08/17/2008
Mt Katahdin (or the Katahdin range I am not sure honestly) is the beginning of the AT, it is in Baxter State park in Maine. It has 3 major peaks, Pamola, Baxter and Hamlin peek as well as the south peak and Chimney peak. Alex Sun and I set out to climb them all.
Mountain in the clouds
We woke up at 4:15 so that we could pack up the camp site and make it to the park early, there is only room for 45 cars at the trail head and the rangers stop more than that from entering so if you don't get up early you don't get to hike. The gate at the ranger station opens at 5:30 and there was a line.
 
you know who I blame for this picture... Cheryl (aka Twizz)
 
 
I don't think I remember how to set up my tent in the light anyway
 
Alex and what would have been a great pre sunrise shot... but not enought light without a flash.
 
Katahdin on our way into the park
 
From the Roaring Brook Campground we took the Helon Taylor trail up to the first peak, Pamola. We left at 6AM.
 
 
a great start!
 
yea because that is climbing on rocks.... little did I know what was in my near future
 
I am getting Alex hooked on twizzlers too
 
"oh no where did the mountain go!?!"
 
clouds are not our friends
 
 
 
 
it looks cute, but it took us an hour to get to that first bump you see behind me, you get no sense of scale.
 
 
 
The blue lines mark the path.
 
 
 
Twizzler in mouth, new waterproof jacket on, ready to rock!
 
 
we got brief glimpses of the mountain as the clouds got blown across them, often the winds were strong enough that we had to move on all fours.
 
Pamola... ok next
 
 
The name of this path is 'the knife's edge', it was a long way down!
 
 
Climb monkeys climb!
 
 
 
Do I need to comment?
 
 
now THAT is a drop off
 
steady
 
summit!
 
 
We took the Saddle trail down, although it wasn't raining it was slippery from the condensation and it was quite difficult to get down, particularly with the loose rock.
 
 
Chimney Pond, many poeple know I have wanted to swim here since I read an article in Backpacker magazine last year listing this as one of the top 10 swimming holes in the US, but there was asign posted that said no swimming, more importantly it wasn't very warm out and I didn't feel like getting any colder (even though I brought my swimsuit). We decided to pass.
 
 
 
 
Alex's pictures (his batteries died on the trip so there aren't as many)
 
 
 
 
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