Katahdin Woods & Waters / Mars Hill
Driving from Seboeis Public Reserved Lands to Mars Hill, ME | Visiting Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument | Hiking Mars Hill | June 2024
After kayaking on Seboeis Lake, we got back on the road and continued driving Northeast. Our plan for today was to drive from here to Mars Hill near the Canada border, and cross into New Brunswick the next morning. Since we were driving through the area, we wanted to check out Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument. We remember this being a very controversial development back in 2016 when we were last driving through Northern Maine. Many people from the small towns in this area did not want the attention that a national park site would bring to this area, and there was no way this area could support that extra traffic either. But the landowners who donated the land (the family behind the Burt’s Bees line of products) made National Monument status a stipulation in the donation. Today, it is officially known as a national monument, but besides that there really hasn’t been much development. Our only real goal in coming here was to say we did, to get cancelation stamps, and to hopefully find a nice view of Katahdin because we wouldn’t be able to hike it this trip.
When we came to the gravel road heading into the park, we turned and began our long, slow drive. As we were entering the park, there was a small information booth on the left side of the road, but there didn’t look to be anyone here. In the park, there are currently 3 small campgrounds (we didn’t do much research because we weren’t planning on camping here regardless), a couple of hikes, and a long loop drive with some lookouts along it. The hike up Barnard Mountain looked interesting, but we didn’t think Charlotte would be up for it and I didn’t want to be left alone in the remote wilderness with her so Curtis could hike to the peak. So instead, we settled for the loop drive today. Last time we were in Northern Maine, we remember seeing lots of anti-NPS signs that said “NATIONAL PARK – NO”, but today we only saw one — at the start of a longer bridge spanning the Penobscot River, a sign that made clear the owner of this bridge is anti-NPS. That felt mildly threatening before driving across the river…but we made it both ways!
There are several parcels of land that make up the National Monument, but today we were only going to visit the Southern section. I looked at some reviews online before we lost service, and saw some people say that the best view is about 7 miles in to the loop drive, and it wasn’t worth doing the entire thing after that. We made that viewpoint our goal, and after a very slow going drive, we made it there. There were 2 other cars here, and shortly after we arrived a ranger came by to ask if we had any questions. He was very helpful, but there was some conflicting information between him and different websites regarding details like how long the road actually was. Some places said 14 miles, others said 17. Since we weren’t sure, the road was difficult to drive, and we knew this was the best viewpoint we’d get, we said it was good enough for today. We enjoyed the views of Katahdin, and had lunch at a picnic table. We had a nice conversation with an older couple from Maine, and they shared about their experiences traveling around here and into the Atlantic provinces of Canada. They also shared a whoopie pie with us, which was peanut butter flavored and delicious — they had gotten it from a whoopie pie festival in a nearby town that we had apparently missed by ONE DAY. What a bummer!
After lunch, we made our way back down and out of the park. To get NPS cancellation stamps, we had to go to the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum in Patten, a few miles North of the entrance road. Once we got those, we drove to a park in town so that Curtis could call in to a meeting. It was during this meeting that we found out his next assignment would be delayed by several weeks, giving us over a month to be on the road! After his call, we had a moment of “do we ditch the plans we made to go on a different bucket list trip?” But ultimately decided we wanted to keep our plans and just travel slower, stay in places longer, and follow where the wind takes us. We still decided to go on with our plans of driving to Mars Hill for the evening and crossing into Canada the next day — the winds would be cooler there, and more comfortable for Charlotte.
We took I-95 to US-1, then navigated to base of the ski slopes on Mars Hill. This is a very prominent peak for Curtis’ hiking challenge, and according to iOverlander was also a place where we could camp for free overnight. We were a little unsure of that when we first arrived because there were people working and construction equipment lying around, and it was pretty hot with very little shade for Charlotte. I told Curtis to go ahead with the hike, that way he could check it off the list, and if we had to move afterwards for the night, so be it. I turned on the fans in the van and set up a comfy spot, and Charlotte seemed content to sit in there with me while he hiked.
Curtis: Once we had settled down at the Ski station and ensured Charlie and Jess were comfortable, I grabbed some water and reluctantly put on my tennis shoes. This would be my first hike since I lost my boots somewhere between Buffalo Mountain and Maine, and I wasn’t going to be able to get a new pair for quite a while. But I definitely believe in the hiking principle of ‘Don’t let gear be the reason you don’t do something’.
After navigating through all the construction equipment, I found a trail sign for the International Appalachian Trail (or the Sentier Internationale des Appalches as we would come to know it soon enough, we’ll refer to it by its acronym IAT/SIA frequently) next to some of the Ski School buildings. I followed it up a ski slope…and promptly lost it. But that was fine, the path was quite clear, just go up! I followed some ski patrol roads when I could as they zig-zagged up the slopes, but eventually I just gave in and hoofed it straight up the main lift. Fortunately, anytime I wanted a break, I had great views to the West just by turning around!
After much huffing I reached the top of the ridge and the end of the ski line. From there I followed an access road to the actual peak, complete with bench mark and trail shelter. Supposedly, during part of the summer (inclusive of the time we were here) Mars Hill is the first place in the continental US to see the sun (the rest of the year is divided between Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP and Quoddy Head). Intrepid hikers could easily stay the night up here and rise early to claim to have seen the sunrise first. Though I don’t know how. For all the endless views that I had to the West, there were hardly any clearings facing East. The ridge has a row of wind turbines, each with their own fence to keep people out and conveniently blocking any views.
I did not desire to stay the night up here, nor wake up before 4 AM for the dawn. But I did find the IAT/SIA that I had missed and followed it down as best I could, but not before I got spooked by the wind turbines coming to life with an evening breeze. I swear it sounded like an elk bugle.
The trail down was just as steep as that going up, I just ended up following a different ski slope – a black diamond naturally.
Jess: By the time Curtis returned, all the workers had left for the night, so we felt more comfortable staying here. We had dinner, then when the sun started to set, we walked up the trail a little ways to get a better view. We then settled in for the night, our last night in the US for a few weeks!
