July 24, 2024 — I had something to prove to myself with Katahdin; an objectively difficult hike no matter what approach you take would mentally drill into me that I am a capable hiker able to conquer ever tougher ascents. The month prior I had hiked Telescope & Wildrose peaks in Death Valley, and I had already hiked Franconia Ridge a few years prior, so I felt pretty confident going in, but boy did this turn out to be one of the toughest hikes I EVER went on. I had booked a few nights at the Roaring Brook Bunkhouse to give me a comfortable insurance policy against poor weather. The forecast was showing clouds and rain possible for my whole trip, with one specific day fluctuating in the forecast as the "clear" / "best" day. Aside the performance anxiety I was having, I now had to worry that I would put in all that work and not even get any views out of it. That rarely happens to me, but anybody hiking New England knows very well this is the risk you take here. It was a full house in the bunkhouse the night I arrived, and quite honestly I did not sleep well at all. I'm not really comfortable sleeping in crowds you can say, and the nerves were getting to me. When I finally woke up for good at 5AM and walked outside, the perfect blue sky motivated me so hard that I rushed to get my breakfast down and chugged the 2 Starbucks drinks I packed to jump start my hike. And so, I signed the register and made my way up the Chimney Pond Trail. A couple years prior when I visited Baxter State Park on an autumn trip, I hiked up this same trail to Basin Ponds before turning around in sheer disappointment of the massive fog. Not only that, but the trail seemed much harder for me back then compared to my nerves fueled ascent up this time. I was practically running up the boulder laden trail with ease. I quickly made my way up to Basin Ponds and finally saw their beauty. Knowing it was a long day, I didn't spend much time here. When I made it up to Chimney Pond proper, I had to decide if I was taking the Cathedral Trail or the Saddle Trail, as originally I had my eyes set on looping the Cathedral up with Saddle down. After considering the current effort I put in, and the sky beginning to fill with clouds, I chose to take the faster and easier Saddle Trail up. This was still far from an easy trail though, and I hit many points on the way up that I considered turning back. I was getting tiny twangs of cramps after a considerable way up, and I know very well how dangerous cramping on a hike, especially technical sections, can be. I convinced myself to at least hike up to the Tableland and reassess the situation then. Once I hit the Tableland, I could see the rest of the way up Katahdin and it was far less steep than what I had just come up. I reassessed and trudged onwards to the summit, slowly making my way up the rest of the way, seemingly longer in distance than what it looked like. After hitting the summit, I felt an immense amount of pride, and the best part of all is there were views! The views south and west had really cool and thick clouds, but out north towards Chimney Pond and the Knife Edge were wide open and awesome. I spent a good hour and a half up there taking photos and soaking in the views. After I had my fill, I very slowly made my way back down to the Saddle, and for the next few hours cursed all of the giant boulders and rocks I had to downclimb or step onto. Making it back to the register eventually, my round trip time was about 11 and a half hours. I was so utterly exhausted that I was stupid-smiling when I finally signed out at the register and hobbled my way back to the bunkhouse. After battering my body so hard, I headed into Millinocket to find the biggest meal possible before heading back to the bunkhouse to crash out for the night. The next few days were incredibly low-key, capped off by a gorgeous sunset on Millinocket Lake with Katahdin grandstanding directly out in front of me. "I was just up there" I said to myself, body full of soreness...
