Katahdin always gives a new view Perfect climbing day defines summer

As many times as I’ve climbed Mount Katahdin it’s always unique. It’s never the same. Each hike to Baxter Peak is as different from the next as one day is from another. Even if I take the same trail as the time before, I see something new. When the weather is beautiful, it’s beautiful in a special way. The views don’t change, of course, but I can always find a new feature to identify. These are the thoughts that bounced around in my head as I ascended the Helon Taylor Trail on my most recent hike to the top.

I’ve been using the Taylor Trail lately, after leaving Roaring Brook, because it takes me above tree line quicker than the others that approach from that side. Which means the views arrive sooner, rather than later, unlike on the Chimney Pond Trail. After a little more than a mile of forest hiking, sometimes steeply, I arrived at Keep Ridge, an exposed ridge of boulders that leads to Pamola Peak, one of the mountain’s three major summits.

The granite boulders on the ridge have been crumbling since the passing of the last glacier around 10,000 years ago. On some, you can brush the weather-worn rock away with your hand. The effects of wind and rain, freeze and thaw, and sun and clouds are tangible on the rocks on the way to the peak. Closer to Pamola Peak the trail gets steeper as it crosses some loose rock called talus. The talus looks like it could have been made by smashing bigger rocks to pieces with a hammer. It’s a little like walking across a rock pile. Some rocks wobble, calling for agile foot work.

All the way up the ridge the views to the north, east and south are excellent. South and North Turner Mountains are to the north in the near view, further north lies Traveler Mountain. To the east Katahdin Lake stretches out flat and blue. To the south lies the big lakes of the region, Millinocket Lake, Pemadumcook, and Ambejesus. There are so many lakes, it seems it could take a lifetime of summit trips to count them all.

Knife Edge came closer as I neared the top. Knife Edge connects Pamola Peak to Baxter Peak by a mile long, narrow spine of solid rock. But, Pamola reached at last, the full view of the Great Basin commanded my attention. Sitting for a short time on the rocks at Pamola Peak, elevation 4,902 feet, the vista across the basin of the entire mountain mass is overwhelming. There’s Baxter Peak, the Saddle and Hamlin Peak. There’s the Cathedral Trail ascending Cathedral Ridge. With the binoculars I could see hikers pulling themselves up the trail.

It’s Chimney Peak in the nearest view that captures my interest next. It sticks up next to Pamola, separated from it by Chimney Gap. The descent into the gap is tricky, requiring backwards down climbing to reach the gap floor. Then a short 100-foot climb using hand and foot holds brought me to the top of Chimney Peak, the full spine of the Knife Edge before me.

The day I chose to climb the mountain showed no sign of bad weather. If it’s a bad day, I wouldn’t cross Knife Edge. In fact, no one should. The route is totally exposed. Narrow, it’s slippery when it’s wet and fatalities have occurred by people putting themselves at risk. They insist they can make it across when they shouldn’t try.

But on this mid-summer day “the edge” was spectacular. A day of brilliant blue sky, bright sun and light wind is rare on the mountain and I felt privileged to catch it. Henry David Thoreau called it “the cloud factory,” but the workers must have had it off, because there were no clouds. On The Sawteeth section of the trail the slope drops off severely on either side. From this part of the trail it’s almost 2,000 feet to the mountain’s base. The angle of the slope in the view, under where I’m supposed to place my feet, challenged my perspective. It was all too easy to get caught gazing at something down slope, then find that I misplaced my footing. I didn’t do that too often.

While I crossed “the edge” I couldn’t help but look down. Chimney Pond looked like a speck of blue in a bowl of green. Thick spruce-fir forest grew solidly against its shore, blanketing the valley floor. Up rose the mountain of solid rock to the soles of my feet. In an hour I had climbed up, down, over and across to Baxter Peak, elevation 5,267 feet. A mile-an-hour pace. It was slow enough to recognize rocks that I had seen from previous hikes. There was one where I stopped for a break in a high wind. There’s another one that’s beside me in a picture on the wall at home. There’s a new one covered with brilliant green lichen, near my hand as I reach for a hold.

At South Peak, a summit that falsely appears higher than Baxter, I took a break. From there the full size of the mountain is obvious. It’s shaped like a fishhook, with Baxter, South, Chimney and Pamola at the bend forming the semi-circular Great Basin. Then the shank end is formed by Hamlin, and two miles further up to the eye end, Howe Peaks. Soon though, the draw to Baxter was too great so I wound my way across the rock pile to the top.

Once the summit was reached I stuck around for a couple of hours looking beyond the mountain, west and north, to more views. West lay Moosehead Lake and the Piscataquis Mountains. North the great lakes of Chesuncook and Chamberlain stretched out for miles. With so many views and features, I never tire of the view from the top, but finally I headed down. Descending the Saddle Trail looking back towards the summit from the valley floor gave one more distinctive perspective.

On the Chimney Pond Trail back to the truck at Roaring Brook Campground I had a lot of time to reflect on the day. But, the first and last thought that occurred to me was, “It’s not really summer until you’ve climbed Katahdin on a perfect day.” Then with that guiding me over the trail for the final three miles, the time flew by, until at last the miles had passed and the mountain was behind me.

Brad Viles is an avid hiker who has logged some 8,000 lifetime miles, including the Appalachian Trail. A trail maintainer for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club he has climbed Mount Katahdin more than 75 times. He can be reached at sball1@ prexar. Com