Hamlin Peak of Katahdin (7/29-31/24)
This trip had been planned for a long time, and was supposed to be the highlight of my hiking summer. As I mentioned in my last blog post, my knee had been bothering me, so I hiked Mt. Madison just to make sure that I was ready for Mt. Katahdin. I hadn't hiked Katahdin since July 11, 2019, so more than five years had passed, and I was ready to get back to it!
I wouldn't be going alone. I would be joined by my friend Sylvia, her husband Alan, our friend Vanessa, and Sylvia's friend Chris. We would also be joined by Sylvia's brother-in-law Paul, but he wouldn't be hiking with us. The plan was for Paul to drive up early on the 29th and hike, and then he would meet us where we were staying when he was finished hiking. Meanwhile, Sylvia, Alan, Vanessa, and I would travel up in Alan's truck, and meet Chris before we headed into Baxter State Park, which is where Katahdin is located. Once we got to the park, we would park at Roaring Brook Campground, which is where I stayed during my last Katahdin trip, and then we would hike into Chimney Pond Bunkhouse, which is where we were staying this time.
Well, we met Chris at a Subway and picked up some sandwiches. We stopped at an informational building on the way in and there was a picnic table outside, so we ate our sandwiches there. Only later did we find out that there was a much nicer picnic area by a lake not far down the road, but it wasn't a big deal. One thing that was nice was that there were privies not too far from our lunch spot if anyone needed them.
Sylvia transferred to Chris's car to keep her company on the drive in, while Vanessa and I stayed with Alan. You would think that's overkill, but the drive in to Baxter State Park is LONG! First of all, the Baxter gate is quite a distance from the town of Millinocket where you get off of I-95. Second, even once you're in the park, the speed limits are very low (for good reason), so it still takes a while to get to the Roaring Brook Campground.
Once we parked, we all had to gear up. This was Vanessa's first backpacking trip, so she checked things over with Sylvia and I to make sure that everything was correct. There was an issue with her sleeping bag having to be stored on the outside of her pack and that caused a couple issues, but we jury-rigged it the best we could. Vanessa has since upgraded her pack, so that shouldn't be an issue again.
As a general rule, you want to have someone with a good, moderate pace that will work for the entire group leading the line, and you want your fastest/strongest hikers in back. This is for two reasons. First, it prevents your fastest hikers from spreading the line out by jumping ahead. Second, your fastest hikers can make sure no one falls too far back of the group, and easily play catch-up if they need to. Thus, we had Sylvia in front, followed by Vanessa, then Chris, then Alan, then me. It was a good arrangement, and Sylvia set a good pace that was comfortable for everyone.
If you look at the above pictures, you might notice that I am the only one not wearing shorts or a short-sleeved shirt. This is for several reasons. First of all, long pants help prevent ticks, sunburn, and scratches. Second of all, long-sleeved shirts help prevent sunburn and flying bugs like mosquitoes and black flies. But wait, you might be saying, isn't that hot in the summertime? It is definitely a bit warmer, but I use shirts and pants with very light-weight materials that breathe well.
The hike into Chimney Pond was 3.2 miles and involved about 1,400 feet of elevation gain. Not brutal, but not easy, either. I don't remember how, but by the time we got close, I was in front of the line and I was the first one to arrive at the campground. I went to the bunkhouse, but there was someone that I didn't recognize already in it. I went back and let Alan know about this development, and he reasoned that the person already there might be Paul if he finished his hike early. I had never met Paul, so I had no idea one way or another.
Alan accompanied me to the bunkhouse, and he was able to confirm Paul's identity. Soon our other three hiking companions arrived, and we were able to set up camp. We had the whole bunkhouse to ourselves, so that was nice. There were two small bunkrooms. Paul was already in one, and Vanessa and Chris joined him in there. I set up in the other bunkroom with Alan and Sylvia.
To blow up my sleeping pad, I was trying out my new Flextail Zero Pump. Overall, I am pretty happy with it, but you do have to use a couple breaths to really firm up the pad once it has finished its work. I was also able to use it to blow up Sylvia's pad, since she has roughly the same one as me. Alan was borrowing my old Big Agnes Q-Core SLX, so he had to blow it up with the pump sack. Still, that is a comfortable pad, so I would imagine that he was happy despite the extra effort to set it up.
As we all sat down to dinner, I realized that I had forgotten my spoon! Actually, truth be told, I still haven't found where that spoon went, and eventually had to buy a new one. Vanessa let me borrow her spoon, but Chris had a more permanent solution with an extra spoon, for which I was very grateful.
We had decided that we didn't need everyone carrying stoves, so we set up just a few stoves to cook everyone's dinner. Similarly, we were also splitting water filters. The water source was Chimney Pond itself, which was beautiful! I would rank it as one of the most beautiful places I have been in Maine, right up there with Mt. Megunticook Overlook in Camden and parts of Acadia. Chimney Pond actually reminded me a lot of views that you see of mountains in the western United States.
That evening, we hung out with Paul and played some games that I had brought along, including Hanabi and Time's Up. Apparently I traumatized Alan during Time's Up, but I'm not going to go into detail about it.
I slept comfortably that night, probably much more comfortably than Paul, who hadn't brought a sleeping pad and so was sleeping on a wood frame. I think Chris and Vanessa got up for a bathroom trip at one point in the night and got lost, but they eventually found their way back to the bunkhouse.
