After running the Traveler Loop (minus South Branch and Black Cat) together previously, we were excited to spend a day running this longer loop.
We signed in at the trailhead at 8:30am and opted to officially begin our run on the west side of the brook, running the loop counter clockwise. The South Branch Mountain and Black Cat portion of the loop includes a climb of almost 2 miles/1,600+ft of elevation to the top of South Branch Mountain before continuing to the summit of Black Cat and then beginning a technical and steep descent toward the southern end of Upper South Branch Pond. After skirting the southern and eastern sides of Upper South Branch Pond (the only real water opportunity on this run, though we didn’t take advantage) we joined the Traveler Loop and ascended, in order: Peak of the Ridges, Traveler, and North Traveler before starting the final descent back toward Lower South Branch Pond to close out the loop.
This is a beautiful run but not an easy one: surface is technical to very technical for much of it and relatively few sections of the trail are free and easy running. We lost some time to route finding despite having run these trails before: between the undergrowth and faded blazes on portions of the trail traversing talus and scree we often found ourselves slightly off-course before correcting and continuing on. (Cairns are present and helpful, but not always easy to spot, especially when blending into similar-looking surroundings.) The weather forecast for our run looked a little uncertain the day before, with the possibility of thunderstorms (not ideal at the exposed above tree line elevations of 4 of the 5 peaks we’d be hitting), but we lucked out with an overcast day that included quickly moving cloud cover sweeping over Peak of the RIdges and Traveler and a few sprinkles on our final descent. It was disappointing to not enjoy the gorgeous views of Katahdin available on clearer days, but the weather really could have been far worse. A real highlight of this run was the first portion of the descent off North Traveler, before things really start to get steep and unrelenting. A few stretches there traverse gorgeous alpine meadows and running through the tall grasses and flowers bent to the wind was a welcome respite after miles of moving carefully through fields of pumpkin-size (or larger) talus.
We carried all necessary water and fuel, opting not to stop for a refill in Upper South Branch Pond given how relatively early it comes in the run. Our final dash through the gentle mid shin-height waters of South Branch Ponds Brook was the perfect way to wash off all the mud accumulated on the final stretch of the Pogy Notch Trail, which was pretty squishy after the very wet June we had.