About the Community Hikes Program
The Maine A.T. Land Trust’s Community Hikes program provides free guided hiking trips to the general public from May to October and then from January to March. There are typically two to three hikes per month (depending on weather) and trips are guided by trained trip leaders. The program has been enormously successful at bringing individuals to the A.T. landscape but they can fill up quickly! The limit for participants is usually 5-8 individuals. If a hike you would like to attend is currently filled up, please email us at info@matlt.org to get on the waiting list. Summer hikes will be listed in May, winter hikes will be listed in December, so check back if you don’t see any!
Fall 2024 Update
We typically have 3-4 hikes in the fall season but due to some trip leader travel and downtime, we will probably be offering fewer this fall. But please continue to check back and sign up for the MATLT newsletter to make sure you know when new hikes are posted!
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Four Ponds Hike
February 22, 2020 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Free
Our next Community Hike will be held on Saturday, February 22nd at 9am to Four Ponds/Spruce Mountain. This 2,530-foot summit is very close to the famous Height of Land overlook, which is where we will meet at 9am on the opposite side of the road from the parking area (details will be provided in the organizer’s email). We can proceed to the summit of Spruce Mountain and then down the backside to series of remote, high-elevation ponds within the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands’ Four Ponds area.
This is a moderate snowshoe hike and we can choose to make it shorter or longer, depending on ability, conditions and interest. It is a great way to get out on the A.T. in Maine without having to navigate woods roads or climb steep mountains. Total mileage will be up to 3.6 miles each way – the distance to the Sabbath Day Pond shelter – with the only ascent/descent involving approximately 300 feet of elevation gain on either side of Spruce Mountain.
Having just come down Bemis Mountain, the Appalachian Trail proceeds from the parking area to the east, up Spruce Mountain (2530’) and down to large areas of montane spruce-fir forest in largely wet areas. The terrain in this section is largely flat, and proceeds along the first two ponds, Moxie and Long, before heading up along the south side of Four Ponds Mountain. The A.T. skirts the northern edge of the state land while remaining just below the summit of Four Ponds Mountain and becomes steep in this section, but only briefly. As the trail descends to the isthmus between Long Pond and Sabbath Day Pond, the third of the Four Ponds, it reaches the A.T.’s Sabbath Day Pond shelter.
You must RSVP for this hike through this page or contact us (info@matlt.org or 207-808-2073)! Snowshoes will likely be required!