Friends invited me to climb Mount Katahdin with them this summer. Katahdin is one of those peaks that every hiker in Maine expects to climb some day. It is over 4000 ft. high, so you need to climb it for that list. It is very rugged and not easily accessible, so that is another part of the challenge. It certainly is spectacularly beautiful and reserved in a refreshingly wild state. All reasons to make that trip up to northern Maine to see if the weather will allow you to experience the challenge.

So, off to Baxter State Park. We reserved a spot at the Roaring Brook lot and decided to hike up to Chimney Pond and then continue up the Cathedral Trail. Our return was back down Saddle.

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Notice how clear the streams are.

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Since this was August and it had not rained very recently, some stream beds were dry. This dry stream bed here looked like this in late June 2009:

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Chimney Pond in the morning.

A 7-photo panorama of Chimney Pond assembled with PTGui. 1. is the Cathedral Trail, 2. is the Saddle Trail. The summit (Baxter Peak) is somewhere in the middle behind those clouds.

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Ethan McNerney [email protected]

One of the shelters available for overnight stays at Chimney Pond.

Views from the climb up the Cathedral Trail. There are three Cathedrals. It is a great trail, but I had forgotten, for maybe a third of it you need to use your hands almost as much as your legs.

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Looking back to Chimney Pond from partway up the first Cathedral. Do you see the sandy spot near the left? That is where the panorama and video was taken.

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The infamous Knife Edge Trail is finally revealed along the top of the ridge. Pamola is the first peak on the left, then the trail drops down into the Chimney. Next it climbs back up and runs along the exposed ridgeline.

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Looking toward the north and the Tableland. That prominent slide in the middle is the Saddle Trail -- our route down.

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Looking back over the first Cathedral.

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Pamola and the Chimney. See all the people on the ridge?

Ethan McNerney [email protected]

Ethan McNerney [email protected]

Saddle Cut-off Trail.

--To be continued in the next post--