After running the Traveler loop and the Traveler + Black Cat FKT route on earlier visits to Baxter, this route caught my eye and this past weekend provided an exceptionally beautiful early October weather window to spend a day in the mountains.
I started at the Marston Trailhead parking lot just before 11am and proceeded uphill to the first trail junction. After reading a bit about the loop (including other accounts posted here) I had decided to run it counterclockwise, so turned right and started the long, uphill climb to the first peak of the day, Mt. Coe. The Coe Slide loomed largest in my head in terms of challenges on this run and that concern wasn’t misplaced: the slide is steep and unrelenting. Even after a week plus of dry weather sections of it were wet and slippery with algae-like growth and it wasn’t always easy to locate the blazed trail up the rock face. A few short stretches came awfully close to being bouldering-adjacent but still, better to be ascending. I cannot imagine running this route in reverse and descending the slide.
A short traverse at the top of the slide puts you back in the forest for the remaining ascent to the peak of Mt. Coe. The summit offered one of my favorite views of the day: the back of Katahdin in one direction and the trail continuing along the ridge line, with South Brother and North Brother neatly lined up, to the left. I often have that moment of - wait, I’m going all the way there?! - in these runs when clear sight lines present the opportunity to puzzle over how it’s possible you’ll make it to a seemingly-distant landmark, but then one foot in front of the other and before you know it…
The stretch of running off Coe and to the junction of South Brother was lovely, and then a short spur with some fun scrambling sections led me to the summit of South Brother. I turned back down the spur and then along the ridge line before turning for the longer spur to North Brother, the beginning of which sloped gently downhill - always a disquieting feeling when you know that you’ll eventually have to climb all those feet/meters back up. North Brother is the tallest of the three peaks at 4,150’ and the last stretch of the trail to the summit reminded me a bit of the peaks on the Traveler Loop: exposed with a sizeable field of large and loose talus. The views here are exceptional too.
I knew the remainder of the loop starting with the North Brother descent was nearly all downhill, so I cruised those last few miles. There are some particularly gorgeous stretches of running to be had there, including one through a birch forest that was resplendent with golden leaves and autumn sunshine. A highlight was the short stretch of trail skirting Teardrop Pond, a perfect little alpine pond with the ridge line between the Brothers backing it. I carried all necessary water and fuel, but there are plenty of steam crossings in the first 2 miles of the loop and then again in the last two. On a day when friends climbed Katahdin in the company of a considerable number of other hikers, I ran this loop instead and saw a total of 7 people in 3.5 hours - a perfect afternoon of solitude running in a beautiful place.