Katahdin and Hamlin 6/16/13

Headed to Baxter to hike my favorite loop. Finally had decent weather on a day I could get there.
Great day. When was the last time you had a Presidential Peak to yourself on a summer Sunday. Hardly anyone at Roaring Brook lot. I passed a few on Chimney Pond Trail and a few groups on Knife Edge but had summit of Katahdin to myself, Hamlin too, but that's normal. Became a cloudy but they were high clouds and had good visibility. Could easily make out Big Squaw and Coburn which were in hazier direction so well over 50 miles. Black Flies were rough on ridges above treeline but nonexistent from Hamlin to Pamola. Very Heavy above treeline on Helon Taylor. Worst bugs were at Togue Pond gate, mosquitoes were miserable at best while checking in.

Trails were not too bad. A little muddy on Chimney Pond Trail, otherwise dry. A few patches of snow hanging on the basin walls.

I have LOTS of pics and full report on my blog http://tomcatoutdoors.blogspot.com/2013/06/katahdin-and-hamlin-peak-hiking-maines.html

Enjoy

Beautiful Pics.

I have been wanting to hike the 4000 footers of Maine for some time and was wondering if you could recommend any good books I could use for planning?

Great read and photos. I love hiking in Baxter!

The new Maine Mountain Guide is a great resource. It has good coverage of Baxter State Park, including good map with all Katahdin/Hamlin trails as well as North Brother. There are more maps in the new version than the previous edition. Without looking I know there was good map for the Bigelows area to Saddleback but it didn't cover ski area approaches at Saddleback or the Readington Bushwack but all Saddleback, Horn, Abraham,Sugarloaf, Spaulding, and Crockers were covered plus the Bigelow peaks. The Mahoosics had it's own map which covers Old Speck.
The trail descriptions are pretty good and the directions have been updated to trailheads since last edition.