Hiking (with the hounds)

Great pics, Dave.

 

As always, beautiful pictures, and this time some humor! Hope you enjoyed your father's day.

 

Dave,
Great photos and always great to see your buddies. They absolutely love those hikes.

 

Awesome scenery, beautiful dogs and great photos. Thanks!!!!!!

 

The Bold Coast, part of some public reserve land in Cutler, just about as Far East as you can go in the US. This is some spectacular scenery, the pictures really don't do it justice.


Sheer 150 foot rock faces ending right at the water,



beautiful cobble beaches.

Not very strenuous as the is not much elevation change but the trail is very rugged, we did about a 10 mile loop, there is also a 6 mile loop or a 3 mile out and back.

The Hounds get a nice nap in the hay on the ride home.

The VLF radio communications antenna array at Cutler Naval, this is from about two miles away to give you some perspective of the size. They can communicate with subs deep under water.

 

Really enjoy your picture shows and adventures with the fur friends. I haven't been over that far for forty years. Bar Harbour is as far east as I have gone except for when we took the Kat over to Nova Scotia many years ago. I just don't travel anymore.

 

Great pics. thanks for sharing.

 

I've never heard of Cutler Naval. I learned something new!

 

Mount Katahdin, named by the Penobscot Indians means "Greatest Mountain". The mountain is the highest in Maine and second highest in New England. Usually referred to simply as Katahdin, it is the crown jewel of Baxter State Park in North West Maine. Katahdin has three major peaks, Baxter at 5262, South at 5260 and Pamola at 4902.



One of the core missions of my employer is education. We host about 30-35 students every summer, they range in age from 17-22. The group of students is always very diverse, some kids have never been “out of the city”. This years group included youngsters from China, Korea, Australia and Rwanda. Each student gets to work for the summer as a resident intern, my student this summer was my nephew. The student program includes many group outings one of which is a camping trip to Baxter State park and the opportunity to climb Katahdin. The program leader asked me to come along as they were short one adult with experience to lead a group of hikers and drive a van.



Our caravan of Dodge Caravans, and a company van loaded down with youngsters and gear heading off.



The camping trip is mandatory, the Katahdin hike is optional. We had 22 of the 35 students take on the climb, so we divided up into 5 separate groups. My group ascended from the West face via "Abol", about 4.5 miles to Baxter summit and just short of 4000 ft gain.


A no nonsense warning of what you are getting into.



There is quite a bit of actual climbing up rock scrabble. Lots of excitement and adrenaline first thing, we made it up in about 3 hours.





Katahdin is unique in it's three peaks that are connected by the "Knife Edge" a 1.1 mile traverse of the ridge that connects the three peaks. There was a great deal of interest in conquering the Knife Edge even though doing so meant an out and back. It took about 3 hours to get across and back, slow going. When we got back to Baxter summit we met up with some of the other groups that came up a different trail, so we hung out at the summit for awhile trading war stories of the ascent. I met a group of AT through hikers finishing their journey and was able to chat with them for a bit too, very inspiring.

The glory shot at the summit myself and my nephew


Scoping out Knife Edge



The edge is precipitous in spots.

 

Katahdin continued:

A couple more of Knife edge


Headed down across the beautiful "table land" near the peak.



Down the "Hunt" trail that follows the north ridge of the mountain.



The last mile or so follows Katahdin Stream.

Katahdin Falls.



A long 11 hour day hike of nearly 12 miles. We didn’t loose anyone, there were lots of tears and a few meltdowns but no major injuries, so I’d call it a win.

 

We were rewarded with this incredible sunset view of Katahdin while soaking our feet in the lake.

 

Looks like a good time was had but, made me tired just looking through this
Thanks for sharing the pics and story

 

We used to go to cross island which is right off shore from the antennas. Would go in early December to hunt ducks and stayed in the old coast guard station. Those were good times.

 

Yes to the big boulders and crazy scrambles but no iron handholds on Knife Edge, the end near Pamola peak is fantastic, it is much narrower than Franconia, only 5-10 feet in spots. There were a few iron handholds on Hunt on the way down. Abol is brand new just reopened this year after a giant slide made the old Abol unsafe, it could use some iron handholds, parts of it were challenging. There are still trail crews up there working on it, maybe they have yet to add them.

 

You got some great pics DaveGunter ... wow. Really nice shots...

 

Hey Dave, once again great pics! We have climbed Katahdin twice from the Chimney pond trail. I have pictures of my son at 7 yrs at the sign on the summit. Thank you, it brought back memories.

 

Dave that's a new sign at Katahdin summit, I just looked at the photo we took with my son at the same spot 18 yrs ago and the sign was all weather beaten. Thanks again for bringing me back.