Last weekend I ran/hiked all the 4000 footers in Maine, self-supported. I had only been on Katahdin before but knew there were a lot of other beautiful peaks in the state. I started on Friday the 6th at 8:43am at the Old Speck trailhead. I worked my way north, finishing with North Brother at 2:34am Sunday morning. Saddleback and The Horn were beautiful, with many people hiking up the ski hill. The Carrabassett loop was probably the most challenging due to routefinding and bushwhacking. I also couldn't figure out a way to do it in the daylight and still accommodate my Baxter State Park check in time without taking another day off. I slept for about 90 minutes after this loop and 15 minutes before I reached Baxter. (I also took about a half hour tying into a funeral on Zoom right before Baxter.) The Bigelow ridge is gorgeous and I'd like to go back to run it in its entirety. There was an unexpected road closure in this area as well that added about 45 minutes. The route I took up to Katahdin from the south is fairly technical and was very slow to descend in the dark with wet rock. The sunset from the ridge above the clouds was amazing though and I was rewarded with an amazing rainbow. Overall the weather was quite good, with just a little rain on the second night but not too cold.
The gpx files on the route description seem to be "jrmosel's" activity files from his attempt back in July of 2023. It looks like I beat his supported time by about 2 minutes, though he never submitted an FKT. My new watch doesn't have nearly as much battery as expected, so it went into some kind of ultra battery saving mode on my last run. I've included a link to my InReach as well which I had running as a backup. I started it well before and ended it well after my attempt, but it clearly shows that I didn't stop my last run in the middle of the woods.
Baxter State Park is really the crux of this attempt and is why I haven't tried this earlier. If you don't live in Maine you almost need to get a camping permit several months ahead of time to be allowed to hike in the park. Do your research. They have several unusual rules around hiking. Starting with Baxter State Park is almost for sure the easiest from a logistical standpoint, though any ranger you talk to will surely warn you against the difficulty of hiking all 3 of their 4000 footers in a single afternoon or morning.