The next morning brought bad weather. The original plan was that the five of us (remember, Paul had already done his hike) would hike up the Saddle Trail, which is considered easier than the Cathedral Trail. Once we were on the ridge, we would split up, with Sylvia and Chris going right to Hamlin Peak, which they needed for their NE67 patch, while Alan, Vanessa, and I went left to the more spectacular Baxter Peak. NE67, by the way, means New England 67, or all the four thousand foot peaks in New England - 48 in NH, 14 in ME, and 5 in VT.
Of course, the weather killed those plans. The new plan was to go up Saddle Trail, and then we would all go right towards Hamlin Peak, and then likely descend back down Saddle Trail. Before we left, we signed it at the ranger station. He told us that we shouldn't go up Katahdin that day with the weather how it was, which was cold, rainy, and windy. I agreed with him, but Sylvia and Chris wanted to make a push for Hamlin. I reasoned that the group would be safer with me than without me, so I went along with the plan to climb.
Ty Gagne, in his book Where You'll Find Me, talks about Kate Matrosova, who died in the White Mountains in 2015. On that hike, she made a lot of bad decisions where she misjudged risk. Gagne points out that a lot of the reason for that was because she was alone, so there was no one to bounce her thoughts off of or to be a voice of reason. For this reason, being alone in the mountains can be a significant danger when it comes to decision making.
However, it's worth noting that the opposite can occur as well. If I were by myself, I never would have gone up Katahdin that day, especially after the ranger warned against it. Sometimes the groupthink dynamics that come into play in a group can be just as dangerous as hiking alone. Just food for thought, I guess.
The climb up Saddle is short but intense. It's only 1.2 miles, but more than 1,400 feet of elevation gain. Towards the top, it was just rock scrambling, which was not fun on the wet rocks. I was afraid that someone was going to slip and seriously injure themselves. It wasn't easy, but the five of us eventually made it over the top of the rocks and emerged onto the ridge.
And that's when things got worse! Now exposed to the full force of the wind, we were struggling. Chris took over leading because she was more confident of how to get to Hamlin Peak than Sylvia was. We huddled up for a moment, and I made it clear that there was no way that we were going back down Saddle Trail, as going down something that steep in those conditions was a surefire recipe for disaster. That left us with limited options, though. Cathedral was even worse than Saddle, as was the Knife's Edge. We could go down the other side of the mountain, but that would leave us stranded miles away from our bunkhouse and our car and everything. Thus, we only had one real option - go down the Hamlin Ridge Trail. Vanessa and I had both hiked that trail before, and neither of us had fond memories of it, but it was the best of a bad set of options.
We eventually made it to the base of Hamlin Peak, and then started the quick climb up to the summit. We didn't linger long on account of the weather, and then we began descending the Hamlin Ridge Trail. Whenever we managed to get out of the wind, things weren't too bad, but that was a rare occurrence. Our decision to put Chris in front now began causing problems as well, as Chris was one of our two strongest hikers, and the line began to stretch out. The only two people that were still together were Alan and I in the back.
Finally, we reached a point where Chris was so far ahead that Alan and I couldn't even see her anymore. Sylvia was struggling, and Vanessa was in no man's land between Chris and Sylvia. We all called a stop, and re-organized and had a snack. The weather had eased off somewhat, but we were still anxious to get back below tree line.
We ran into a group ascending as we descended, and I wasn't sure if they were going to encounter weather that was better than what we dealt with, or worse. We were pretty close to the bottom when I suffered the only real injury of the hike. I hopped off a rock, and landed on loose gravel. It went out from under me, and I slid. I landed directly on top of my bad knee, and cried out in pain. Everyone came running back, but it wasn't really that bad. I took some ibuprofen and it was fine.
Still, everyone insisted that I should move towards the front of the line, which I did. That turned out to be a bad idea, because now your two fastest hikers, Chris and I, were the two people in front, and the line really separated! Chris and I eventually stopped and let everyone else catch up. Of course, by that point we were pretty close to getting back to the Chimney Pond Bunkhouse anyway, so Chris and I just raced ahead. I have to admit that it felt pretty good to get to actually stretch my legs.
In the end, I was glad that we made it down from Hamlin Peak without a serious mishap. In weather like that, things could have gone badly, and we got lucky that they didn't.
Chris left not long after we got back, and Paul was already gone, so now it was down to just the four of us who had ridden up in Alan's truck. We did some local exploring and spent some time at Chimney Pond, but we didn't do anything too strenuous.
That night, our bunk arrangements changed. Sylvia went to go keep Vanessa company, while Alan and I stayed in the room we were in. It was another comfortable night.
On the hike out the next day, Alan was struggling. I think it had just been a while since he had done three consecutive days of hiking, and it was showing. As we got near the end of the hike, I took Alan's car keys, raced ahead and dumped my pack in the car, and then headed back up to find the group so that I could take Alan's pack. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to them, they were almost done with the hike anyway, so the whole effort was kind of pointless. I guess I got a few extra steps, for whatever that's worth after three days of hiking.
We grabbed lunch at a local place in Millinocket, and while we were there we found out that Sylvia had been offered the job she was looking for, so that was great news! Overall, I greatly enjoyed hiking with this group, and we would re-unite six months later for a hike to Zealand Falls Hut that would be its own adventure. Always remember, you can't take flight until you spread your wings!
Comments
Post a Comment