Katahdin via Hunt Trail, September 27th 2018

Last week, in a completely whirlwind (and completely fun) 48 hour trip, Eric, Lee, Evan and I climbed Katahdin.

Yes, yes we did

Now, growing up with Lee (the hiking master) I know that I should be specific, and state that we summited Baxter peak. I grew up in Maine (with a hiking family, obvs) so I understand the layout of Katahdin. There is the highest peak, Baxter, which is famous for being the Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

The sign agrees

Katahdin has several sub-peaks, South Peak, Pamola, Chimney Peak, Hamlin Peak, and South/North Howe Peaks. (I have literally never met a person who has mentioned any peak other than Pamola and Baxter. But they, evidently, exist.)
Either way. We summited Baxter Peak via Hunt Trail, which is the final stretch of the AT.

We chose this route based on the convenience of the trailhead location, as we were luckily able to snag an amazing lean to at Katahdin Springs Campground. (mid week plans, for the win!) We were in camp site 12, and literally walked out the door and were at the trail head.
Katahdin was not on my radar earlier in the season, as the thought of camping makes me cringe. (and it's just not a day trip from where we live) As my hiking bug grew, and ridiculous adventures seemed more sensible, I decided to bite the bullet and take the plunge (I'm going to write a separate post on the fantasticness of this camping experience, and why I quit camping to begin with 30 years ago.)
(but this post is about the hike)

After a good nights sleep, we were all up and ready to hit the trail at 7:15. The weather simply could not have been better, which is the most remarkable part of this trip. (except the part where I slept outdoors, of my own volition.)

The weather was brisk (which prompted all of us to pack like it was going to be a Mt Washington wind/fog/death march) but the chilly start was just there to wake us up for a DAMN NICE DAY!

Slightly chilly at the start, and almost awake

The first mile, or so, of the trail was amazingly pleasant.

Perfect trail, and the best hiking friends!

We walked through the Narnia Forest (fun fact: this part of Baxter State Park was the inspiration for the forest in the Disney movie Bambi!)

Where are you, Bambi??

The terrain was a mixture of so-easy that your Grandma could do it, and occasional roots and rocks, and the classic bridge crossing.

Warmer. Enjoying the oh so rustic bridge. 

Right around mile one was Katahdin Stream Falls, which wins "best waterfall" for 2018.

Perfect

After the falls, the trail began to get more challenging. (so... leave Grandma at the falls!)

We trundled uphill for a while, and while there was the occasional rocky jump, or mysterious trail stream, I found this section to be more forgiving than most of the ascents on the White Mountains that we have accomplished this year.

Stone stairs are forgiving compared to some climbs

But don't worry, it was not just a casual walk up a bunch of stairs.

Just some rocks

But you also get great views, really quickly.

Double Top, wayyyy over there

Plus, when there are super big rocks, we always make use of them #dorks

So fit. This is now a hiking tradition for these two. Now figure up how to climb up THERE. 

We were lucky to get an amazing view of the Owl from a terrific vantage point (basically, a giant boulder. this scenic overlook has a name which I just can not recall at the moment.)

Hello, Owl

Very shortly after that point, things became serious. (as in: if the weather is bad, or you are unprepared, if you are already feeling fatigue, if you aren't up for a serious scramble TURN AROUND!)

We encountered a series of giant rocks, and the trail turned away from hiking, and into scrambling/light bouldering pretty damn quickly. Apparently, this is the beginning of the Hunt Spur. It's quite full of gigantic stones.

Yes, you need to climb up that!!

Through this segment of trail, you will encounter some very *tight fit* spaces, which could challenge a human with a large pack (or a human who has very broad shoulders.) You must scramble up some very steep sections, some of which are equipped with iron bars.

Good luck scrambling up to that iron towel hanger....

From ahead of us we heard Evan say "wow... that was pretty intense...." And if HE thinks that the actual, blazed route is intense. IT IS.

After clambering through the giant boulders, we came across a perfect and GOD DAMNED MAGICAL plateau to have lunch upon. And it was just amazing.

JUST. GORGEOUS.

The hike could have ended here, and we all would have felt satisfied (sort of)

We encountered some through hikers, and it was really cool to talk to them about their experiences, and how they were feeling with only a few miles to go. Hiking the AT is pretty impressive (and pretty luxurious if you want an unpopular opinion! but hey, being able to take 6 months off for hiking is pretty boujee if you ask me!)

