when I first booked sites, Chimney Pond was fully booked so I settled on the Abol campground which is on the west side of the mountain. When I rescheduled my trip due to moving and new job stuff, Abol was fully booked up on my new dates but there was space at Chimney Pond! So I booked a lean-to there for two nights.

I left Stratton fairly early and took a small detour into Bangor to set up my US bank account – thankfully TD allows you to do this with just two pieces of picture ID, neither American. After chilling at a cafe in town, I picked up a jug of water at a grocery store (wasn’t sure about the water sources at Chimney Pond) and drove 2 1/2 hours over to Baxter State Park.

The approach to Roaring Brook Campground (the trailhead for the Chimney Pond as well as the Helon Taylor trail – the day hiker trail is situated here) was a pretty long drive on a gravel road, but at least it was in better shape than the road to the Crocker Mountain trailhead! I pulled in around 4pm and this is when I realized my inReach was gone. I quickly searched the car, thinking it might have fallen there, but determined it must have been lost when coming down Caribou Valley Road back to the car. A week or so after I returned from this road trip, my mom messaged me letting me know that a ranger at Sugarloaf found my inReach – we spoke and I let him know I would pick it up when I return to Maine. Coincidentally, I had bought a brand new inReach Mini 2 on sale at MEC just a day before I heard from my mom, so I guess I’ll rock two inReaches for now..likely will sell the old one as the newer version is a bit better.

The hike was pretty tiring with all the weight I was carrying (the elevation gain was pretty significant as well, at about 450 meters), and the trail was pretty damp as it had rained earlier in the day, but it went fairly quickly and I covered the 5-ish kilometer distance in just over an hour and a half. When I arrived, I was greeted by two rangers who were stationed at Chimney Pond, and got the lowdown on trail conditions as well as the lay of the land at Chimney Pond. The camping area was pretty cool – eight lean-to’s, a bear hang area (I brought my barrel), and the pond itself offered a stunning vista of the Katahdin massif.

I grabbed some water from the pond (surprisingly good quality, but decided to use it for cooking and save the bottled water for drinking) and set up in the lean-to – it was very spacious and quiet. Cooking dinner was a bit awkward as I foolishly only brought my open box of stormproof matches, which had pretty worn down strike pads. For whatever reason, these matches are great once they’re lit, the problem is lighting them on the awful strike pads. I managed to get one lit after about a couple dozen attempts and one broken match, and cooked up my go-to camp meal of pasta, dried veggies and red lentils. Before bed I spent some time reading the section on Katahdin in Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast by David Goodman and immediately became enthralled with the idea of making a return trip in the winter – there are a ton of epic ski lines in the Katahdin area, but it can get quite gnarly due to the avalanche risk.

The following morning, I got up at around 6:15am and cooked breakfast, again struggling with the matches but eventually finding success. Thankfully this meal was a bit simpler – the leftover instant oatmeal from my Mount Rainier trip in July. I got my pack together for the day – layers, snacks as well as a ton of water (almost 4 liters). As for my planned route for the day, I was torn between two options – the Knife Edge and Cathedral Trail.

Knife Edge is the most exposed and technical of the “official” trails to the summit of Katahdin. It traces the ridge the whole way around and has a few sections with exposed scrambling, referred to by the rangers as “Class 4 with Class 5 consequences”. I was a bit leery of this option due to my recent shoulder dislocation – oh that’s right, THAT happened to me – about seven weeks prior to my trip. I fell trail running on pretty easy terrain on a local trail in Toronto, right on my shoulder and had to ride an ambulance to the hospital and endure 4 hours of suffering before they popped it back in. I threw up several times (due to pain as well as after walking up from the general anaesthesia – I was KOed for the procedure) and it was probably the most miserable experience of my life. I had been religiously rehabbing it with physio and it was feeling good though I had not tested it with climbing or heavy loading, though I was doing some strength work. Anyway, Knife Edge was a bit daunting. Cathedral is also fairly technical but a bit easier and ascends a short, steep ridge directly from Chimney Pond. I ultimately settled on Knife Edge as I was pretty confident in the strength of my shoulder and wanted a more epic day. Both routes would continue north to Hamlin Peak and descend via the Hamlin Ridge.

