Katahdin Falls

Maine Week Travelog #17
Baxter State Park, ME - Friday, 18 Jun 2021, 12pm.

Ahh, back into the time warp. Back to a time before our trip turned into a mess trying to get home. Back to when we were standing at the base of Mt. Katahdin (pronounced Kataaaahdin by locals) and lacing up our boots to hike to some waterfalls.

The trail was easy at first, a literal walk in the woods. The air felt closer than the modest 75° temperature (24° C) indicated. It was probably the humidity. And the insects. Mosquitoes were so thick they practically bounced off us.

The trail rose steadily for a while then crossed a fork in the stream and climbed steeply. We knew we were getting to the good stuff! We picked our way over rocks and back down a bit to a perch with a good view of Katahdin Falls.



While we'd had the trail mostly to ourselves on the hike up, seeing only one other small group going in the opposite direction, here at the falls there were 2-3 other couples or solo hikers enjoying the views with us. It was a crowd! But a crowd by remote Maine standards— not Acadia National Park standards, where it was like a conga line climbing the face of the Beehive.



One of the hikers offered to take our picture. As we chatted we learned he was on his way back down from The Owl, one of the peaks in the area. It's not as tall as Katahdin (the highest in the Maine) but is still an ascent of over 2,000' from the trailhead. If we were in better shape we'd have done that, too.



We spent at least half an hour near the falls. We climbed further up the steep slope and picked our way out on various rocks and ledges for different views. The third picture (above) shows a close-up of the top tier of the falls.

Soon enough it was time to go. As beautiful as the falls are, there are other falls in the park, too. We'd mapped out three hiking trails we hoped we could get to. Coming down from Katahdin Falls we knew we'd have energy for at least one of them... would we make it to all three? Stay tuned.

On the Appalachian Trail. Toll Dam.

Maine Week Travelog #18
Baxter State Park, ME - Friday, 18 Jun 2021, 2pm.

The trail to Katahdin Falls we hiked earlier today (see previous blog) is part of the Appalachian Trail. I've known about the A-T, as those familiar with it call it, since I was in the Boy Scouts. It's a 2,200 mile (3,500 km) trail along the Appalachian Mountains through 14 states in the eastern US. When I was in the 'Scouts we hiked just bits and pieces of the trail, but we were aware of the lore of "Through Hikers": those who hiked the entire trail in one trip.

:

The northern terminus of the trail is actually atop Mt. Katahdin. (Tthe sign above happens to call it Baxter Peak. That is a wealthy white politician's name given in the past 100 years to a mountain native people have called Katahdin for thousands of years.) We were close to the northern end when we hiked to Katahdin Falls earlier today. The southern end of the trail is in Georgia, at Springer Mountain.

Signposts on the Appalachian Trail are marked with a symbol that looks like an upward arrow or maybe a tree. Notice it's also the letters A and T stacked.

It turns out that second trail we're hiking today is also part of the Appalachian Trail. We saw this sign at the trailhead:



We're just a few miles down from the segment of the trail we hiked to Katahdin Falls. Tiny bits and pieces!

Our destinations on this hike are Little and Big Niagara Falls. When you're out exploring, though, it's important to keep your eyes and mind open. Sometimes you see something cool you didn't expect. Thus is was when we saw "Toll Dam" on the sign above. What is Toll Dam?



It turns out Toll Dam isn't much to look at. I mean, it's a nice stretch of river with a mountain ridge in the distance, but where's the dam? Is/was there a toll booth?

Fortunately for us there was a park ranger finishing a lunch break on one of the big, flat rocks in the middle of the river when we arrived to take our own lunch break. He explained that 100+ years ago this area was used for logging. The land owner didn't fell trees himself, though; he leased out rights to people to do it. They'd float the cut trees down this river when it was swollen with spring melt. At this spot a steel cable stretched across the river to catch the trees. The remnants of the cable are still visible here (though not in the picture). The owner would tally the number of trees, charge a toll for them, and let them past.