The Maine Agenda: 14 peaks, 6-days

Last week we took off for Maine with the goal to climb all 14 of Maine’s 4,000 foot summits.  There are 115 mountains over 4,000 feet in the northeast; 48 in New York, 48 in New Hampshire, 14 in Maine, and 5 in Vermont. We are trying to climb them all, and going into the trip we had 33 left, including 13 in Maine (we had done Katahdin once before).

We figured that we would start with the northern most peak and work our way south, so that the drive home would be shorter.

Our days lined up as follows:

• Day 1: Mt Coe, South Brother, and North Brother – Only North Brother is a 4,000 footer.This was an 11.2 mile hike with over 3,000 feet of elevation
• Day 2: Mt. Katahdin (Baxter and Hamlin Peaks). This was an 11.1 mile hike with approximately 5,000 feet of elevation
• Day 3: South Crocker, North Crocker and Redington. This was 8.6 miles and 4,200 feet of elevation gain.
• Day 4: Abraham, Spaulding, and Sugarloaf. 2 miles and 5,300 feet of elevation gain
• Day 5: Bigelow and Bigelow Avery Mountains. 4 mountains and 3,300 feet of elevation gain, followed by Saddleback and Saddleback the Horn for another 6.8 miles and 3,300 feet of elevation gain
• Day 6: Old Speck. 6 miles and 3,100 feet of elevation gain

So after approximately 70 miles of hiking and 31,200 feet of elevation, we conquered the fourteen 4,000 footers from Maine, dropping our total needed to complete the northeastern 115 down to 20.

So what did we learn from our week in Maine:

• If you are hiking Katahdin, do yourself a favor and hike the Knife’s Edge. It’s a lot of fun.  Also, hike over to Hamlin Peak because the view of the Katahdin Bowl is amazing
• You can just climb North Brother, in and out, but I would do the loop. The slide up Coe is a really fun uphill
• Redington is a trail-less peak, but the herd trail is well developed and there are colored ribbons tied to branches along the way. To do these peaks, you will need to climb South Crocker 3 times, from 3 different directions
• When you do the Abraham, Spaulding, and Sugarloaf hike, start from Abraham (you will hit about 4 or 5 fake summits before you summit) and arrange for a ride, otherwise it will be over 17 miles to do this hike. The views from Abraham are great
• The Bigelows have some of the greatest views in the high peaks area. The views of Flagstaff Lake are amazing.  The key to this high is getting to the cull between the 2 mountains, from there it’s easy to the 2 summits (we left our backpacks and ran up the 2 summits)
• The trailhead for Saddleback is up the ski-slope behind the lodge. If you start walking up the slope, you will see the trail.  Be careful on the way back down that you don’t miss the trail down the slope (it’s where the pole is on the AT)
• Old Speck has a really cool fire tower at the summit with the ladder going straight up about 40 feet. Great views from the top.

Gear:

Backpack:  Gregory

Hiking Boots: Merrell

Hat: Outdoor Research

Socks: Smart wool