Mount Katahdin

Mount Katahdin is the highest mountain in Maine and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. We climbed it on Monday, September 24. What beautiful weather! It was clear with little or no wind and the temperature was in the 50s. There aren't many days like that on Mount Katahdin, which sees weather nearly as severe as Mount Washington.

The photo above shows the sign on the summit. A few feet from that sign is the cairn in the photo below:

The highest point on Mount Katahdin is Baxter Peak (5267') which is where the sign and cairn are. In the photo above, the peak behind and to the right of the cairn is South Peak (5240'), 0.3 miles away. To the left of the cairn is Pamola Peak (4902'), 0.8 miles beyond South Peak. The narrow, serrated ridge to Pamola Peak is the famous Knife Edge.

We continued our hike from Baxter Peak to South Peak. The photo below was taken shortly after leaving Baxter Peak and shows South Peak at the top right (above the horizon) and Pamola Peak to the left (below the horizon). Note the sheer drop-off a few feet in front of Nancy:

Below is Nancy on South Peak with the Knife Edge and Pamola Peak in the background:

Mount Katahdin is in Baxter State Park. We drove to the park on Sunday, September 23, and parked at Roaring Brook Campground (the end of the road). From there we hiked with overnight packs 3.3 miles to Chimney Pond Campground, accessible only by trail, where we stayed two nights in a lean-to. We climbed Mount Katahdin with day packs on Monday, September 24, starting from and returning to Chimney Pond.

The photo below, taken on South Peak, shows Chimney Pond at the foot of the ridge leading up to Pamola Peak. The elevation of the pond is 2910', some 2330' below us.

We last climbed Mount Katahdin in August 2000. On that trip, Brian and I hiked across the Knife Edge to Pamola Peak and down the Dudley Trail to Chimney Pond. But the Dudley Trail was closed because of a rock slide in the winter of 2016. Nancy and I returned from South Peak to Chimney Pond via the Saddle Trail, the same way we had come up.

Below are two photos taken from Chimney Pond on consecutive mornings, looking up at (from left to right) Pamola Peak, the Knife Edge, South Peak, and Baxter Peak. This photo was taken at 9:33 AM on Monday, September 24, the day we climbed the mountain:

This photo was taken at 9:49 AM the following day, Tuesday, September 25:

It was windy that Tuesday with 40 mph gusts at the ranger station at Chimney Pond. A storm system was moving in. We hiked out before the rain started.

Below is a closer view of the sign in the photo at the top of this post:

It says: "Katahdin, Baxter Peak, Elevation 5267 ft., Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail." There are several mileages listed, the last one is: "Springer Mountain, Georgia via the A.T. 2,189.1 mi." When we reached this sign at about 12:30 PM on September 24, there were perhaps 30 people there including several who were celebrating finishing the Appalachian Trail. What a perfect day weather-wise to celebrate that accomplishment!