Katahdin Stream Campground to Mt. Katahdin (5.25 miles)

We did this hike on August 19, 2007. This was very early in our hiking adventures. We did not know much about the Appalachian Trail at this point and we collectively called ourselves “Dumb and Dumber.”

Hiking Conditions
Class I with a wind advisory (40-50 mph wind gusts near Baxter peak)

High Spirits
Our morale and confidence was high at the start of the hike. We were determined to summit Katahdin and descend down the Knife Edge. There was no IF we summit Katahdin; we were going to summit Katahdin. We were psyched. We signed the trail register at the Katahdin Stream Campground at 6 AM.

The day started off overcast and a bit chilly. The trail initially paralleled Katahdin stream.

Easy Rocks
Python kept asking "are these the hard rocks?" Dirigo said "I think so". Little did we know what Pamola had in store for us! We passed a jumble of rocks that we thought was the cave?

Just before we left tree line we put on our coats, hats, and gloves because the wind was whipping pretty hard.

Rung Ladders?
Are you freaking serious! The guide book said nothing about rung ladders!

Gary and Brad said nothing about rung ladders! Melody said nothing about rung ladders! They all lied to us! Omitting the truth is considered lying in our book! If we can't pull ourselves over these rungs, we have to turn around. Several times we had to take off our backpacks and throw them up onto the rocks and then pull ourselves up onto the rocks.

Hell begins at the Hunt Spur
Our determination and confidence is first tested here. Do we really want to do this? There would be no shame in turning around, right? Sure, it would be embarrassing telling people that we couldn't do it but at least we were still alive. Maybe this just isn't our year to summit Katahdin? The wind is whipping around us and we are afraid of being blow off the mountain. We hugged the rocks while we kept climbing. We crawled on our belly many times; we were surprised that our cameras survived the ascent.

Nightmare
Where in the guide book did it say anything about this crap! They all lied to us! Is it too late to turn back? That would mean going down the rung ladders! Never mind! We kept hiking north because we were too scared to backtrack! Fear is a powerful motivator. Obviously, this was not designed with short people in mind. It felt like we were mountain climbing instead of hiking. Our knees were taking a beating.

Hell continues
Good thing we had been working hard in the gym; otherwise we would have died a horrible death on the Hunt Spur.

An elderly gentleman gave us kudos for attempting the summit with our short little legs. He said he would have taken his hat off to us but it was too darn cold. It was a bit disheartening to see the young kids just step over the big boulders whereas we had to hoist and shimmy ourselves over the rocks. We congratulated a thru-hiker that passed us on the ascent (below the tree line) and was passing us yet again during his descent of Baxter Peak.

Tableland
Oh thank goodness we finally made it to the Tableland!

What do you mean the summit is still over a mile away? By this time there were a lot of people on the mountain and you could see a trail of people heading to the summit.

Baxter Peak – Elevation 5,267 Ft
The Abenaki Indian word "Katahdin" means greatest mountain. We reached the summit in 6 hours, 39 minutes. We wisely decided not to descend the Knife Edge due to the whipping wind.

** To read about our descent from Baxter peak, please click here.