A new route up Katahdin, Maine’s tallest mountain, is almost entirely cleared, according to Baxter State Park director Jensen Bissell. And judging by the work done so far, the trail — a relocated section of the historic Abol Trail — should be open sometime next year, he said Tuesday.
“This is a really nice hike,” Bissell said. “There are really nice viewpoints and rock structures along the way.”
The 2.8-mile Abol Trail, which climbs the steep south side of Katahdin, has been closed for more than a year because of unstable conditions on Abol Slide, a rockslide the original trail traced up the mountain. Late in the winter of 2013-2014, debris began moving on Abol Slide. Boulders, some the size of cars, began shifting down the mountain, making hiking conditions extremely dangerous.
In June of 2014, the Baxter State Park Authority announced to the public it was closing the trail for an indefinite period of time.
“We’re most worried about having someone get hurt up there and not being able to help them,” Bissell said in a previous BDN story about the closure.
It wasn’t the first time Abol Trail was closed. The trail also was closed for several years in the 1930s and ’40s because of activity on the slide.
But after the 2014 shift, instead of waiting for the rocks to settle, the Baxter State Park Authority approved a $100,000 project to relocate the trail to avoid the rockslide altogether.
The relocated section of trail is about 0.9 mile long. It starts about 1 mile into the original Abol Trail from its trailhead at Abol Campground, skirts the rockslide and travels through a thick alpine spruce forest, with switchbacks up the mountain to the Tableland, where it reconnects to the original Abol Trail.
Two six-person trail crews have been working since May 26 on this relocated section, according to Bissell, who visited the trail crews Monday to assess the progress. The majority of the work is being done by members of the Maine Conservation Corps.
“They’ve done a tremendous amount of work,” Bissell said.
Approximately 4,000 of the 4,700 feet of relocated trail is clear, Bissell estimated, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. The crews plan to construct short granite staircases and drainage features.
“We’ll be working on the trail for the next five years, continuing to improve it,” Bissell said. “There’s a piece you do, then put hikers on it and then work on what they show you.”
The summer trail crews soon will turn over the project to a fall crew, which will continue working on the trail until the end of September.
“I’m not sure if it will be open next spring,” Bissell said. “We’re working as hard as we can. … The chief ranger will be meeting and working with the [fall] crews to get a plan to me about where they will be at the end of the year … what’s a priority to work on in the next six weeks.
“At the very latest, it will open sometime next year,” Bissell continued. “I just don’t know if we’ll open it fully or limit the number of hikers to something like 50 percent of the traffic at first.”
In the meantime, Abol Trail remains closed. People can hike Katahdin either by starting at the Katahdin Stream Campground or the Roaring Brook Campground. To plan your trip and reserve day parking, visit baxterstateparkauthority.com or call 723-5140.