Highlights of Baxter State Park: A Loop.
Taylor Radigan spent the summer of 2023 living and working in Baxter State Park, ME. Inspired by the local mountains and the park where she lived, Taylor created a roughly 125 mile, human-powered route that covers the highlights of the park. Follow along on this Trip Report for a fantastic adventure close to home.
After reading about Mats Roing’s thru-hike of the New Hampshire Direttissima in Steve Smith’s book “The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains,” I was inspired to create my own routes. In late summer 2020, I biked and hiked about 1,300 miles to complete the Northeast 115 4000-Footers after an off-handed comment about “doing them all” during my own Direttissima trip in 2014. Planning the route and visualizing the paths using CalTopo and trail guides was as enjoyable as the hike itself. Looking for new challenges while living in Colorado, I mapped out and hiked a 325-mile route connecting the huts of the 10th Mountain Division Hut system over 12 days in August 2022.
Last summer year I came back east and worked as a Campground Ranger at Baxter State Park in Maine, which allowed me to explore the park in unique ways. Using CalTopo, I devised a route of just under 125 miles that looped through many highlights of the park. Starting in the southwestern end of the park, at Nesowdnehunk Campground, the route goes the Coe slide, to North Brother,one of the 4000-footers in the park. A bushwhack to Fort Mountain, a New England Hundred Highest peak, precedes a drop through remote terrain to connect to the Northwest Basin Trail, by Russell Pond and Wassataquoik Lake, then back to Nesowadnehunk. From there, I’ll bike north to Wadleigh Brook Trailhead, then hike towards Matagamon Lake, Trout Brook Farm, and South Branch Pond. After a rest there, I’ll see the highest volcanic peaks in Maine on the Traveler peaks, drop back to South Branch Pond, and climb Black Cat. Then head south towards Roaring Brook Campground. After the dramatic climb up the Knife Edge, I’ll traverse over Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine, and Percival Baxter’s inspiration for protecting the land that makes up the park. After a visit to Hamlin Peak, the third 4000-footer in the park, the route drops down to Katahdin Stream Campground and back towards the southwest portion of the park to climb one of the steepest trails in the park over Doubletop. Streams, lakes, rocks, forests, krummholz, alpine zones, mountain views, and remoteness embody Baxter and this trip will feature them all.
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Taylors planned route, shown in a PDF map created/printed from CalTopo.
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Cozy sleeping arrangements for a few nights in Baxter State Park.
My strategy for gear was fortunately straightforward. The trip was only three days long, with a forecast of warm and dry weather for almost the entire trip. I still packed some spare layers, a water-resistant jacket, and three pairs of socks. I also didn’t need to carry a shelter, as everywhere in the park I would camp was at a lean-to or bunkhouse, and camping anywhere other than a designated site is not allowed in the park. The weather turned out well enough that I didn’t wear any layers during the day and didn’t need them for extra warmth in my sleeping bag at night, but they were good to have in case I did. I slept on a Hyperlite Mountain Gear 40-degree Quilt and a Thermarest NeoAir Uberlite sleeping pad. All my gear went in a Six Moon Designs Flight 30 Vest Pack. It’s been my favorite pack since 2014. The snug fit, higher weight distribution, and vest harness allow it to cradle the body. This keeps the Flight in place when jogging or scrambling better than any pack with shoulder straps I’ve ever owned.
9/4 – 13:56 – 29.3 mi – ↑5525’↓ – Coe, Brothers, Fort to NW Basin to Wass Lake Trail Loop (17:48 elapsed)
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Ledge Falls
The sun hung overhead as I left Nesowadnehunk Campground at 1:56pm. I hiked past Ledge Falls, a cascading waterfall that tumbled down the rocky hillside. Slide Dam, a man-made dam on the Nesowadnehunk Stream featuring a sign I routed, was next. After the three-mile roadwalk, I followed the Marston Trail, a winding path through the forest, to the Coe split.
The Coe Slide loomed ahead, its rocky face gleaming in the sunlight. I took a deep breath and began my ascent. I reached the top of the slide and paused to catch my breath and take in the view. I could see for miles in every direction, and the mountains stretched out before me like a sea of green. I continued on to North Brother, another peak with breathtaking views. The unmaintained herd path to Fort Mountain was narrow and winding, with occasional roots and rocks to trip over. But I was careful and made good progress. After about another half-hour, I reached the summit.
