Around Mansell Mountain

There was no sign of Cold Brook or the small bridge at the start of the Cold Brook Trail just past the pumping station; they were buried in a hug drift blown off the pond. Up from there, the first slope was swept bare by the wind, exposing the icy trail. I pulled myself up that slope by the palisade of trail-side trees. A bend in the trail had stymied the wind; from there to Gilley Field on the Western Mountain Road, the trail was deep in snow. Rounding the south end of Mansell Mountain, the trail is level and easygoing through mixed woods, providing a link between Long Pond and Gilley Field.

The notch trail connects with both the Razorback and Sluiceway trails lower down, and with the ridge trail between Mansell and Bernard at its upper end. It starts gradually and makes an easy ascent to the notch, crossing headwaters of Marshall Brook by two simple bridges. White and glistening, Western Mountain was as beautiful as I have ever seen it.

On the down leg of the Long Pond Trail I saw tracks of fox, shrew or mouse, squirrel, hare and porcupine. Rather than head directly into the valley of Great Brook, the pond trail stays up on the west bank until the Western Trail heads off for the Long Pond Fire Road and Pine Hill, then it cuts into the valley more steeply.

The Great Brook bridge is one of my favorites in Acadia. With a log rail held on four posts on the downstream side, the central two posts laterally braced, it is as simple and sturdy as a span can be. From there it was almost a straight shot along the shore back to the pumping station. A lot of water drains off Mansell Mountain into Long Pond. Including the one over Cold Brook, on the last leg of my hike I crossed seven wooded bridges and one made of stone. The trail also crosses a narrow talus slope, and meets some impressive glacial erratic boulders.