So after hanging out in friggin heaven for a while having lunch, off we went.
Where were we going????

WHERE?? UP!!!!

We were going to tackle the remainder of the Hunt Spur. Thought you were done?? Nope!

OH HI (and that is NOT the top)

This section of trail should not be taken lightly, but I found it easier on the uphill route than I had the iron-bar-boulder section. I have since heard tales of people getting panicked from the heights on this part of the spur, and hitting the bail out button.

Just the beginning....

PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR GRANDMA DO THIS.
But Lee is fine, FYI.

Lee doesn't give AF

I think it goes without saying, but I would NEVER suggest doing this trip on a rainy/low vis day. Way too many possibilities for disaster.
But honestly, I had zero issues with the "up" section of the spur.
And neither did Evan..... (or any of us, but he climbs things)

"Evan... Don't make me call your mother!!"

The final push up the spur is called the gateway.
BECAUSE IT IS A GATEWAY TO A MAGICAL PINK GRANITE WORLD!!!

Holy shit. Where are we???

We paused to regroup (it literally goes from this ass kicking climbing to a flat, sunny, grassy, gorgeous landscape.) Just unreal.

While we took our moment, we got to talk to more through hikers! Seriously, this was so fun. Some of them smell terrible (causing us to give them trail names like "toe cheese"and "swamp ass") but most of them were really fun and funny, and not smelly at all,  and they all sit around looking hungry and chain smoking. (go figure)

And then we were off through the Table Land of magic, towards the summit.

Basically another planet. Amazing. 

We came across the famed Thoreau Springs, and Lee said it was the most watery that he has ever seen it. Apparently, it usually looks like someone peed on the ground. On this day, it was basically a small brook!

Quality photo...

Walking across the Table Land was like nothing I have experienced. It was warm and dry, for starters, but it was also PINK! Small planes circled the summit frequently, which lessened the feeling that we were actually on another planet (seriously, it was so cool. such an amazing place to experience!)

And yes, I saw a crow in the distance. 

And what weather! As clear as we have seen, 60, dry and perfect. We were all so happy!

Selfie time!

From the gateway to the summit it was probably close to a mile, but it seemed shorter because quite a bit was flat. There was a final, moderate 300ish ft climb to the peak, and just like that... We were there.

Amazing

Please don't fall

We made it!

After spending some time at the summit, watching terrified looking hikers finish the Knife Edge (I think I'll tackle it someday. But NOT now) and taking in the sights, we headed down.

While we certainly set a blistering pace on the Table Land, the Spur really set all of us back a bit (especially me.)

Gotta go down this mess

Apparently, on the way up I simply had not noticed the narrow passage way, or incline that we were traveling at.
I noticed on the descent. (pro tip: just don't look down.... or think too much.)

An easy section....

Honestly, after getting through the shit show upper spur, the iron bar section was a breeze. For all of us, it was much easier on the way down. I took alternate routes, which required some leaping, but were not terribly challenging.

Somehow, none of us wiped out. We laughed a LOT (over the most ridiculous things that I wish I could remember now!)

We kind of blazed through the descent. Food and beer were calling.

Back to the flat lands

Before long, we were back at our cozy campsite!!

YAY!!!!

WHAT A DAY!
We could not have asked for better weather. We had such a great time, and it was amazing to see the landscape of Katahdin. I really look forward to returning to Baxter again, and seeing more of what this beautiful part of Maine has to offer.

Stats:
Milage- 10.0 miles 

Elevation- 4,596

Time: 7:48 (included some lunch and such. the usual)

Challenge level- I need to lock down a rating system for this. I would have to say, given the distance and the aggressive scrambling that I would call this strenuous. (extremely difficult? is that what I have been saying? give me a few days and I'll work out how to rate this shit. Go read your mountain guide for actual advice haha.) 

Franconia Ridge Loop, August 11th, 2018

It's a little disturbing how quickly summer is going by (although I WILL NOT AT ALL miss the 95+ degree temps that we have been experiencing this year.
Last week was one of those weeks. Temps over 90, and humidity like we have never seen. My house may have mildewed.

So, when the forecast began to call for cooler, drier (and perhaps cloudyish weather) for Saturday, Eric and I said "screw housework and lawn mowing and going to the dump and being adults, let's go hiking!!"

