Beech Mountain
The first loop comprises four legs: Beech Cliff Ladder Trail from Echo
Lake Beach, connector to Beech mountain parking area, the old road from
beech Mountain Notch toward Southwest Harbor, and the Lurvey Spring Road
back to the parking area at Echo Lake. The second loop comprises three more
legs: (Outer) Beech Mountain Trail from Beech mountain parking area to the
fire tower at the summit, Beech Mountain South Ridge Trail, and the Valley
Trail back to the parking area at the notch. Either loop samples Acadia at
its best.
The old road connecting Southwest Harbor to Beech Mountain Notch - a
Southern extension of beech Hill Road - is not generally shown on modern
maps. The easiest way to find it is to head south from Beech Mountain
parking area to the trailhead where the Valley Trail splits west for Long
Pond, and the Canada Ridge Trail splits east. Take the east fork for a few
feet past the trailhead, but where the trail proper turns left across a
split-log bridge, continue on in the same direction you have been heading,
and you will soon see that you are on the old roadway already.
At 839 feet, the summit of Beech Mountain rises 720 feet above Echo lake
parking area. The ladder trail covers the first 415 feet of that distance in
getting to the top of Beech Cliff. Packing beech woods, talus slopes,
cribwork traverses, cliffs, four iron ladders (of ten, eighteen, fourteen
and fifteen rungs), and a great variety of trees and plants into a mere half
mile, it is [one of my] favorite trails. Rising up the slope and cliff by
ten switchbacking traverses, it hoists you into the air as easily as an
escalator.
It was slightly downhill to the Beech Mountain parking area from the top of
Beech Cliff, through tall mixed and evergreen woods the whole way. From the
Beech Mountain parking area I took the scenic route to the fire tower,
winding counterclockwise around the western side of Beech Mountain
overlooking Long Pond and Mansell Mountain. The trail quickly opened up onto
sunny granite ledge covered with blueberry and black chokeberry. From where
the west ridge trail branches off for Long Pond, the trail makes a short,
steep, rocky rush for the summit. West, south, and east the view abruptly
opens onto mountains, islands, and blue sky.
Anchored at the steel fire tower, the south ridge trail winds through
scrubby, brackeny terrain, then dips down to connect with the valley trail
on its way from Long Pond to Beech Mountain parking area. At the south end
of the ridge, the trail takes an abrupt turn to the east and, by a stepped
series of switchbacks, drops through the best woods on Beech Mountain to
join the Valley Trail, which runs north and south at the base of the ridge.
Here are graceful evergreens rising from a steep slope, luminous beds of
sphagnum moss, masses of rock-cap fern, great colonies of lichen, choirs of
sapling spruce, boulders, cliffs, sunlight slanting through trees, needles
everywhere, and a trail winding through it all, descending by granite steps
in runs of three, six or ten.
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Champlain Mountain
The Carrige Paths
Around Little Long Pond
Around Jordan Pond
Acadia Mountain loop
Around Mansell Mountain
Little Harbor Brook & Birch Spring Loop
Penobscot Mountain & Jordan Cliffs
Western Mountain Loop
Champlain Mountain Loop
Norumbega Mountain Loop
Around Dorr Mountain
Pemetic Mountain Loop
Beech Mountain
Cadillac Mountain
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