utL 124 P r t L a n d montHL maga ine am s fLicKr 124 P r t L a n d montHL maga ine Spirit of the theres an ancient magic in maines highest mountain. y C Lin Sargent t m dern mythS W hether or not they’ve heard the song “Climb Ev’ry Moun- tain,” some Penobscot na- tives are shy about climbing to the top of Mount Katahdin. That’s because it’s holy ground. Is it Wuchhosen, the wind bird, who lives up there, flapping his wings to create great storms? Or is it the Spirit of Katahdin, jealous of his solitude. Or is it the dominion of Gluskap, creator of the Earth? Whatever your choice of spirits, the aspect of the su- pernatural is strong. In a piece for Sierra Magazine, Jason Mark points to Robert Moor’s book On Trails for an elevated example of the sub- lime as well as the tension that existed be- tween Penobscot guides and the rusticating explorers who employed them. “In 1846, Henry David Thoreau made a failed bid to climb Mount Katahdin, the highest peak in the state of Maine. He and two companions made their way to its base by canoe, guid- ed by an old Indian man named Louis Nep- tune, who advised Thoreau to leave a bottle of rum on top of the mountain to appease the mountain spirit.” Thoreau and his party “got lost in the fog and never made it to the summit,” ac- cording to Moor. Time has erased the trifling detail of who ended up with the the rum. But Moor notes that while descen- ing, alarmed by the savage majesty of the