After chugging through the Traverse  a couple weeks ago, tackling something in the Franconia region began to look appealing. Despite the longer drive, the Franconia ridgeline (and what appeared to be legitimate dirt trails!!) sounded pretty damn good. (prepare to see 4 million pics of said trails, haha.)

We departed our house at 4:30. Yes, this seems absolutely and completely ridiculous for a hike with a book time of 7:30-8 hours.
However.... We had been hearing mumblings of significant traffic and parking issues in the Franconia area, and we just didn't feel like dealing.

So, for change we got to sleep in (until 3:30) and see the *sunset* while on the drive.

We didn't want to get too excited about the perfect weather

We arrived to a busy, but certainly not full parking lot.

Plenty of space to prepare

Shockingly, the weather was looking good. I had monitored the forecast for a couple days, and it looked worse that the weather that had been forecasted for our Traverse day. I did NOT have high expectations for views, and I certainly packed for damp and cloudy conditions.

We kicked off the adventure at 6:20, and briskly headed up Falling Waters Trail.
This trail was quite busy, even at the early hour and we caught up to many people shortly after the first stream crossing, which is over a nice little bridge (there are at least 4 more crossings and zero more bridges. Might make for wet feet in the spring, unless you can leap really far.)  I believe it was called Dry Brook, and while it was not exactly dry, it was not an extreme stream.

The lone bridge

We came across many lovely falls.

Just a preview of what's to come!

The trail was exceedingly pleasant for the first half mile or so- like, take the children for a little hike kind of easy (and you should, the kids will go bananas for the available water to play in!)

I was tempted to take off my shoes and play

Also, with 3 lovely falls in less than a mile out, this would make for a really pleasant short excursion.
I'm pretty sure this final photo is Cloudland Falls.

Cloudland Falls, bonus points for being extra pretty

For the first mile or so, Eric and I passed, or played leap frog with quite a number of other hikers. Even though we are all just out to enjoy the day, Eric and I tend to be overly zealous. Once we have passed someone, we really do not care to have them pass us back! So, on occasion we might hustle in a competitive way, which is really unnecessary! (but it's fun)
We should probably knock it off. Hiking is probably not a competitive sport. Or is it?

There definitely came a time when the trail became less of a stroll, and more of a climb over the usual rocks. Regardless, it was still significantly less brutal than the final stretch of Madison, or any part of fricking Adams.

A few stones early on

After a few areas of incline/flat/incline/flat, a long climb began. Even though we were keeping a steady pace, and passing the occasional hiker, it was really enjoyable! We kept up a constant stream of weird conversation, and enjoyed the trail- which was just lovely, even below tree line.

Watch out, here I come!

It wasn't too long before we popped up above the trees, and got our first view of the day.
After the foggy pea soup of most of the traverse, the views were a sight for sore eyes. Even before we really got to the top, I couldn't shut up about how excited I was to SEE EVERYTHING!!!!

HI

Shortly after, we arrived at the top of Haystack. Be prepared to have no real idea that you have summited anything. Other than feeling like you are on top of an actual mountain, there's not much to tell you that you have arrived.
But it doesn't matter BECAUSE IT IS F***ING AWESOME AND GORGEOUS!!!
Summit #1 reached at 8:20. Exactly 2 hours of hiking.

OMG SUNSHINE AND HAPPINESS

AND ACTUAL DIRT TRAILS!!! I WEPT WITH JOY!!

Anyway. After taking a moment to freak about the beauty of nature, on we walked.
Or PRANCED, because I swear, you have never in your life seen a trail as perfect as Franconia Ridge. (and apparently, trail runners agree because we saw a metric fuck ton of them.)

I'm not running, but I sure am happy!! Also, #dadshorts made a comeback

It is a very glorious 0.7 mile walk to Lincoln. The ridge must suck in the bad weather, but it was SO perfect. I needed none of my rain gear, and felt somewhat over prepared...

Those clouds are really messing up my party

As we climbed up Lincoln, we had a good view of what was behind us, and we reassured ourselves that we had officially passed, and held off our nearest competition. #veryimportant
But let's be honest! We had a perfect view in every direction.

