What if I told you that Mount Washington—the tallest mountain in New England—is overshadowed in pretty much every way by a lonelier, gnarlier peak in the woods of northern Maine? What if I described the process of scaling this mountain as finding your way through a labyrinth of house-sized boulders, pulling yourself up iron ladder rungs affixed to perilously steep rock faces, and traversing a long, narrow ridge line that’s only a couple feet wide in places? “Why, that’s Mount Katahdin!” you might say.
But “might” is the key word here. By all means, Mount Katahdin should be considered the one peak to rule all of New England. Hell: the Appalachian Trail concludes here, on it’s tabletop summit! And yet, Katahdin remains a towering enigma for many hikers.