Mt Katahdin

Maine's The Great Circle Trail is a 28-mile backpacking loop near the 100-mile Wilderness, north of Milo and south of Baxter State Park. It’s a roughly 28-mile backpacking loop near the 100-mile Wilderness, north of Milo and south of Baxter State Park. The loop mixes existing trails with about 14 miles of trails built to create a backpacking loop. Much of the land is part of the Nahmakanta Public Land, some is part of the Debsconeag Lakes Wilderness Area, and a small part is on the Appalachian Trail. The trail work to complete the loop was finished in 2021.

Click for PDF map

We started from the most popular starting point, the Turtle Ridge Loop Trail parking lot. It was the only lot where we saw any other cars on our fall mid-week trip. One car at the start, two on the way out. We chose to hike the loop counterclockwise since that is how it is described in the AMC’s Maine Mountain Guide (I highly recommend the guide for this hike.)

Since the route follows a collection of trails, I traced it on my map and in Gaia GPS and brought a copy of the description before heading out. A good map and knowing where you're going are important on this route. Signage and trail maintenance vary by area. Navigation skills are a plus for this trip.

To get to the trailhead, you drive in on Jo-Mary Road, which is managed by North Maine Woods, Inc. A gate controls access. Fees for the Nahmakanta area are charged for the day you enter and the day you leave. At the time of this writing, the fee was $18/day for non-residents, $13/day for residents. Visitors over 70 are free.

Drivers should be aware that the road is an active logging road. The gate attendant told us we would see logging trucks and to simply pull over and let them pass. The road was in very good condition, though extremely dusty because of the dry conditions.

Autumn colors were on full display

We drove up on the day we wanted to start our hike. After the long drive, we hit the trail around 2:00 pm. There are two campsites fairly close to the parking lot: Leavitt Pond at 0.4 mile and Tumbledown Dick Pond at 1.7 miles. These sites are good destinations if you wish to drive up later in the day, camp, and get an early start for the rest of the hike.

We checked out Tumbledown Dick Falls on a side trail at 3.5 miles. There was very little water running, but it was still a nice waterfall in an impressive gorge.

One of our possible first-night stops was South End campsite, on the Appalachian Trail (AT) about 5 miles in. We still had quite a bit of daylight left, so we decided to head to a campsite referred to as Fifth Debsconeag Pond at around 7 miles.

Unfortunately, we did not see that campsite at all. By the time we realized that we had surely missed it, it made more sense to continue to the campsite at 6th Debosconeag Pond at around 9 miles. We hoped it actually existed! With a little less than a mile to go, it was time to hike with the headlamps. Sunset was around 6:30 pm, and we made it to the campsite around 7:30 pm. Glad we made it, and happy to have a 2-mile jump on the rest of the trip.

This pond-side site had a privy (a box with a seat), a picnic table, and room for three or maybe four small tents. It was quiet and lovely. All the campsites we used had some sort of privy and a picnic table. We didn’t check out the AT campsite, so we don’t know if it had a picnic table.

The next morning, we packed up and headed out, hiking along the shore of Nahmakanta Lake, then briefly picking up the AT again at mile 12.4. Here we saw our first human, an AT thru-hiker nearing completion and heading to Katahdin.

This stretch of the AT was lovely with mossy woods and a view of Pollywog Gorge. At 13.7 miles, we stopped for lunch at the junction where we would leave the AT again. There, we saw the only other humans on the trip: four AT hikers heading north. We continued on past the campsite at Pollywog Pond at mile 14.4 and stopped for a break at the Wadleigh Group Campsite and shelter site at 16.3. There are two shelters here and plenty of space for tents. It’s a lovely site, but does look like it gets more (and harder) usage than other sites we saw.

Third Musquash Pond

We continued on, stopping for a great view of Mount Katahdin at mile 18.7. Finally, we reached Third Musquash Pond campsite at mile 20.4 after 11-12 miles of hiking that day. We got to camp before sunset and were blinded by the sun shining off the amazingly calm water of the Pond. Sunset was beautiful. That night we were treated to an unintelligible conversation between two Barred Owls directly over our tents.

On our final day, we got a great view of Mount Katahdin from an empty parking lot at mile 22.8.

The Great Circle Trail goes south around Sing Song Pond, where you’ll find another nice campsite that is a little larger and more heavily used than those requiring more hiking. Alternatively, you could hike up and over Turtle Ridge if you preferred. The total distance is very similar. After hiking through many glacial erratic boulders and past the end of Rabbit Pond, we made it back to the trailhead where it all started after about a 7-mile day.

Stunning Trail Construction

Final thoughts: at the time of this writing, the trails on the Tumbledown Dick side of the loop needed some maintenance. There were blowdowns to step over and duck under, and the trail was quite brushy. The trail in this section was lightly used and sometimes hard to stay on. The Turtle Ridge side had seen some significant maintenance very recently and was much easier to follow.

The elevation gain for this 28-mile trip is only 2660 feet. Don’t let this lull you into thinking that this will be a walk in the park. It was surprisingly rugged with plenty of rocks and roots to navigate, and plenty of trail junctions to keep you on your toes. Some areas had lots of signs; others had fewer, so it’s important to have a good map and maybe some GPS capability. There is zero cell service anywhere on the loop, so satellite communication is necessary to contact the outside world.

About the author