Heading up Lincoln

When we climbed Jefferson back in June, I was super scared of anything up high. Evan kept climbing the rocks, and being a weird little goat.
Apparently, that runs in our blood. (who would have thought??!) Now that I have become more confident with my balancing abilities, I seem to be very interested in climbing to the highest point! So fun. So unexpected.

Majestic

From Lincoln to Lafayette, there is 0.9 of gorgeous dirt trail (with a few little rocks here and there, but nothing I wouldn't send my little Nephew and Niece over) and these super cute little trees, that make you feel like you are a giant walking in a tiny world. My imagination was on overdrive.

The land of tiny trees!!

We knew that we had arrived upon Lafayette because there were a ton of people there, a legit ultra trail runner pit crew stop (complete with go-pro and the kind of intensity that comes from attempting a Pemi loop record, or so we guess) Plus, we google mapped our location to confirm AND we finally found a marker.
Lafayette Summit at 9:14. Time for a sandwich.

There you are, little buddy

It was the warmest, and least windy summit of the year. And very pretty.

Hawks enjoying the thermals 

It was pretty crowded, and growing more so by the minute.
Much to our *dismay* a woman that we had passed about a mile in crept up, looked around and officially took the lead of our pretend race. She was never to be seen again! (that's what we get for taking a 15 minute lunch break!!)

Summit photo. Still breezy, even on a perfect day!

We were easily able to find the Greenleaf trail, which takes you to the Greenleaf hut a mile or so later. There were a number of rock staircases, and small boulders in this area (but it's a walk in the park compared to most of the terrain that we have hiked on this year.)

Just normal rocks. And a gondola off in the distance.

There was some heavy traffic on the uphill climb of this stretch of trail. Pleasantly, everyone seemed to need a break and yielded to us while they caught their breath. While this isn't traditional trail etiquette, neither of us were complaining.

Looking up at the Greenleaf trail

Before too long, we were back in tiny tree land!!! The footing in this section of trail was perfect, and although it was narrow, we were able to meet oncoming hikers safely.

I just can't get enough of the teeny trees

We passed by the Greenleaf hut at 10:03 with no need to stop. Quite a few of the hikers just behind us stopped here, so the downhill traffic became almost non existent at this point (other than the hut workers, who basically run down at top speed!)

Eric, and the Greenleaf hut

We then took the Old Bridle Path about 3 more miles to the parking lot.
Right away, the scenery took a very Narnia like turn (typical)

Mossy green everywhere

Similar to the uphill route, the trail was broken up into sections of rocks, and sections of trail that was just perfect lovely dirt.

I would call this a "typical" rocky stretch. Not too awful.

There were also a number of scenic points that were entirely too easy to dawdle in!

Queen of the Mountain

Oh, and Eric too :-) 

We managed to meet an entire Boy Scout troop on the most difficult stretch of rock that we encountered. We pulled over so that they could scramble up, and then (without too much drama) made our way down.

The sketchiest stretch of stone

From there, it was smooth sailing. We zipped on down feeling great, and meeting a ton of people on their way to the summit (all of whom were impressed by our early start, and SKILLS, obviously. And they all informed us that parking was a complete and total disaster. We felt proud of our decision to get a move on in the morning!)

Heading down, on a GREAT looking trail!!

We kept a pretty brisk pace once we hit the perfect footing, which was fun because we were feeling good. The weather continued to be amazing (low of 50, high of 70, not too humid, nice and sunny.)
We met a couple more trail runners in the final half mile, several hiking dogs (including a Vizla!) And I found myself a comfortable new gnome home.

So comfy. 

We made it back to our car very close to 11:30, which brought us to 5:12 minutes of time on the trail. Pretty much smashing book time.

This is a very helpful sign!

So another VERY enjoyable hike. Definitely more user friendly that a whole silly (awesome) traverse. Very enjoyable trails, views, company and weather! Highly recommend!

And yes, the parking lot was full to capacity at 11:30. They will not allow parking on the shoulder of I93 (which makes perfect sense for safety) but there is a shuttle that will bring you from to, and back from Cannon, where there is satellite parking. If you plan to arrive at a civilized hour in peak months, I would add extra time for this and just plan on it. (we could have sold our spot, no lie...)

Done!!

Stats:
5 hours 12 minutes
8.8 miles
3850' elevation
Challenge level: Moderate. Not scary. Lots of nice terrain, but some step sections for sure.