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Coe slide
It was now 6:05pm, and I had an hour and a half of daylight left. The perfect time to start a bushwhack. I descended off the open, rocky ridge and made my way down through Krummholz. The brush was thick and tangled, but I pushed through it, determined to reach the Northwest Basin Trail. I had explored this area three times before this summer, and I had finally learned my lesson. I was finally smart enough to head straight down until I was below the krummholz, rather than fighting my way through it to stay on the northeast ridge of the mountain. The bushwhack was challenging, but not as bad as I had feared. I pushed through the thick brush, careful not to get lost. Once the brush thinned out, I worked my way north and east towards Annis Brook, emerging onto the Northwest Basin Trail around 7:45pm.
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Reaching Russell Pond in the dark.
A few minutes before I reached the trail, it had gotten dark enough for me to put my headlamp. I stopped for a snack and some water, relieved to be on a trail again now that it was fully dark, then set off towards Russell Pond. The trail was easy to follow, and I made good progress, reaching Russell Pond around 9pm.
I had maintained a good pace after dark until about 11pm, when I started having trouble following the trail and slowed to about 1.5mph. I reached Center Pond around 1am, but I thought it would take me until around 4am to get back to Nesowadnehunk. My hiking pace was still decent, but I was stopping every few minutes to find I was off trail, then had to retrace my steps until I found it again. It was just slow going to stay on the proper path and not wander into drainages. I decided it would be better to nap than wander around in the dark for three more hours.
I found a couple of life jackets at the canoe landing at Center Pond to use as a sleeping pad. I buckled one around my hips, one around my torso, and lay down on the ground with them as a sleeping pad. They were all the comfort and warmth I needed to catch a few hours of sleep on a warm night. I fell asleep quickly and slept soundly until the sun woke me up at first light. The trail went much faster in the daylight, and I was back at Nesowadnehunk Campground at 7:44am. Time to jump on a bicycle!
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Coe Pond in the morning light.
9/5 – 08:10 – 16.8 mi – ↑764’↓1260’ – Park Tote Road Bike (1:30 elapsed)
My tires on the bike were flatter than I wanted, but my pump wasn’t up to the task of inflating them. It was only 16 miles, and they weren’t completely flat, so I figured I’d be fine. I could still ride for an hour and a half without destroying my bike. It would just be slower and harder than it needed to be. The ride took place through the green tunnel of forest lining both sides of the road.
I stopped a little over halfway to try to inflate the tires again, but it didn’t help much. So I just finished the ride. It’s awesome to go at biking speed in the middle of a backpacking trip, and I hadn’t seen that part of the Tote Road yet, so exploring by bike was a nice change of pace. I made it to the Wadleigh Brook Trailhead at 9:40am and locked up my bike in the parking lot.
9/5 – 10:07 – 22.5 mi – ↑3195’ ↓2998’ – Wadleigh Mtn to Frost Pond to Freezeout Tr to Five Ponds Tr to Middle Fowler to South Branch (~9:26 elapsed)
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Helpful trail signs when the hallucinations from lack of sleep started to kick in.
The hiking resumed, with a climb up the Wadleigh Brook Trail towards Frost Pond. I continued straight when I should have turned right, but a helpful “END OF TRAIL” sign about a quarter mile up the false trail saved me much time. Either that, or I was starting to hallucinate and my visions were trying to help me.
I summited the grueling 1,239-foot peak of Wadleigh Mountain and took a break to soak my feet in Frost Pond. After 24 hours of hiking, I had covered about 55.5 miles, with a little under five hours spent napping near Center Pond. I was all smiles at that point because I thought I had more food left in my pack than I really did.
At Trout Brook Farm, I ran into Katie and Sean, two of my coworkers at Baxter. It was great to see them. They had bagged a bunch of geese, but I was too tired to talk much. I could still navigate, but verbal communication was difficult. They offered me a ride to South Branch on their way back to Field Camp to make goose steaks, both of which sounded amazing, but I was determined to finish the hike. Along the Five Ponds Trail, I sat down for what felt like a short rest and a snack, but when I looked at my watch, suddenly it was 45 minutes later.
