roadtripper
Well-known member
Labor Day, 9/5/2005
FINALLY got the chance to do the Knife's Edge (5yrs in the making)!!!
Here's our route: Roaring Brook Campground > Chimney Pond Trail > Chimney Pond > Dudley Trail > Pamola Peak > Knife Edge > Baxter Peak > Saddle Trail > Chimney Pond > Chimney Pond Trail > Roaring Brook Campground (something like 11 miles or so).
Didn't want to miss the chance to do the knife edge (again), so we arrived at the gate at 3:45am. To our suprise, 10 cars were already there! By the time 5am came around (5am is when they opened the gate), there were roughly 25-30 cars in line.
This was easily the most exhilarating & knee-smashing hike I've ever done. It felt more like 20 miles than 11 (entire trip took us 10hrs, 30min; we each consumed 3 litres of water and 1 1/2 litres of gatorade). We got extremely lucky with the weather....70-75 degrees at the base and 65 degrees-ish at the summit with a 5mph breeze and very low humidity...100% sunny skies...absolutely beautiful.
Some random notes...
***highly recommend the Dudley Trail as an ascent route; climbing the feature known as "Pamola's Finger" (a few tenths of a mile below the summit of Pamola) is great fun (and not as difficult as the pictures lead you to believe), and it provides one of the coolest photo ops in the park
***the views from Chimney Pond were ten times better than I had been led to believe from reading other trip reports and guidebooks IMO.
***learned the hard way that you shouldn't camp along the KI Jo-Mary Road if you plan on climbing Katahdin because they don't open the gate to let you out until 6am.
***the campsites along and just off the KI Jo-Mary Road are reservable in advance (I had read that they are first-come, first-served, but this is not true)
***my friend Candice & I thought the Knife's Edge was ridiculously difficult and travel was really slow (<1mph), but it was never insanely dangerous like I thought it would be (in good weather); the most dangerous part we thought was the "Chimney", but it is over and done with rather quickly. I've been more scared of heights standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and maybe even on the edge of Bondcliff.
Still can't believe a mountain like this exists on the east coast.....This was probably the best hike I've ever done.
pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/443621521YUlMQD
FINALLY got the chance to do the Knife's Edge (5yrs in the making)!!!
Here's our route: Roaring Brook Campground > Chimney Pond Trail > Chimney Pond > Dudley Trail > Pamola Peak > Knife Edge > Baxter Peak > Saddle Trail > Chimney Pond > Chimney Pond Trail > Roaring Brook Campground (something like 11 miles or so).
Didn't want to miss the chance to do the knife edge (again), so we arrived at the gate at 3:45am. To our suprise, 10 cars were already there! By the time 5am came around (5am is when they opened the gate), there were roughly 25-30 cars in line.
This was easily the most exhilarating & knee-smashing hike I've ever done. It felt more like 20 miles than 11 (entire trip took us 10hrs, 30min; we each consumed 3 litres of water and 1 1/2 litres of gatorade). We got extremely lucky with the weather....70-75 degrees at the base and 65 degrees-ish at the summit with a 5mph breeze and very low humidity...100% sunny skies...absolutely beautiful.
Some random notes...
***highly recommend the Dudley Trail as an ascent route; climbing the feature known as "Pamola's Finger" (a few tenths of a mile below the summit of Pamola) is great fun (and not as difficult as the pictures lead you to believe), and it provides one of the coolest photo ops in the park
***the views from Chimney Pond were ten times better than I had been led to believe from reading other trip reports and guidebooks IMO.
***learned the hard way that you shouldn't camp along the KI Jo-Mary Road if you plan on climbing Katahdin because they don't open the gate to let you out until 6am.
***the campsites along and just off the KI Jo-Mary Road are reservable in advance (I had read that they are first-come, first-served, but this is not true)
***my friend Candice & I thought the Knife's Edge was ridiculously difficult and travel was really slow (<1mph), but it was never insanely dangerous like I thought it would be (in good weather); the most dangerous part we thought was the "Chimney", but it is over and done with rather quickly. I've been more scared of heights standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and maybe even on the edge of Bondcliff.
Still can't believe a mountain like this exists on the east coast.....This was probably the best hike I've ever done.
pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/443621521YUlMQD
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