Abol Trail Up Katahdin

The drive from Littleton, New Hampshire to Baxter Park in Maine took about 6 hours with stops. There were times when I had no cell or GPS coverage. Thanks to AAA, I have the old fashion paper maps.

As I travel, I try to take note of things I see along the way, some interesting and others not so much. I started to notice various military equipment at parks, VFWs, and private companies. These include several tanks, personnel carriers, and a Vietnam era helicopters.

Somewhere on US 2 going East, I saw several people waiting along the road to fill water jugs from a running spring. A granite structure had been built around the spring with a brass pipe. Years ago, my family would go for fresh spring water for drinking. It tasted better than well water. Not long ago, I was curious if there were any springs in the Farmington Valley in Connecticut. There were, but there were warnings on contamination for all of them. They are contaminated because of lawn runoff.

I passed a Biker Motel with about 40 motorcycles parked on the grounds. A sign read “Biker Friendly”. Some people were cooking breakfast and a few looked like they needed a cup of coffee first. I could empathize.

The town of Gorham, NH looked like a good place to pull over. I stumbled across the Dermondy Rd. artisan coffee shop just when my caffein dependency really kicked in. On top of great coffee, the pastries were flaky buttery. Just like in Paris. What a surprise in the middle of nowhere. There seemed to be some nice B&Bs in town as well.

I stopped in Bethel Maine for gas. This was the first under 4 USD / gallon I’ve seen in awhile. I’ve noticed the price of gas has been going down the further North I’ve gone. Perhaps, prices have been coming down over the past two weeks as I travelled north.

There was a small memorial park named “Mexico Veterans Park”. I remember in Mexico City there was a cemetery for Americans that died in Mexican civil war. I couldn’t find details on this park in Maine. So, I’m not sure if the two are related.

Big Moose Inn, ME

I had a reservation at the Big Moose Inn, Cabins and Campground. The nightly rate was 16.35 USD for a campsite that had flush toilets and clean showers. After setting up my tent for a two-night stay, I went back to the Inn to catch up on my blogs and have a beer. The Inn is the perfect place to stay if you’re visiting Baxter State Park and aren’t camping. They had a selection of different types of beers, mostly local. They let me setup on the screened-in porch to work. A group of young woman came in. They were part of an exchange program; half were Americans and half were Spanish.  The Wi-Fi connection was strong, and I could get a lot done.

Next door is the North Woods Trading Post. They mostly deal in the touristy trade items and server food. I went in to buy a map for my hike up Katahdin. A young guy behind the counter was very helpful with information about the trip up to Baxter Peak. He told me, take hiking shoes, not boots, extra water, sun protection and rain cover (all good suggestions). The hiking shoes recommendation was very appreciated. Boots would have been way too heavy.

Hike to Baxter Peak on Katahdin Mountain

"Katahdin always should and must remain the wild stormswept, untouched-by-man region it now is; that is its great charm."

-- Governor Percival Baxter

I was up at 6am for my big hike. I decided to wait for the fog to clear. It took me about 40 minutes from the Big Moose campground to get to the Roaring Brook Campground inside Baxter State Park. I didn’t consider the check-in at the entrance, a drive on dirt roads and then registration at the trailhead. It was 9:00 am when I set off.

I was doing the Abol Trail out and back with some modification to add 2 miles. AllTrails rated this as hard. I would characterize it as very difficult.

For those unfamiliar with Katahdin Mountain, it is the final destination on the Appalachian Trail for through-hikers that start in Georgia (2,200 miles).

The trail starts off as an easy pine needle trail with a slight incline and gradually becomes a moderate trail. About a mile out rocks begin to appear making it difficult. As you hike, you keep thinking you see the top only to notice there’s another more difficult section to traverse. This played with my head a bit.

And then, after completing the difficult section, the boulders appear. These are big rocks to step over, I’m talking about finding your way over 8 foot high boulders wedged together. It’s no longer a trail but a climb. It’s more like a low-level rock climb. Watching a six-year-old coming down, gave me encouragement. Full disclosure, there were a few times when I thought, maybe it would be best if I turned around now, but there was always someone close by to give words of encouragement.

Trail etiquette is to give the person coming up the right of way at narrow points. This is a point of interaction between hikers. The conversation is usually short, “How’s it going?”, “Fine Thanks.” On this mountain, due to the steepness, there’s more time to interact. So, the conversation is more like, “How much further do I have?”, “Not far, you’re doing great!”

Sometimes, I would just stop and ask people where they were from. People were from all over New England, AT hikers, Australian, Canadian, etc. I heard various languages on the trail. About 20 people had completed the AT through hike from Georgia. There was also three guys that had started the AT in West Virginia (half hikers). They were going to take a flight back to WV and then hike the other half to Georgia. As one of them said, I’m going to walk home from WV.

Two twin sisters were just completing the AT. They were coming down at a point where I was trying to catch my breath. They were very cheery giving me words of encouragement. They told me their names were “Relish” and “Play-by-play” (trail names). I got a photo and told them I would post-it on the blog. Congratulations!!

I did make it to Baxter Peaker (elevation 5266 feet). The views were spectacular in all directions.

The wind was picking up a little and I thought I had time to hike my planned route to cathedral and back around. I checked with a few people for feedback on the route and the estimated time to complete. All looked doable. Hiking in areas like this, you need to prepare for things that might go wrong (lesson learned). Hiking, I went into hikers’ autopilot and never noticed my turn and realized I must be in the wrong place, when the trail dropped over a cliff. Checking the map, I had a .8-mile hike back up the hill. I made it back to the top Abol to start my climb down the boulders.

It was now 3pm and most people were in front of me. Amazingly, I passed an 81-year-old woman and her daughter on the Boulders at the top.  They told me they had a 2-mile hike to their car once they got down. This trail had been on her bucket list (good for you!!!).

Somehow, I didn’t make a turn on the boulders and found myself in a huge boulder field going down the side of the mountain. AllTrails save my bacon. I figured out where the trail turned back towards the boulder field. Unfortunately, I had to push my way through a very dense wilderness forest to get the trail. I tried to stay on the contour line. Sometimes I was crawling on the ground. At one point there were so many pine trees that came down that I was eight feet off the forest floor. I held tight to the cell phone as it was my only way out of the mess.

I thanked all the gods for delivering me to something that looked familiar. There were many lessons that I learned on this day.

I returned to the trailhead at 6:30 pm, drenched in sweat, exhausted, thirsty and hungry. I returned to the Big Moose Inn and treated myself to dinner (house made bean burger, fries, a strawberry and spinach salad and a lot of water).

After showering, I was in bed by 9:30 pm. I thought I would sleep very well, but my entire body ached and my hamstrings cramped throughout the night.

This is a day I will not forget. A big accomplishment and one of the big items on my trip list.