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Barrell Ridge at Sunset
I scrambled up a side trail to Barrel Ridge for some last views of the day. The sun was setting a fiery orange in the hazy sky as I headed down to South Branch. Once settled in for the night, I ate a tuna packet for dinner and realized I only had four Slim Jims, a pack of Skratch Chews, two raspberry chocolate squares, and some mayo packets left as solid food until I reached Katahdin Stream Campground.
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A fantastic place for a type 2 adventure!
On these kinds of trips, I usually struggle to eat, but I had devoured my food. I had plenty of sugary electrolyte mixes for the next 45 miles, so I would be hungry but I wasn’t overly concerned. I’d already covered just under 60 miles in less than 30 hours.
I passed out around 8:00pm, cherishing the feeling of sleeping on a sleeping pad in a sleeping bag instead of in life jackets.
9/6 – 08:12 – 30.1 mi – ↑7431’ ↓6959’ – South Branch to Traveler Loop to Black Cat Loop to Russell Pond to Roaring Brook (12:37 elapsed)
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Katahdin Stream Campground
I first woke up to my alarm around 5am but fell asleep again until about 7am and didn’t get on trail until 8:12. A night of rest is risky after a big push, as you can’t fully recover and sometimes it seems better to keep going, but I was very happy to have stopped moving for 13 hours.
I was starting to get some hot spots on the bottoms of my feet on the way up Peak of the Ridges, but the trail was amazing. I stopped a few times to put lidocaine on my feet, tried to get some padding on the blisters that were forming, and generally made really poor time. I was tired, but it was my feet that were slowing me down the most, and it took me until 10:55 to hike 3.3 miles to the Peak of the Ridges summit. It was a great climb up, but my feet were unhappy.
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Peak of the Ridges Summit
I’d finally found something I could tolerate by putting some Dr. Scholls foot pads over the blisters and started to move better along the ridge. It was getting hot and already too hazy to see Katahdin, but my feet were feeling better, which made it a lot easier to enjoy the hike I was on. I’d also decided that suffering would be the fastest way to get through the rest of the trip, and it was only like 30 more hours long.
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Still a lot of mileage remaining!
It took about 45 minutes to cover the 1.4 mi from Peak of the Ridges to The Traveler. It was almost 1pm by the time I’d reached North Traveler, which meant that I covered 6.8 mi in 4 hours and 40 minutes. And more than 23 miles to go for the day. I needed to start moving. I made quicker time and felt better up the Black Cat/South Branch Mtn loop, getting to the summit by around 3pm, and back down to Pogy Notch Tr by about 4pm.
The trail would be much easier from here, but I still had about 17 miles to hike. My feet felt good enough to do some running to Russell Pond and I finally made great time and felt good moving. I made the second stop at Russell Pond for the trip at about 6:15. There was a pack scale near the register for the Wassataquoik Stream Trail and my pack weighed in at about 15 pounds.
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Pack weighing in around 15 lbs.
I continued the rapid pace out of Russell Pond, making it to the Wassataquoik Stream crossing at around 7:30pm. It was more manageable than it had been for so much of this rainy summer, running about hip deep for me. I didn’t bother to take my socks or shoes off and just sent it through both crossings.
It started to get headlamp dark about 2.5 mi before Roaring Brook. I had a spot in the bunkhouse and wanted to make it to the campground before the ranger got off work. I slowed in the dark and got in at 8:47pm, where Dan offered me a space to sleep in the Ranger Station and away from the “9 smelly dudes” in the bunkhouse. I bet I would’ve given them a run for their money in the smell department.
Dan didn’t know I was out of food when he offered me expired Canadian MREs that the SAR teams wouldn’t eat, and I was happy to accept. I stayed up to eat three of them and discovered that some stuff, like Ritz and Cheese crackers, were actually expired, but most of the food was decent. I still ate a bunch of the food that was terrible. Say yes to serendipitous scores.
