Mount Katahdin is special due to a variety of factors. It is not a simple mountain, but a broad massif of several peaks, cirques, and ridges, surrounded on almost three sides by a ring of lower summits. This concentrated group of mountains stands utterly alone in the otherwise flat Maine north woods, and the southern face of the main mountain mass rises directly 4,000 feet from the Penobscot River to the highest summit in the entire state. The remote, and, compared to other eastern mountains, almost primeval forest setting of the peak is also very alluring, as is the large area above timberline (about 3800 feet at 46 degrees north). And finally, the spectacular sawtoothed Knife Edge, a serrated crest dropping thousands of feet on both sides, gives Katahdin a special kind of alpine grandeur.

Katahdin itself is essentially a high, hourglass-shaped plateau that runs north-south entirely above timberline and drops off steeply on all sides to the forested lowlands below. The northern half of the hourglass is dominated by Hamlin Peak (4751'), second highest major summit in Maine, and features a high ridge leading north that features the minor Howe Peaks, North Howe (4612') and South Howe (4734'). The southern part of this massif is called the Tableland, an open, gradually sloping plain that rises from the Saddle (4260'), the col south of Hamlin Peak, to Baxter Peak (5267'), the apex of Maine and northern end of the Appalachian Trail

How to Get There

A convenient center is located in Millinocket, Maine and from there travel approximately 15 miles north on SR 11 to reach the Togue Pond Gate.