Mount Katahdin expedition, 7-10 July 2009
This page is dedicated to my father, Andy Howitt, who took me on my first mountain climbs and instilled in me the love of mountain climbing.
Katahdin is majestically beautiful, and a very popular destination ... the campground was packed, and I heard tell of 50 people on the summit on Thursday.
Katahdin is also pretty challenging. I've climbed a few mountains in my time ... this is one of the toughest I've been on. Tougher than Lafayette (which stymied my father and me at least once, before we finally made it to the summit), in the same league with Washington and Adams ... but steeper than any of them.
Wednesday - Base camp at Chimney Pond
At the Roaring Brook ranger station, this model vividly illustrates the rugged terrain, and there's a handy guide to the relative elevation and steepness of the trails. Even though Chimney Pond Trail is the gentlest of all these trails, it's still no picnic with a full pack. From the Roaring Brook campground, we took 3 hours for the 3.3 mile ascent, in light but steady rain (also no fun).
Click on the topo map for full size.
At the Chimney Pond campground, we checked in with the ranger and set up camp as the rain gradually tapered off and the clouds gradually lifted. Suddenly (it seemed), we were surrounded on three sides by walls of rock two thousand feet high. Have you ever seen approaching thunderstorms, looming like mountains of cloud? These are like that, but rock where you'd expect clouds to be. Clouds of mountains.
Lots of campers keep coming down to the shore of Chimney Pond to see the views. The campground is full of high school and college age kids, a few families, and a couple of older experienced guys (who are the most fun to talk with, especially the extreme hikers ... lots of good tales).
Panorama from the field in front of the crew bunkhouse. From left: crew bunkhouse, Pamola Peak, the Knife Edge, Baxter Peak, the Saddle, and Hamlin Ridge.
The same panorama, combined with AutoStitch.
I like to include our leanto in pictures of the mountains. Lyle thinks this is funny, so he takes a picture of me taking a picture.
As the clouds lift and sunset progresses, red light suffuses the summits.
Sunset pictures at various angles and times.
Thursday - Climb or Die
Sunrise lights the mountains from a wholly different angle. I was up at 5:00 so I got to enjoy the dawn light crawl over the landscape ... I made breakfast out where I could enjoy the view. Then Lyle and Bella got up, and we had more breakfast.
All this time, I've been thinking Gulp, am I actually going up there? I have acrophobia and I kept staring at the blunt blade of the Cathedral Rocks, wondering if I have it in me to handle this. Cathedral Trail climbs 1600 feet in just 0.7 mile, all big boulders (very difficult to scramble over) and extremely exposed (if you fall, there's nothing to bounce off for a long way).
After some soul-searching, I decided to go with Bella and Lyle, tackle the challenge of Cathedral Trail, and then decide what to do next. From there, I could go to the summit of Baxter Peak, look down at the Knife Edge, and decide if I wanted to bail out. We hit the trail at 9:30.
After about half a mile, we're at the base of the cliff, looking up at First Cathedral. This is an ascent of about one third of a mile, in a little more than half a mile. Gulp. It would be very dangerous to descend this, so once we start there's no turning back. Gulp.
Looking down on First Cathedral with Chimney Pond and campground in the background. These big boulders are tough, usually needing hands to scramble over. In places where I need both hands, I push my hiking stick ahead of me, scramble up, and reach back to get my stick and continue. In some places I have to squirm on my belly like a lizard.
Looking down on Second Cathedral with Chimney Pond and campground in the background. The view is exhilarating, but my acrophobia was getting bad here, so high up. Bella says "Climb or die!" and that pretty much covers the options.
At the Cathedral Cut-off, 12:30. We've taken three hours to come a bit more than one mile. Between my acrophobia, feet getting really sore, and some concern about weather ... this is where I bailed and took the cut-off to Saddle Trail. Bella and Lyle continued towards Baxter Peak.
Saddle Trail along the ridge, with views of this interesting tableland. Looks like the glaciers took a huge bite out of the mountain, leaving the Great Basin (and our campsite).
Mini panorama from the ridge (top of Saddle Slide), showing the basin, Pamola and Chimney peaks with the sharp notch between them, and Baxter peak.
The same panorama, combined with AutoStitch.
From here there's a very steep descent from the ridge into the basin. This part is just about as steep as Cathedral, but instead of boulders it's loose broken rocks, which twist and slide under your feet. Very tricky, so I had to go slow and careful. In some places I had to turn around and go down backwards, like on a ladder.
I managed it ... but I was very glad to see the campground again, just about 15:00. With the rain gone, the flies come out in force -- houseflies swarm over any exposed food, and blackflies, mosquitos, and no-see-ums swarm on any exposed flesh. Rather than use chemicals, I cover up in goretex jacket (even though it's hot) and head net.
Around 17:00, Bella and Lyle return, having gone over Baxter Peak, the Knife Edge, Chimney and Pamola peaks, and Dudley Trail (almost as steep as Cathedral). We all celebrated with a late lunch.
This sunset didn't have the red color of yesterday, but it did provide more spectacular lighting of the mountains. We were all beat, hung out for a bit, had early dinner, went to sleep.
Friday - Homeward
I was up at 6:00 and the night's chill was already giving way to day warmth. Sunrise provided more angles of light over the mountains.
Cathedral ridge. I climbed that yesterday.
This camp's bear line is unlike any I've seen. Hooks to hang the food bags on, and long poles with hooks to lift them on and off. It's a pain, hard to lift the pole and hard to hook it. I prefer the old fashioned kind, where you throw a rope over it and hoist your food bag up and tie it off somewhere.
After breakfast we broke down camp and packed to leave. Started down Chimney Pond Trail around 9:30. We were all kinda sore so we went slow.
We stopped at Basin Pond during the descent, for one last look at the mountain (Lyle in red shirt, Bella in camo hat).
More views from Basin Pond. The second shot shows North Basin (where we didn't go), and Blueberry Knoll below it. (And some guy pointing with his telescoping hiking stick.) I got to Roaring Brook around 12:15, and I was very happy to put down my pack for the last time!
It's a long trip from Boston (4 hours to Bangor, then 1 hour to Millinocket, then 1 hour to Roaring Brook) so we stopped at Bear Brew Pub in Orono, on the way up, and Sea Dog Brewing Company in Bangor, on the way back. Both great!
This page maintained by
Wil Howitt
Last updated 12 July 2009
