Tyler Pond Wildlife Management Area

Augusta/Manchester

Tyler Pond Wildlife Management Area is a 128-acre parcel of land manged by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife on the border of Augusta and Manchester. Although the route to the pond, along a wide and rutted ATV trail most of the way, is less than picturesque, Tyler Pond, a small kettle pond, completely undeveloped along the shoreline and clear down to the gravel bottom, offers a worthwhile destination.

Getting There
Take Civic Center Drive north from Augusta. From the light at the I-95 on-ramp, continue north 3.1 miles and turn left onto Summerhaven Road. Tyler Pond Wildlife Management Area is on the left in about 0.8 miles, marked by a brown WMA sign and blue boat launch sign. If you can squeeze your car past a couple of sizable puddles, there is a spacious parking area just inside on the left.

The Trail
Distance: about ½ mile (one-way)
Difficulty: moderate
Time Needed: ½ hour

From the parking area, follow a wide, rutted dirt road into a forest of tall oak, pine and birch. Although the road is pocked with several large, deep puddles, there is ample room to go around the edges and stay high and dry. A few hundred feet along, the trail forks. The left fork is the ATV trail; the right leads to Tyler Pond. After the fork, the trail becomes a bit narrower and cozier, though it becomes severely eroded as it travels downhill. This road-like bit of trail ends in an open, level area, with a non-motorized trail continuing in the woods and downhill a short distance to the pond. A small carry-in boat launch is on the left. The trail continues along a lovely, wide hump of land that juts into the pond. The top of the hump is fairly level and open in the understory and carpeted in pine needles, offering a delightful picnic spot. A narrow, unmarked trail heads to the right and follows along the shore of the pond a few hundred feet before petering out.

Kid-Friendly Factor
Tyler Pond Wildlife Management Area is a great place to hike with kids—a short walk that even the shortest of legs should be able to handle (and if all else fails, it's not far to carry little ones), with a great destination. Ponds are always a big attraction for little ones who inevitable want to throw in sticks or rocks, and the wide, open finger of land offers plenty of opportunity for safe but exciting exploration.

Getting Involved
Contact the Manchester Conservation Commission for volunteer opportunities at Tyler Pond.

Allen-Whitney Memorial Forest

Manchester

The Allen-Whitney Memorial Forest is a 708-acre plot of land owned and managed by the New England Forestry Foundation. A network of trails provides access to the forest for non-motorized uses, including cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking and horseback riding. The trails are clearly intended more for winter use than summer; they are fairly overgrown with vegetation and the blazes are few and far between in some areas. However, the forest provides a peaceful and shady hike through varied terrain and vegetation types, with birds singing in the canopy above and wildflowers growing all along the trails. It is worth a bit of bushwhacking to experience the beauty of the forest.

Getting There
Take route 202 (Western Avenue) west into Manchester. Turn right on Route 17 and go 1.6 miles. Just past Lakeside Orchards, turn right onto the Worthing Road, follow it to the end (about 1 mile) and turn right onto Scribner Hill Road. Park at the Manchester Meeting House, about 0.2 miles down the road on your left.

The Trails
All of the trails begin at the kiosk at the back end of the parking area. There are no maps available at the kiosk, but you can download a map of the trail network from the Manchester town website. Unfortunately the map is not color-coded to match the trail blazes and not all of the cross-trails appear on the map. However with a little careful attention to the blazes and a willingness to get a little turned around, it's not too difficult to navigate the trails. In general, the red trail is marked as 1 on the map; the blue trail is 2, 3 and 4 and the orange trail is 5.

Whitney Way
Red Blazes
Distance: About 2 miles (loop and backtrack)
Difficulty: Moderate-difficult
Time needed: 1-2 hours (including return trip)

From the kiosk head straight into the woods along a wide, grassy road. In a few dozen yards, the trail T's, with a red arrow pointing left (a right turn leads back down to Scribner Hill south of the Meeting House). Follow the red trail left, uphill through a pine and mixed hardwood forest. The trail here appears to be an old road, overgrown with grass and plants. The trail crests a hill and a blue arrow points left where Allen's Trace begins. Continue straight downhill, passing another left fork marked with an orange arrow (Lion's Leap). The trail travels through a wet area and takes a left turn uphill (look for double red blazes). The trail continues uphill following a narrow path. After passing a granite ledge on the left, the trail angles left and uphill, becoming very indistinct. At a stone wall, the trail crosses an old road and gets somewhat lost in the woods, looping up and downhill before returning to the road. To avoid this confusion, turn left onto the road and follow it until the red blazes resume. The road curves left and steeply uphill before heading back downhill. The blue trail forks right and straight ahead and the red blazes end. Follow the blue trail straight ahead for a short distance and the red trail resumes to the left, uphill and traverses Allen hill along a snowmobile trail. At a T intersection, turn right and follow the red trail back down to the parking area.

