Hiking in Maine

The first time I chose to take the approximately six and-a-half mile Five Ponds Loop at Baxter State Park was the day after a strenuous Traveler Mountain hike, both for its relative ease and for early morning opportunities to see wildlife. I recently explored it again in mid-September as a last, long walk before sunset, after other more difficult hikes. A detailed description of the trail can be found in the AMC Maine Mountain Guide and Falcon Guides’ Hiking Maine’s Baxter State Park.

In 2020, my hike was in a clockwise direction from the trailhead at the Trout Brook Farm Campground, familiar to me from my hike of Trout Brook Mountain two days prior (park in day-use parking near the sign that reads, “Park Orderly”). The ponds, in that east to west sequence, are Littlefield Pond, Billfish Pond, Round Pond, High Pond, and Long Pond, accessed through a series of side trails spanning the shoulders of Trout Brook Mountain. Billfish and Long each have canoe rentals (through the ranger at Trout Brook Farm campsite).

In the more recent hike, I flipped the order, and went counter-clockwise. Either way, it took me a little over two hours at a fast clip. I continued my theme of enjoying the varieties of green seen on the trail in mid-September before the fall colors set in. Colorful mushrooms seemed to sprout from everywhere.

After the junction with the Trout Brook Mountain trail (about 1.1 miles in when doing it clockwise), I had seen moose tracks in the mud next to a plank bridge on the trail, as colossal as they were fresh, and on the newer trek, many more tracks and droppings around the loop. I saw no moose, but disturbed countless red squirrels, a garter snake sunning itself, and many northern flickers.

My favorite part of the hike remained the long esker between High Pond and Long Pond with views through the trees of each pond and the respective mountains behind them, and the clicking of Belted Kingfishers. These ponds can be accessed through a narrow, rocky sluice way, staunched by a well-maintained beaver dam, and then again via several side paths.

After the ponds, the trail climbs slightly, then settles into its slightly downhill green tunnel run back to the trailhead. I didn’t rent a canoe either time, but this long, flat walk would be a good opportunity during a longer Baxter State Park visit to rent a canoe to explore Billfish or Long Pond, and to make a full day of this beautiful hike.

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