9/7 – 06:35 – 23.4 mi – ↑8221’ 8389’ – Helon Taylor to Knife Edge to Baxter to Hamlin to Katahdin Stream Campground to Nesowadnehunk (11:42 elapsed)
I woke up tired and with a stomach ache, but I was still glad to have gotten some bonus food and thanked Dan again before leaving Roaring Brook to start up the Helon Taylor Trail. It was a crisp and cool morning, which gave me better views than I’d had during the previous days of haze. My feet were feeling better than the day before, but I was still in quite a bit of pain.
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Pamola Peak Summit
Baxter has strict limits on hiking capacity by trailhead, so I only saw about 10 people on the way up to Pamola Peak to start the Knife Edge. It was my first time going up that way early in the morning and having Pamola and the Chimney Notch to myself, which was a nice treat to start the Knife Edge.
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Chimney Notch
The rugged ridge from Pamola Peak is one of my favorite hikes in the park. It’s only 1.1 miles and gains 300’, but it’s time-consuming and exposed. It’s a unique hike in the east, a jewel for a uniquely modeled park. I had the views of Traveler that I didn’t get the day before as I crossed the Knife Edge, savoring the last day of my trip. I’d seen a lot of the park in three days and was coming into familiar terrain near where I worked.
I got to Baxter Peak just before 8:30am and there were already about 10 or 15 people milling about near the peak. How few people I had seen in every other area of the park started to dawn on me as I hiked down to the Saddle and headed to Hamlin Peak. Before the final climb, I filtered some water and drank the cold and crisp water. After I got to the Hamlin summit sound 9:45am, I dropped back down to the Saddle, then climbed most of the way up Baxter Peak again to the Baxter Cutoff Trail. It doesn’t cut off much in elevation gain but traverses large and fun boulders with water trickling nearby until it joins the Hunt Trail on the Tableland. Now I was really in familiar turf.
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Baxter Peak Summit
It’s been a special experience to have the opportunity to do trips like this in areas that I’ve worked in and this felt great. I liked planning a trip that was less summit-focused and explored the park deeply. Hiking down the Hunt Trail on a backpacking trip was a contrast to Search and Rescue or Mountain Patrol. Once I got down, I had the one big advantage that most people wouldn’t have doing this trip. I had a cabin I lived in at Katahdin Stream.
I took a shower, changed my shirt, and cooked myself some real, hot food. I sat in a chair and ate pitas and chicken sausage for about an hour, and it felt surreal to have 10 more miles to go. I also changed my shoes into a pair that I thought would be more forgiving on the soles of my feet, It was tough to get going again, but I was excited to finish my objective. The four flat miles to Daicey Pond were wonderful in a clean shirt.
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Doubletop Ridge
The bridge across Nesowadnehunk Stream had been washed out, so I forded another waist-deep crossing to get to the trail around Kidney Pond to get to Doubletop. The wet feet weren’t as great on my blisters, but I’d put enough Vaseline on my feet to make it tolerable and the end was in sight. The climb up to Doubletop largely teases becoming steep and then levels out until the final col below Moose Bosom. From there to the summit is one of the steepest ascents in Baxter.
I moved steadily uphill knowing it was my final ascent of the trip until the southern peak of Doubletop, then relished the views along the ridge until the northern peak. A storm was sweeping across Moosehead Lake, the Coe and Brothers range, and the Katahdin massif. It looked like a much less nice day than I had a few hours ago when I was up there. I was thankful to be heading down for three miles to my car as I watched the storm roll in.
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Author Taylor Radigan finishing!
There were a few drops of rain as I descended, but I beat the weather down. My feet hurt, I was sore and tired, and I was still hungry, but mostly I was exhilarated to have envisioned and planned a trip, and then made it happen. I got to the trailhead at Nesowadnehunk Campground at 6; 17 pm and stopped by the Ranger Station. Katie and Sean were there, so I told them about the rest of my trip since I’d seen them. They congratulated me and then I headed back the long quarter mile to my car. At that point, the thing I was most excited about was having a day of rest before getting back to work on Saturday to wrangle the crowds at Katahdin Stream. Crowds for Baxter, anyway.
CalTopo’s pro subscription features that Taylor used to plan and execute this route include premium map layers like Sentinel Weekly and other live satellite layers, map downloads for offline use in the mobile app, travel plan to help estimate timing, and more. To learn more or start your pro subscription, visit caltopo.com/join.