After an early start the local orono boys (Ben, Angus, Ryan, and I), and Marci headed towards Baxter State Park on what was to be an epic trip. Upon arriving at the gatehouse we were told that we were the second to last car to be allowed access to the trail head, this fired up the adrenaline alittle knowning our day could have been ruined if a few more cars were infront of us. I think we were all alittle taken-aback at all of the people just lounging around at the TH parking. Everybody was munching on a late breakfast. I signed the group in at 6:36am, our route was Chimney Pond to the Cathedral Trail (summit) then follow the Knife Edge to Pamola peak and down Helon Taylor back to our car.
The trail from the Roaring Brook trail head was fairly easy, 3.3 miles of moderate hiking. We gained about 1350 feet in elevation. Just before reaching Chimney Pond we came across a lookout point, looking across Dry Pond and into the North basin.
Once we reached the Chimney Pond guard house we took a quick rest stop, ate some food, and felt the icy water. From here on up, we would be gaining some serious elevation, 2400ft in a mile and a half. The next set of pictures is from the start of the Cathedral Trail.
The Cathedral Trail involved quite a bit of scrambling over large boulders, and at times there was quite a drop off to our left. I found this portion of the climb amazing, it was amazing just to be able to climb all over these boulders and out onto exposed ledges. Even though this was the hardest part of the trip so far, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselfs. The next set of photos is from the first portion of the Cathedral Trail, with two photos looking back towards Chimney Pond. You can really see the elevation change in these photos.
After about an hour and a half we were making our way up onto the summit plateau, buy this time we were almost completely engulfed in the clouds and it was getting quite cold. By 9:50 we were on top of Maine and we were imagining what the views would be like if we could see them. We found a fairly large rock which we could huddle behind and we ate our lunch. Ryan was very glad that he brough warm pants, a winter hat, and gloves, i was just glad to have brought my rain pants which i was debating about leaving back in the car, the others were just looking cold. We took a few pictures at the summit then headed towards the Knife Edge, which is the trail along the Arete of the mountain. This trail(approx. 6ft wide, and at times 2-3ft) was quite exposed on both sides, with at times, a couple hundred vertical feet of a dropoff to our left.
After a careful hour and a half of negotiating the Knife Edge and climbing the little step we reached Pamola peak, which is where the Helon Taylor trail starts/ends. In the next set of pictures, the first one is looking across the entire Knife Edge with the clouds rolling over top. The second picture shows the average width of the trail. The last two are of me climbing around, the last one in particular is the crux of the entire climb, it was a 50ft dip in the trail, which you had to climb down then back up.
Once at Pamola Peak we had just over a 3 mile hike back to the car, The trail was fairly easy going down, with only a few large boulders to climb over. The entire day we never let down our relentless pace, and we made it back down to the parking lotby 1:36pm. So we managed to hike 10 miles in 7 hours (exactly)!! It was a fantastic day, and a great way to end a summer vacation, and an amazing way to complete a hike that has been waiting for 19 years.
