Day 46: Summiting Katahdin

One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.
~Barbara Walters

August 20, 2021
Hike from Roaring Brook to the summit of Katahdin and back
Total miles: 10.4
Weather: sunny with temps in the mid-70’s
High point: Making it to the summit of Katahdin

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The highest point in Maine, Mount Katahdin (5269’) is a HUGE granite massif. Katahdin, which means “the greatest mountain”, was named by the Penobscot Indians and was a spiritual center for the tribe.

Today was our day to summit Katahdin. Summiting Mount Katahdin is not a straightforward process. First you need to get parking reservations for Baxter State Park. These reservations need to be made weeks if not months in advance. Then you sign in at both the entrance to the park and then again at the base of the trail.

The trail we hiked, the Chimney Pond Trail and the Saddle Trail, is considered one of the easiest if not the easiest way up Katahdin. This does not mean it was an easy hike!

We arrived at the entrance to Baxter State Park shortly after 6:00 am. After waiting in line for a bit, we drove to the Roaring Brook Campground, where we started our adventure.

For first 3.2 miles of the hike up to Chimney Pond the trail was rocky and challenging but not noteworthy.

Every once in a while the trail was even level for a few feet.

We  arrived at Chimney Pond in good spirits. We only had 2.0 more miles to go! How hard could this trail be? Then we looked across Chimney Pond at the huge mountain towering over us and realized that we had barely begun our hike!

At Chimney Pond we had to sign yet another trail register, and a ranger was there trying to make sure that all the hikers had the right equipment and knew what to expect. This conversation made us realize what a serious endeavor we were about to undertake.

Almost immediately upon leaving the pond the trail became extremely rocky. One of our group fell and broke her wrist in this section. She headed down the mountain and we continued our ascent.

The trail in this mile-long section continued to get steeper and rockier, while the trees got shorter and scrawnier.

Eventually we climbed above tree line and we were just clambering hand over hand up a rockslide (and I was far too nervous about tumbling down the mountain to even think about taking a picture!).

At one point I just stopped climbing and decided that I was too frightened of falling off the mountain to continue. I could not go on. But then I realized that I would need to wait about two hours for everybody else to summit and get back, and the idea of sitting for that long in the middle of a rock slide was just as unnerving the idea of going on! So I continued going upwards step by agonizing step.

We finally reached the tablelands, the relatively flat but extremely rocky alpine region near the summit.

At one point the trail consisted completely of small angular chunks of pink granite.

And finally we reached the summit!

Victory! I just succeeded in summiting one of New England’s most challenging mountains!

The views were amazing.

The hike down was long and slow. We managed to descend through the tablelands at a pretty good clip, but descending the rock slide was as scary as ascending it! I did most of the part above tree line using the butt-slide technique. It may not have been elegant, but I didn’t tumble down off the mountain!

Our guide kept reminding us that all we needed to do was take the next step and then the step after that and the step after that. Breaking that unimaginably challenging section into single steps did make it doable! (A great life lesson!)

Once we reached the tree line we all breathed a little easier — we could still hurt ourselves badly, but with the trees around it would be much harder to just tumble down the mountain.

We eventually reached Chimney Pond and were really excited — we were most of the way down, right? Nope. Our legs were exhausted from all the rock-climbing and our concentration was shot so we had to walk very slowly, focusing on each step. The sun was setting, and we still had miles to go.

Baxter State Park regulations require all hikers to have a headlamp with them. Now I understand why! We dug out our headlamps and continued our exhausted shuffle down the mountain. With our headlamps bobbing around in the dark we looked like a row of organized fireflies!

Around 8:30 we reached the van. After a sleepy hour-long ride to Millinocket and a welcome shower, I finally ate my dinner – – at 10 o’clock! I have rarely been so exhausted and so psyched!

I am profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to hike Katahdin. It was seriously scary and hauntingly beautiful. And now I know that when things get tough you just focus on the next step!

Today is a great day for a long walk in the woods!