McAfee Hikes

Date Written: 8/05/2024 | AT Mile 5.2 | Day Total: 9.3 miles | Gain: 4000 ft

It really hit me this morning, over a year of planning and preparation and here I am at the base of Katahdin about to make the journey of a lifetime. One my dad made 25 years ago.

Just a few minutes before the 2am alarm I woke up to Noah outside his tent in awe of the stars. We are near no cities or any populated area so you can see a TON of them. We rapidly pack our site up in the red lights to avoid disturbing other campers around us while eating a quick breakfast comprised of a meal bar and ensure.

Full pack and all, we are on the Helon Taylor trail before 3am attempting to get above tree line before sunrise. The trail was rocky with large bolders from the start. The trekking poles were stowed away fast to use our hands to climb. I knew we would be moving slow ~1mph or less, but this is an insane amount of gain.

I’ve done a lot of preparation but I tried to avoid where ever possible “spoiling” the scenery on the trail so it feels like a raw first time experience full of surprises. And I sure didn’t expect to be using my hand this early on in the climb.

As we approached the tree line we caught our first glimpses of the horizon as it got lighter. We pushed forward to get higher and the views were astonishing, totally worth the early rise. There was patchy fog, clouds and wind but nothing too unexpected for above tree line.

As we approached Pamola Peak you could see the trail climb hundreds of feet at super steep inclines requiring both hands and knees. I really enjoyed the technical hiking or climbing in most cases. Wind would pick up and die down at times depending on what side of the peak the trail was on but it wasn’t too bad.

Pamola Peak is a little shorter than Baxter Peak, surprisingly the air was pretty calm at this time and the fog started to stick to our hair like dew.

Just off Pamola is Knifes Edge known for its technical nature and well you guessed it, sharp knife appearance. While only 1.1 miles, it takes around 1.5hr to traverse. The first decent was nearly a wall, a 70ish ft deep valley positioned just right so the wind was gushing through rapidly. Unfortunately at this point the fog had got really dense as Cole, Nathan and I descended. We discussed backing out and hitching to Katahdin Stream Campground (where we’d be spending the next night on the other side of Katahdin). Fortunately we had cell reception so I was able to check the weather on 3 different sources and it showed 0-10% change of rain till 7pm tonight and nothing on the radar. Cole and I climbed up the other side of the valley to come to a verdict and were able to communicate across the valley with Noah and Maddy. The wind on our peak was significantly reduced due to the slight angle change the mountain face. The fog cleared for us to see clearly again all the way to the near end of knife’s edge. We could see that none of the dips were nearly as deep and not as steep.

Maddy and Noah decided to hike back down to Roaring Brook campground and hitch to Katahdin Stream Campground. While Nathan, Cole and I keep trekking through Knifes Edge towards Baxter Peak (the start of the Appalachian Trail).

As we approached Baxter Peak the clouds lifted for a 360 view and there stood the iconic A-frame sign in all its glory, the beginning of the Appalachian Trail.

We took some pictures and hanged out at the peak for a while. It was super neat seeing all the nobo’s reactions finishing on Baxter as we ate lunch. We were eating lunch before 9 as our meal schedules were way off.

We were at Baxter peak for 45 min before heading down the Hunt Trail, the first official steps towards Georgia.

What can I say, the descents are just as slow, and steep as the ascents. Table Lands were super neat! It felt like to top of the world.

Hiking down seemed to take forever, although it was still very much as thrilling. A common throught I had while descending was “how did I just hike up this?!?!?” 

As we approached Katahdin Steam campground we came across the falls which were significantly larger than we expected.

By the time we were down nearing camp we noticed that our legs were shaking as we stood on our toes. Upon arrival, we instantly threw our pack off and took a well deserved rest at the picnic table. After a bit we ventured off to find our food bags containing 10 days of food that should have been hung on cables that morning by a shuttle. 

On our journey to find your food we came across Noah and Maddy sprawled out on a picnic table. Glad to see that they made it to the other side.

Unfortunately our bags were nowhere to be found and upon further investigation we determined that the shuttle may not have traveled in the morning and will be picking up nobo finishers at 4pm. Hopeful, we arrived early and sure enough our bags were in the trunk!

Cole probably spent a better part of an hour trying to start a fire for which we were to cook kilibasa over. Feed and completely worn out we hung our food and hit the beds. I on the other hand spent some time journaling. 

Overall Nathan, Cole and I hiked for 11 hours and around 4000 feet of elevation gain (the equivalent to climbing 400 floors). What an amazing day.