Allen's Trace
Blue Blazes
Distance: About 2 ½ miles (loop)
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult

From the kiosk head straight into the woods along a wide, grassy road. In a few dozen yards, the trail T's, with a red arrow pointing left (a right turn leads back down to Scribner Hill south of the Meeting House). Follow the red trail left, uphill through a pine and mixed hardwood forest. The trail here appears to be an old road, overgrown with grass and plants. At the crest of a hill turn left at the blue arrow. The trail moves uphill through a stand of tall, straight red pines. The trail is fairly indistinct, with tall ferns growing in it. The trail crosses an old road and enters a mixed hardwood forest with some very large old maples. After the second large tree on the right, turn right at the blue arrow, and climb a hill through more red pines. There's not much of a trail here, just widely spaced blue blazes and weedy ground.

The trail moves into a denser stand of trees and comes to a T intersection, both directions marked with blue arrows. Turn left here (a right turn will lead toward Lion's Leap and the east side of the Whitney Way loop and can be followed in reverse of these directions) onto an old road. The trail crosses a snowmobile trail and heads gradually downhill into another pine stand before heading more steeply down into a denser mixed hardwood forest. The trail curves toward the left, opens into a wider tote road and comes to another blue arrow pointing right (Scribner Hill Road is visible to the the left). Turn right, following a snowmobile trail 100 yards or so to a tree in the middle of the road marked with a blue arrow pointing left. Turn left and follow an old road over level ground through beech and maple woods. The trail passes numerous spots that look like side trails—ignore these.

The trail comes to an intersection with a small trail entering from the left; follow the blue arrow right and pass through a wet area on the trail. Cross a small stream on good-sized rocks and climb uphill. The trail crosses another stone wall, levels out and passes some large hemlock and pine trees, following a seasonal stream bed on the right. The trail crosses another stone wall and meets a snowmobile trail, turning right at the blue arrow. The trail through here is quite eroded and wet, clearly becoming a stream during spring runoff and heavy rainfall. The trail turns left, climbs uphill and comes to another T intersection, with red to the left and blue to the right. Follow the blue trail downhill to a junction with a snowmobile trail with a red arrow again to the left. Go right here and almost immediately turn left at the blue blazes, heading downhill and left again at another blue arrow. The trail becomes narrow and weedy again and passes through an area of very low-hanging trees. The trail comes to a T intersection again; turn left and head downhill. At a fork in the trail, an orange arrow points left (to Lion's Leap) and a blue arrow points right. Following the blue trail a few yards downhill, the trail forks again, with the left (straight) fork returning to the parking area, the right heading back up the blue loop.

Lion's Leap
Orange Blazes
Distance: about 1/8 mile (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult
Time needed: 15 minutes (plus time to hike in from the trail head)

Lion's Trace is a short connector trail that links Whitney Way and Allen's Trace Trails. To access Lion's Leap, follow Allen's Trace (the blue trail, above) to a fork marked by an orange arrow pointing right. From here, head downhill along a trail abloom with lily of the valley and red columbine (in early June) under a tall hardwood canopy and past a large old oak tree. The trail is marked alternately with orange blazes and orange surveyor's tape. It is also a narrow dirt track, unlike the other two trails which mostly follow old road beds. The trail curves left, crosses an old stone wall and heads downhill very steeply, leveling out in a hemlock grove where it meets Whitney Way at a T intersection marked with red arrows both ways. A left turn climbs Allen Hill and a right turn leads back down to the parking area.

Kid-Friendly Factor
I took my four-year-olds on Whitney Way and they were both very put out by the “pokeys”--the vegetation covering much of the trail, as well as the distance. They're both strong hikers, but without diversions such as streams or ponds for throwing rocks into or big boulders to climb and jump off, it was just drudgery to them. Older children might appreciate the subtleties of the deep woods and quiet bird song more, but I know I enjoyed it much more when I went back and hiked Allen's Trace and Lion's Leap without small children.

