About two months ago, not sure how or why, we decided to do more hiking this summer, and that the “summit” of our season would be Mt. Katahdin, the northern end of the Appalachian trail —a beautiful mountain and a real challenge. Olesya found out about it; she showed me some pictures, mentioned some details, and I was sold.

To train, we decided to include hikes or long walks in our weekends, besides keeping our regular week-day workouts. We went to the Middlesex Fells Reservation, Great Brook Farm State Park, and Wompatuck State Park in MA; we went to Mt. Monadnock and Franconia Notch Park in NH; we did some long walks here and there (see, e.g., Walking NY). Olesya ordered maps and a book about Katahdin, and found trip reports. We had tentatively decided to aim for Labor day weekend; it would depend on the weather. Once Labor day weekend was included in most weather forecast services, at the end of August, we noticed an agreement about very good weather conditions, and we booked one of the Katahdin Cabins in Millinocket, ME, the town closest to the south gate of Baxter State Park, where Mt. Katahdin is located.

We drove to Millinocket on Friday, after work. Our cabin at was all we needed. Cozy, very clean, and with complimentary freshly baked, and really tasty muffins and / or cookies every day.

We brought our Galileoscope (we just got it recently), and gave it a try on Friday. It took some effort to aim and focus, but in the end we had a very nice view of the craters of the moon, first, and then a nice (though tiny) view of Jupiter, including three of its moons.

On Saturday we went to the park. It’s about 30-40 min from the cabins. We asked at the gate what would be a good time to show up next morning to climb Mt. Katahdin. We were originally planning to arrive at 4:00 am. They said they had a lot of visitors for the weekend, and that they were aware of some people who had shown up at midnight the night before. Uh, oh. We decided to shoot for a 3:00 am arrival next day. They said that 3:00 should be “an OK time”. Uh, oh, again.

In any case, that would be the next day. For the time being, we entered the park and drove to Daicey Pond. It took like 45 min to get to Daicey Pond. Driving inside the park gets kind of boring after a while, to be honest, but it’s OK. On the bright side, though, the pond is beautiful, and you can “rent” a canoe for $1 / hour (one could almost say “borrow,” because of the low price and because it’s self service). We rented one. It was our first time canoeing, which probably was evident, since two women came to provide us with some advice as soon as we got on the canoe —we were not even seated properly. They explained the basics to us, and we canoed for one hour.

After that, we hiked to the “Big Niagara Falls” (or was it the “Little Niagara Falls”? I don’t know) and took some pictures.

We then drove to the north side of the park. Long drive, I think one an a half hours or more. There, we went up the Trout Brook Mt. With the excitement, we hiked at a fairly good pace; in fact, on the way down, it almost felt like trail running sometimes. That was probably not a great idea, though, since on the way down my left hamstring started complaining. It would be OK next day, but I got a little worried when it happened.

After the hike, we exited the part from the north gate, and drove back to the cabin —another hour and a half or so; the north end of the park is kind of far from Millinocket.

Back in the cabins, we grilled some sausages, ate some of them, and packed some for the hike next day. (In the middle of this, we got a phone call with really good news from our friends Irina and Dobri, congrats!) We finished preparing things for next day, and went to sleep by 8:30 pm.

Climb day. The alarms (two of them) went off at 2:00 am. We got up, washed our face, got dressed, got our bags, and left for the park. We got to the gate at 2:50 am, and there were already like 15 to 20 cars in line.

The gate opened at 5:00 am. By 5:15, we entered the park and headed to the Roaring Brook parking lot, celebrating. Yes, being allowed to park at Roaring Brook is the first reason to celebrate when you want to hike Mt. Katahdin. This parking lot can only fit a small number of cars, and that’s why people get to the gate so early. If the parking lot fills up, you are out of luck for the day, you can’t climb Mt. Katahdin that day. Well, there is still a small chance that you can park at two other small parking lots on the other side, but it’s a different route to the top. Some people prefer to camp inside the park to avoid this parking problem. Next year, the park will try a reservation system to avoid the big lines of cars in the middle of the night, which is a great idea.

We registered at the ranger station at 6:02 am, and got started. Kind of chilly at the start. We followed Chimney Trail, which leads (of course) to Chimney Pond, which, in turn, is the “hub” for a handful of different trails that lead to the top of Katahdin. There is a really nice view of the mountain when you get to the Basin Ponds, your first view of it during the hike. Wonderful feeling.

We got to Chimney Pond by 7:30 am, and got even more excited to see, almost to “feel” the mountain all around us: Pamola Peak, the Knife’s Edge, South Peak, Baxter Peak, the Saddle, Hamlin Peak… it’s about 180 degrees around you. Impressive. Exciting. We registered again (yes, again, they are very strict about safety in Baxter, which is good) at 7:42 am, and headed towards Dudley Trail: 1 mile and 2,000 feet ascent.

The Dudley “trail” is, well, not your usual Sunday hike. You start using your hands and arms, that is to say, you literally start climbing, not hiking, as soon as you start going up. Tough. A little scary at some points for a first timer like me, to be honest. But the views get amazing just as quickly as the trail starts getting difficult.

The end of the trail is Pamola Peak. We reached it around 9:30, together with Jay, another hiker who had climbed Katahdin the day before following a different route. We ended up sticking together with Jay for most of our hike. The views from Pamola are, again, gorgeous. The day, by the way, was perfect, sunny, not hot, not windy, and with great visibility. We took a break, and had a snack.

We turned towards the Knife’s Edge. Deep breath. The first question that came to my mind was “how are we supposed to get there?” I mean, you are here at Pamola, and you see the Knife’s Edge there, and in between what you see is… well, a “mini-abyss.” There is a rock wall on your side, dropping several meters, and there is another wall that goes up to the Knife’s Edge on the other side. Another deep breath. Brave people take the initiative; Olesya led. And she’s really good. She basically had to wait for Jay and I, who were more, say, “chickened-out.”

Once on the Knife’s Edge, it certainly gets better. There are some spots here and there that are very sharp, with drops on both sides that get your heart rate up, but it is an exciting experience. The views (I know, I have said it already, but I have to say it again) are amazing. And from time to time you look back, and it’s hard to believe you just came from there.

We reached the South peak and took a couple of pictures, and from there there was just a little stretch to Baxter Peak, the actual summit of Katahdin. We reached Baxter peak at about 11:30. It felt so good; I cannot imagine the feeling of someone who gets here after finishing the whole Appalachian trail. We took a good lunch break at the summit, and enjoyed the views, the feeling of achievement, and the conversation with Jay and other hikers.

We went down by the Saddle trail. A good section of it is very hard, very steep and full of small rocks, almost gravel. But then you reach a flatter region, and it’s more comfortable from there to Chimney Pond. We made it back to the pond by 1:40. Little break, “sign out” at the ranger station (to let them know we were back), one more picture, and back to the trail.

We were already tired going down Chimney Trail. It actually took us to go down about the same time it took us to go up that morning. We were signing the registration sheet, back at Roaring Brook, at 3:22 pm, for a total round trip of nine hours and twenty minutes. Absolutely worth it. I would wake up at 2:00 and do it again anytime —uh… maybe not the following day, though

Back in the cabin, we took a good shower and a light dinner (we had been munching all day, both days), and then we went to bed and slept for several hours.

Next day, we took it easy. On the way back, we stopped at Ogunquit, walked The Marginal Way (nice, as always!), ate at one of the restaurants at Perkins’ Cove, and had the only (but traditional) ice cream of the trip.

Wonderful trip.