| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Midway Pond, Rock Pond, ME |
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 | Trails: |
Fly Rod Crosby Trail, Reeds Loop, Rock Pond Trail, Midway Pond Spur, Lookout, Rock Pond Sour |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, November 12, 2023 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Park in a small grassy field with room for many cars for the Reeds end. I'm sure this isn't plowed in winter but there's a snowmobile trail a short drive north along Railroad Rd that you may be able to park at. We accidentally parked here first, then saw the directions for Fly Rod Crosby Trail so I imagine people often mistakenly park here. Roadside parking may be doable as well. Park at Saddleback for the northern end. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Dry Trail, Ice - Black, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Mud - Significant, Leaves - Significant/Slippery, Snow/Ice - Small Patches |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
I believe the only real unbridged crossing was of Hardy Stream and this was very easy at current water levels. There may have been some other very small ones as well. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
I'd be careful with the private property and the multiuse trails but a good trail for dogs with lots of water. |
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 | Bugs: |
None but some logging roads that the trail follows could be absolute tick havens in summer. May not be too bad this far north though? |
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 | Lost and Found: |
None |
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 | Comments: |
Fly Rod Crosby Trail is generally marked with blue blaze and/or diamonds with its name on them tacked to trees. The trail is, at times, very well blazed when a footpath in the woods (at the Reeds end in particular) but other times has no blaze like along the roads. It is always somehow marked when/where it makes turns on/off roads but is not always super clear or obvious especially at sharp turns. Overall, the blowdown situation was not bad. A few here and there along the roads and the first half of the hike. Where I remember them most distinctly was on the outlook spur. I believe there were a few, mostly leaners/duck unders on some of the inclines but also on the flatter section near the summit. I do not recall if the spurs were marked but the combined Rock pond Trail/Fly Rod Crosby Trail was marked with the latter's diamonds tacked to trees.
Despite high hopes for a traverse of The Horn, Saddleback Junior, and Abraham to finish up my redlining there, we just didn't have it in us to get up that early so the CCC and I opted for this much mellower hike instead. I did not have high hopes for this trail and anticipated it mostly being a road walk. Reality did not disappoint. And a rather foolish mistake of driving to Sugarloaf to spot a car rather than to Saddleback meant we didn't start until past noon and spent a fun couple of hours in the dark.
From Reeds, the trail is very well marked with blue blaze. It almost immediately forks at the "Reeds Loop". Reeds Loop pointed to the right so to stay on the Fly Rod Crosby Trail (FRCT) we stayed left and switchbacked up a rise before the two ends of the loop joined back up. Interestingly, at this loop jct, the half of the loop that we'd just followed was signed as the Reeds Loop. My interpretation is that the whole loop is called Reeds Loop and no specific half of it is the FRCT, an inconvenience for redliners. As such, we did an OAB on the on the lower section of trail. Note a turn off a road before coming into private property by the road. The next few miles follow Orbeton Stream on a mix of foot trail and old logging roads. Note turns on/off logging roads. They *are* marked but care should still be taken. Some of the logging roads are very overgrown, could be tick havens in summer, and be a real pain to get through when in full growth. Lots of little ups and downs. Note a real sharp left turn off a road and onto another shortly after crossing a drainage just west of Hardy Stream. The trail continues on a road for several miles from here toward the AT crossing by Eddy Pond. At first, it continues on the level but then there's some more moderate climbing along the road to the HOL a bit east of Moose and Deer Pond. From there to Rock Pond Trail is relatively flat again.
The turn off for Rock Pond Trail was easy to spot although perhaps this was because we were very intentional about not missing it. The trail itself was not difficult to follow either, even in the dark. The trail climbed moderately for a ways then flattened out as it turned west to skirt a knob and neared Midway Pond which there is a short spur to. About 1/3mi ahead of the spur, there is another spur on left that said it led to Rock Pond. A short ways in, another spur diverged left and said it led to a lookout The lookout spur is about 0.4mi long and climbs almost 200ft with some steep pitches to just beyond the summit of a nearly 3000ft knob. It came to a T-intersection where the spur was signed to the right but another path seemed to continue left as well and had footprints along it. Once back down along the main spur, we continued along toward Rock Pond and hiked nearby the south shore but never saw a view of it! Perhaps this is just because it was dark though. We kept anticipating the spur ending at the pond and needing to turn back but it just continued and at some point must have joined back up with the main trail. I don't think we noticed this jct though and in any case did not do an OAB on the missing portion of trail so should probably go back to do this. That being said, because we never noticed a jct, we wondered if the "spur" was the true trail though I'm seeing one map online that calls what we were on the "Bobcat Cut" and shows the mane trail to the east. If anyone can confirm, that would be great, thanks! In any event, we did finally come across a short spur to the left as we hiked along the eastern edge of Rock Pond that led down to it. From here down to the ski area, it was pretty flat or downhill. You've got to walk through the condos along the road for about a 1/2mi before coming to the parking areas.
As far as surface conditions go, there was still lots of mud/pooling water though some of it was definitely frozen. Little snow/ice on the southern end but consistent cover at times further north as you approached Saddleback and gained significant elevation. The road as you approached Eddy Pond eventually had pretty consistent snow/ice cover. We never threw on the spikes and I don't think it would be worth it but we did have to be careful of ice many times later in the hike and I fell several times. Gaia had us at 17mi, about 2650ft of gain, and almost 7.5hrs. This is significantly more than the guidebook as it as. Of course this is due to missing a turn or two and having to turn around, spurs, etc. but I also think the 12.3mi in the guidebook is undershooting it. A sign on the Reeds end calls it 13mi. |
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 | Name: |
Liam Cooney and the CCC |
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 | E-Mail: |
liamcooney96@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2023-11-16 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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