Getting Involved
To find out how you can get involved in maintaining the trail network at Allen-Whitney Memorial Forest, contact the Manchester Conservation Commission.

Jamies Pond

Manchester/Hallowell

Also know as Jimmy Pond or Jimmies Pond, Jamies Pond Wildlife Management Area offers hikers a mini-wilderness experience just minutes from Downtown Hallowell. The nearly 800-acre preserve encompasses Jamies Pond, a 107-acre pond almost free of development thanks to the pond’s role as Hallowell’s water supply from the 1920s through the 1980s. The City of Hallowell, Land for Maine’s future and an anonymous donor funded the purchase of the pond and surrounding land from the Hallowell Water District with in 1991, and since then the Kennebec Land Trust has assisted in the addition of three parcels. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife holds title to the land and manages it for wildlife. The surrounding woods are made up of tall white pines, American beech, red oak and other mixed hardwoods with hemlock mixed in. The forest floor is largely open and littered with mossy granite boulders. In the spring and early summer expect to hear warblers singing from the canopy above and, if you’re lucky, you may hear the haunting call of a loon out on the water. In the winter, the trails are open to snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

Getting There
From Water Street in Hallowell, take Central Street west, up the hill about 1.8 miles. Arc left onto Shady Lane and go about 0.4 miles to the intersection with the Outlet Road. Turn right and go about 1 mile to Jamies Pond Road. Turn right. You will reach the winter parking area (the road is gated here off season) in about 0.3 miles. Continue another 0.5 miles to the pond parking area and boat launch.

The Trails


Jamies Pond Wildlife Management Area has a trail network made up of eight distinct trail segments that can be combined into a variety of loops, providing an endless array of hiking options and opportunities. The trails are all well-marked with blue tree blazes and maps at all of the major intersections; pocket maps are available at the kiosk. The trails are all narrow dirt tracks (in places they follow wider old logging roads) with roots and rocks jutting up throughout and numerous crossings over small rivulets.

Most of the trails begin to the right of the parking area (as you’re facing the pond), near a small “Trails” sign. A short distance into the woods a large kiosk displays a map of the area and the trails and other information related to wildlife. Just beyond the kiosk the trail crosses a small inlet stream on a wooden bridge.

Lower Pond Trail
Distance: 0.3 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: moderate

The Lower Pond Trail skirts the northwest bank of the pond. Although the trail is removed from the pond by about 100 feet or so, you can still view the water through the gaps in the widely-spaced trees. The trail is fairly level, without a lot of ups and downs, and crosses a number of small inlets, usually over well-made stone crossings. The Lower Pond Trail ends at a junction with the Pine Point Trail and a connector trail that leads to the Middle and Upper Pond Trails.

Pine Point Trail
Distance: 0.2 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate
Pine Point Trail leads to one of the prime destinations at the Jamies Pond Wildlife Management Area--Pine Point, a large, smooth slab of granite that juts out into the water at the tip of a small peninsula. Pine Point Trail begins where Lower Pond Trail ends, continuing to skirt the northwest bank of the pond. The trail forks at the junction with Hemlock Trail. Take the left fork, angling downhill to the edge of the pond at Pine Point. The point, a large chunk of rock that juts out into the pond, is an ideal picnic spot.

Upper Pond Trail
Distance: 0.5 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate
The Upper Pond Trail starts at the right fork in the trail, just across the bridge. The trail passes an old granite dam on the right and continues uphill, away from the stream. At the first fork in the road, take the right branch (the left is the Middle Pond Trail). When the trail forks again near the top of the hill stay to the left (the right fork starts the Forest Trail). From here the trail traverses the heill, meets the Vernal Pool trail at another fork and then heads downhill to meet once again with the Middle Pond Trail and ends at the junction with the Lower Pond Trail and Pine Point Trail.

Middle Pond Trail
Distance: about 0.3 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate

The Middle Pond Trail is a short connector trail that connects with the Upper Pond Trail at both ends. It follows a similar path to the Lower Pond Trail, but slightly uphill from it.

Forest Trail
Distance: 1.5 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult


The Forest Trail starts loops uphill from the Upper Pond Trail, passing through a number of forest types: dark pine plantation, young beech forest, dense early successional woods of young fir and hardwood trees, quiet hemlock grove. The Forest Trail is very wet and muddy through several sections, especially during early spring.

