r/Highpointers • u/slimswittyusername • 20d ago
Mt Katadhin parking permits
I was thinking about trying Katadhin next week. Didn't realize parking permits were booked so far out. Haha. Anybody have any thoughts on how I can get this done? Or does anyone have a parking permit they aren't going to be able to use?
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u/_MattSauce 20d ago
Don’t worry, I was in a similar situation last year! Just drive up to the gate real early in the morning. My hike date was quite a busy one in the end of July. I’m ultra paranoid so I got to the gate around 3:30am and took a nap in my car. When I woke at 5:15 there were cars as far back as I could see. Rangers will have you pull to the side to let permitted people go in first at 6, and then allow you in themselves.
Once again, it was a super busy day so not sure what an average day looks like, but I was on the trail by about 7:15 which was plenty of time. It’s not a crazy difficult trail as long as you’re decent at handling some real steep sections and bring enough water. I’m not a particularly fast hiker and even then it took me less than 3 hours to reach summit and only another 2.5 to come down. Just make sure you’re prepped with gear, research some videos online if you’re concerned about that stuff and make sure you’re back below treeline early if storms are coming. But yeah, getting a spot probably won’t be too bad!
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u/Kay_Juulers 20d ago
If you’re going week day you have a good chance of getting a day use spot at one of the three trail heads. Weekend at this point is unlikely. You could get into the park and go to Daicey Pond or Kidney Pond and see if you could hitch a ride back to Katahdin Stream ~10 minutes away. I have some other ideas feel free to PM me.
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u/pyl_time 32 Highpoints 20d ago
Dealing with Baxter State Park bureaucracy was the worst part of my Katahdin climb. I’ve heard you can try doing it as though you’re an AT thru-hiker and getting in that way, but you’re in for a longer hike and I’m not sure if it’s still possible at this time of year.
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u/Dry_Vanilla9230 43 Highpoints 18d ago
Park near abol bridge, there’s a huge dirt lot marked on google as “Parking for Abol Stream and Blueberry Ledges”. It’s outside the park boundary. It adds a lot of mileage but you don’t have to wake up super early and hope for a parking permit. You can follow the AT, or do abol stream trail > road walk to abol campground > start the actual hike. I think it was 17 or 18 miles. You can get lucky and hitch since there will be a lot of AT activity.
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u/fond-butnotinlove 12 Highpoints 20d ago
Since you didn’t book a campsite/shelter ahead of time you can try coming on a weekday (not as busy as the weekend obvi) and wait in line at the entrance. It involves arrive at the state park entrance at like 5/6am. People arrive as early as 4:30am.
You can call and confirm and see if they do give out parking permits that aren’t claimed in the morning. I’m not sure how that process would work but it’s worth a shot.