Hunt Trail-Mt. Katahdin
(Out and back, 10.4 miles, 4000 feet gain, 9.5 hours)
Mt. Katahdin is the end or the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. Hunt trail (5.2 miles, 4000+ feet gain), also the part of AT trail, is said to be the most popular and relatively easy trail to get on to the Baxter Peak. It consists of 3 sections: the first 2.5 miles in the forest, the 2nd of 1.5 miles called Hunt Spur, following a steep ridge that scrambling is required, and the 3rd of 1.3 miles called Tableland, gradually going up to the peak. There are other trails, such as Cathedral Trail and Abol Trail, are much shorter but steeper that are only recommended to climb up by the park rangers.
On July 25th, 2016, my husband and I drove about 5 hours from our first leg of the road trip: White Birches Camping Park, near the town of Gorham in White Mountain Region of New Hampshire, to arrive at the Baxter State Park of Maine, where Mt. Katahdin calls home. The state park is the most primitive park I’ve ever been, with narrow and winding gravel/dirt roads at speed limit of 20 MPH, no cellphone coverage, no water spigots, no flush toilets, no shower facilities, no electricity available and all kinds of RV are not allowed. Park regulations also prohibit motorcycles and pets.
About a month ahead we reserved a Lean-to campsite($30/night) at the campground named Nesowadnehunk(big white river in Indian). It is a field campground so we had a beautiful open view of the mountains, shared quietly with other 2 families. A water cascade called Ledge Falls just half mile away where we could swim. The campground is well maintained, clean and has a sheltered sit-on toilet. We loved it at the first glance.
The view from our campsite, thunderstrom is coming!
First night after dinner, a ranger pulled in with firewoods in her truck, to check on us. During the conversation, after we told her we planed to hike the Hunt Trail to the Baxter peak, more or less, I felt she tried to discourage us. She told us hiking up to the boulders was good enough for a great view. I asked my husband afterwards, why do people always underestimate our hiking abilities, even though we just summited Mt. Washington a day before in 3.5 hours? Are we too old, too fat, or too Chinese?
That night we had a huge thunderstorm. The rain just poured down for hours. Fortunately we were lying in the Lean-to, inside of which amazingly stayed dry. I was in awe with the skills whoever built it, wondering how the logs could stay together so nicely to keep water from seeping in. The whole night the rain and wind hit and blew our tarp so hard that I was unable to fall asleep, worrying about tomorrow’s hike in my toss and turns.
Luckily around 0400, both rain and wind stopped. Soon after, birds started singing me up. Got out of the sleeping bag around 5am, made us a quick oatmeal breakfast and grabbed a coffee, around 5:45am, we were on the road again. A ranger at the gate once told us that we were bound to see a moose at dawn or dusk. We kept scanning the area along that 45 miniutes driving, but apparently, not like us, not a single moose was in a mood to get up after having got drenched the whole night. Well, that’s ok, we should respect their decision as well, and a little bit disappointment for us is good and a beauty in the whold picture in fact.
If you want to hike the Hunt Trail without camping at the Katahdin Steam Campground, a day parking ticket ($5) must be reserved ahead, and only valid before 0700 on that designated day. The parking lot fills very quickly, without a reserved ticket, more likely you have to turn around in disappointment.