From the Upper Pond Trail the Forest Trail forks to the right near an old cellar hole, crosses Meadow Hill Road (resuming across the road and just to the right on an old tote road) and heads uphill. The trail forks to the right, leaving the tote road just shy of a wood fence and “No ATV” sign that marks the property boundary, and traverses the hill just below the summit through a young beech wood. The trail begins to angle downhill into hemlock groves and through very wet areas where the vegetation grows densely, nearly obscuring the trail in some segments. The trail follows the banks of the feeder stream for a short distance, crossing side streams several times on log bridges or stone steps before crossing over the main stream below a beaver dam on a new bridge recently constructed by an Eagle Scout. In this area the forest canopy is more open, letting in the sunlight. The trail begins to head uphill again. A short spur trail that forks off to the left leads uphill from the Forest Trail to the power line corridor. The main trail angles downhill, crosses Jamies Pond Road, follows along a stone wall on the left and heads down , coming out of the woods directly across the parking lot from the lake (just to the right of the brick HWD building).

Collins Road Access Trail
Distance: 0.5 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate
To reach the Collins Road Access Trail continue on the Outlet Road (which changes to Bog Farm Road and then Collins Road) about 1.8 miles beyond the turn to Jamies Pond Road. There will be a small parking area on your right with a “Jamies Pond Wildlife Management Area” sign. The Collins Road Access Trail is a narrow path through an area of tall hemlocks and ferns. It crosses several wet areas using stepping stones and ends at a fork that marks the junction with the Hemlock Trail and Vernal Pond Trail.

Hemlock Trail
Distance: 0.5 miles (one-way)
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult

The Hemlock Trail starts at the juncture with the Collins Road Access Trail and the Vernal Pond Trail. From the Collins Road Access Trail, take the right fork, heading uphill slightly. For a short distance the trail follows a stone wall with a massive granite boulder in it and then heads downhill, crosses the Tote Road and ends at the point where the Lower Pond Trail and Pine Point Trail meet.

Vernal Pool Trail
Distance: 0.7 miles
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult

The Vernal Pool Trail starts at the junction with the Collins Road Access Trail and the Hemlock Trail. Coming from Collins Road, take the left fork and follow the trail gradually uphill through a predominantly beech forest . The trail passes several large granite boulders and levels out at the top of a hill where it follows a stone wall for a short distance before angling to the right and downhill. The Vernal Pool Trail crosses the Tote Road and ends at the juncture with the Upper Pond Trail.

Tote Road
Distance: approximately 0.5 miles
Difficulty: moderate

The Tote Road provides access from the Manchester end of the WMA. To reach the trailhead, take Western Avenue (Route 202) from Augusta west to Manchester and turn south on the Pond Road. In about two miles, turn left on Meadow Hill Road and go 1.4 miles to a small grassy driveway on your right. There is a “Jamie’s Pond Wildlife Management Area” sign just beyond the parking area. The tote road heads downhill from here and crosses the Vernal Pool and Hemlock Trails. True to its name, the Tote Road Trail follows the path of an old road. It is somewhat overgrown with grass, ferns and other plants in some areas, is not well-marked with tree blazes like the other trails and at one point comes to an unmarked fork (take a left).

Kid-Friendly Factor

The tall trees and mossy boulders make Jamies Pond a magical place for kids to explore. The narrow, bumpy trails are definitely not do-able with a stroller, although you can push a stout jogging stroller along the closed section of the Jamies Pond Road, over a recently-constructed wooden bridge and uphill to the end of Meadow Hill Road (to reach this road from Manchester, follow the directions to the Tote Road Trail, and continue straight to the end of the Meadow Hill Road). Little ones can ride in a backpack or sling and those with stouter legs would enjoy some of the shorter loops. Try to make it all the way to Pine Point for a picnic and some water play. Older kids should be readily able to manage a longer loop and would enjoy fishing or canoeing in the pond. I have taken a group of kids over the Forest Trail, which was a challenge with the many wet areas, dense vegetation and length of the trail, but they all made it.

Getting Involved
Jamies Pond trails are maintained by Friends of Jamies Pond volunteers. To become a volunteer, contact the Hallowell Conservation Commission (207-623-4021) or the Manchester Conservation Commission (207-622-1894).