After chatting with some other hikers and a pre-hike layer adjustment, I was off and on the trail at 8am. The first section of the route I would be ascending the Dudley Trail up to Pamola Peak, the first of several subpeaks in the Katahdin massif. I actually ended up taking a slightly longer route past the Pamola Caves (which I did not visit). After crossing a boulder field the trail entered the woods and it was a steady ascent up. I took a break just under an hour in and after leaving the treeline and the views were amazing.

The next section was probably the hardest of the day as there was a bit of routefinding (despite the blue blazes on the rocks) and moderate scrambling which put my shoulder to the test. Another fairly slow hour upwards and I reached the summit of Pamola Peak at 1495 meters (4904 feet). Pamola is where the Dudley trail merges with the Helon Taylor trail (day hikers trail from Roaring Brook) to form the Knife Edge. It was here I finally saw other humans since starting my hike – I was the only one doing the Knife Edge from Chimney Pond as everyone else was doing either the Cathedral Trail or the easier Saddle Trail. I took a good long break at Pamola and chatted with some other hikers before setting out on the Knife Edge.

The Knife Edge started with probably the most technical climbing of the day – a steep 100 foot descent into the col between Pamola and Chimney Peaks, followed by a steep 80 foot ascent up Chimney Peak. Was a bit tricky and a bit of a mental barrier given my shoulder, but was able to handle it without issues. At the col is Chimney Couloir, a pretty epic ski descent.

After reaching Chimney Peak, I carried on along Knife Edge and the route was pretty much Class 2 from here – I was never at any risk of taking a huge fall but watching footing was important. As I proceeded along the ridge, the clouds gradually rolled in and by the time I got to South Peak, the next false summit, it became completely socked in, so goodbye views. After a quick break, I was able to navigate the blue blazes and eventually made it to the official summit of Katahdin after a further 30 minutes. The summit was very busy as all the routes up the mountain converge here.

After a quick food and water break at the summit, I continued on to Hamlin Peak, which was an hour or so away. The route over to Hamlin was very easy, descending the Saddle Trail a bit before heading through the alpine meadows along the ridge connecting the two peaks. This section I was looking forward to coming in, but with the area completely socked in, there wasn’t much to see, and the summit of Hamlin was also shrouded in clouds.

Descending the Hamlin Ridge Trail back to the North Basin Trail (leading to the Chimney Pond Trail) was slow as there was quite a bit of tricky terrain to navigate and downclimb. After a bit, I pulled out my poles to see if they’d be any help and almost immediately rolled my ankle stepping down a section. It wasn’t bad at all, but I decided the poles were a bad omen, and immediately stowed them. They never came out of my pack the rest of the day. After what felt like forever, I finally made it to a more conventional dirt and rock surface and back onto the Chimney Pond trail. I rolled into camp after just under 7 1/2 hours (including breaks).

The strike pads on my matchbox finally hit the fritz when trying to cook dinner, so I ended up asking my neighbours in the next lean-to if I could borrow matches or a lighter so I could cook a hot meal for dinner. I relaxed by Chimney Pond and the clouds were starting to lift from the mountain, so it was a great view. Overall, a wonderful day and definitely one of my favourite US state high points thus far (definitely my favourite in the east).

The next day I rolled out of camp pretty early has I had an eight hour drive to my next stop – Antigonish, Nova Scotia – in order to take on the next objective of the trip. Very easy descent to the parking lot at Roaring Brook, though funny enough, even with the lighter pack and the net downhill, it was still about the same amount of time coming up, though I did take a short 10 minute break for water and a snack.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this trip, where I aimed to find redemption in the wild backcountry of Cape Breton Island and tackle the true high point of Nova Scotia, Western Barren!

Training Peaks Workout (Katahdin/Hamlin)