Where do I begin? I love this mountain. It is my favorite mountain. Why? There are many reasons, but I can reduce it to two.
First, it is a beautiful and majestic mountain. Specifically from Chimney Pond, you are surrounded by steep walls of rock. This body of water is surrounded on three sides by the mountain; Katahdin forms a horseshoe around Chimney Pond. When you climb the Chimney trail, the majority of it is in the woods. You get glimpses of the mountain from time to time. When you finally reach Chimney Pond, you walk out into an openness fairly close to the pond and the grandeur of Katahdin reveals itself. The first time I climbed it, I just remember thinking I had not seen anything so grand. This was of course based on my limited East coat perspective and I had done only a little exploring. This image is etched into my brain. And every time I have seen it since, it has not disappointed. I do not have many photos that capture how magnificent it is in person. I recall seeing an aerial image in L.L. Bean in Freeport that really captures its beauty in totality. The mountain from other directions is impressive but somewhat average.
Mt. Katahdin from Chimney Pond.
The second reason Katahdin is my favorite mountain is it was one of the first mountains of significance that I climbed. I went to a camp called Pine Island in my late teens and early twenties. This camp is the second oldest in the country and I was a counselor there for six years. I was the third generation to go to this boys and tripping camp in Maine. I think it took me three years to go on this trip. When I did, I was an assistant trip leader. The experience left a significant imprint on me. For the following three years, I believe I was able to wrangle being the trip leader and enjoyed taking this trip out. Katahdin was different than all the other trips the camp sent because you would hike the three miles to Chimney Pond and stay at the Bunk House for four days. We would climb the mountain every day.
This was the Bunk House at Chimney Pond. We were likely getting ready to hike the mountain. I recognize a few of these campers which include Wade Cooper, Andre Appinanni and Duncan Burke. This trip generally attracted the best campers.
I think I have climbed the same route every time. Up the Cathedral trail to the peak. Then down the Knife Edge to Pamola peak. From there, down the Dudley Trail back to Chimney Pond. When I was young, we would get up and down the mountain quickly and with ease. My trip this year the up was pretty good, but getting down from Pamola on the Dudley Trail was pretty rough, exacerbated by some rain and slippery rocks.
Since my years at Pine Island Camp, I have probably climbed the mountain another five or six times bringing my total somewhere above twenty. Every one of my post-camp trips was to show some unsuspecting soul the grandeur that is Katahdin. I have brought friends from college, San Francisco and one year I thought it would good to show my family the mountain that I loved.
This a view of Chimney Pond from the peak of Katahdin.
My kids were young and my parents were not so old that I thought getting to Chimney Pond was a feasible trip. So one day on our annual summer vacations in Maine, we woke up early; generally around 3 AM. This was necessary because you had to get to the Roaring Brook parking lot before the trail hits its quota for the day. On this trip the last people they let in to hike the Roaring Brook Trail beat us by about 15 minutes. I was crushed. So the rangers recommended some other modest hiking to a river. All flat land stuff and not nearly as dramatic. We checked these things out and the sites were good, but they were not the view from Chimney Pond. It seemed as though we were probably going to have driven seven-plus hours without getting to see the mountain. When we were coming back from or Plan B hike, we drove by the Ranger station. I stopped and inquired again to see if we could get in. I am not sure why I did it because I was certain we would be turned away, again. And much to my surprise, they said there were some open slots. Boom! Needless to say, I was very happy. The family seemed willing to give it a shot.
We drove in and we started up the Chimney Pond trail. My father had polio as a young boy and his lower body strength and stability are limited. I recalled the Chimney Pond Trail as being pretty easy and flat from my years doing it as a young man; yet another reminder in perspective. The first third of the trail is easy with very few obstacles. Things were looking good. Slowly, the rocks became more frequent and bigger. I was reminded that the remainder was a little trickier. From the perspective of my father, it was challenging. He was a trooper and gutted it out. We made it to Chimney Pond and had lunch. Time was a little tight as we did not start until 10 or 11 AM and we were not particularly fast on the trail. We started back down and the ‘fun’ began. Getting down for my father was very difficult. I had to carry him on portions of the trail because he could not navigate it. My mother and I worked together to get him down step by step. My kids and wife were growing impatient at our speed and I had told them to go on ahead. I regretted that decision in about five minutes. They had no experience hiking and I was very worried that they would get lost. The next couple of hours were very difficult, for everyone. Finally, my father, mother and I got to the parking lot. My family was there to greet us which was a major relief. We talk about this trip regularly and I take much-deserved grief for proposing the effort as a good idea.
This year my son was fifteen and I thought it was a good time to do Katahdin. He also went to Pine Island Camp for four years as a camper, but never did Katahdin. This summer, my kids had brought a friend each to our place in Maine for our summer vacation. Ben’s friend was named Derek and I suggested that we climb Katahdin. They were interested; more so Derek than Ben. I suggested to my daughter that she and her boyfriend should come, but they declined. In retrospect, this was probably best. We woke up early as is required and I drove very fast up to Baxter Park. Ben and Derek essentially slept all the way up. I got to the Rangers station that controls who gets into the Roaring Brook parking lot hoping there would be good news. And we were lucky. They let us in. The weather was not great that day. We got up to Chimney Pond pretty quickly, but it was overcast and looked like it might rain. Halfway up Cathedral, it started spitting but was not terrible. The boys were impressed by the steepness of the trail and the portions that required a scramble. We got to the peak and we were in the clouds some. It was hard to see Chimney Pond but we would get a glimpse now and then. We sat on the edge near the peak and ate lunch. The PB&Js we packed tasted very good. There was some nervousness on the boys part of what the Knife Edge would entail.
My son Ben, his friend Derek Wilson and I at the top. We witnessed two people complete the Appalachian Trail. Pretty great.
We started to head down and while they were very impressed, they realized it was very doable. The clouds also began to break some so we got good views in all directions. We made through the cut of Pamola Peak and I even had a little bit of a close call going down that very steep portion. I was nervous for my kid. An interesting perspective I never really had before until I viewed it from the parental perspective was involved. We headed back up the other side of the cut and then down the Dudley Trail. It started raining pretty shortly after we started heading down. The rocks were slick and navigating this trail for me was very different than when I was doing it some thirty-plus years prior. Toward the end of the Dudley trail, I began to slow down. I finally made it back to Chimney Pond where the boys were waiting for me as they had been going quicker than I. We started heading back to Roaring Brook parking lot. The boys were going a lot quicker than I was. Despite my regrets some ten years earlier, I told them to go ahead. I was whipped. The trail was slippery from rain earlier. My knees were killing me with every step. With about half a mile to go, it started to rain pretty hard. I thought to myself that it is the last time I climb my favorite mountain, she was going to make me earn it.
Mt. Katahdin remains my favorite mountain and was the first mountain in my quest to hit the high point in every state.
Look around!