Camden Hills State Park

Hike: Camden Hills
Nearby Town: Camden, ME
Elevation (Max): 1,300'
Elevation Gained: ~987'
Mileage: 2.59
Difficulty: Moderate
Trailhead: Camden Hills is in Camden, Maine, which is about 1h 45m north of Portland and 1h 45m south of Acadia National Park. From Route 1 just northeast of Camden, turn left onto Mt Battie Road, take the second left to continue on Mt Battie Rd, and then park in the lot on the right.
Web Site: http://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/doc/parksearch/search_name.pl?state_park=14&historic_site=&public_reserved_land=&shared_use_trails=&option=search

Working through the hiking backlog...

A couple years ago, while we were in Maine for E's sister's wedding, I decided it was a shame that I had been going to Maine all those years without getting in a hike.  So, I started doing some planning.  Katahdin was a bit too far and so was Acadia.  Lucky for me, there is a park called Camden Hill State Park that is perfectly located right on the coast of Maine (its slogan is "where the mountains meet the sea").  E and I made the drive up, crawled through the traffic on the main road through Camden, which looks like a Maine vacation town ought to look, and parked the car in the first lot off Mt. Battie Rd.  Its was a gray, cool day, which was somewhat disappointing because we knew the views from the peak would be amazing on a clear day, but I was very happy to hike a new place regardless.

The trailhead for the Megunticook Trail is at the back of the parking lot and you begin by going north until you reach the point where the trail turns to the left and begins the climb.  We found the trail to be fairly busy, which is to be expected for being so easily accessible from a popular summer town.  Eventually you will arrive at a point where a smaller trail breaks off on the left.  You can take this trail (Adam's Lookout Trail), but we decided to continue on the Megunticook Trail and use the Adam's Lookout Trail for the return trip.  The trail will curve west until eventually you reach Ocean Lookout, 1,300 feet above the sea right beneath you.  Ocean Lookout is a rocky area with fantastic views of Camden, the harbor, nearby hills to the west and northwest, and islands dotting Penobscot Bay.  Sadly, the overcast skies detracted from the views just a bit as the sky, ocean, and islands all blended together in different shades of gray.  Despite this, we were pretty sure that far out to the east we could see the peaks of Acadia National Park.  After hanging around up there for a while, we decided to head back down since we still had wedding duties to attend to.  However, the actual summit is a bit further up the Ridge Trail, which we would certainly have done if not for the time constraints.  If you're tired after the hike thus far, though, I can't imagine the summit of Mount Megunticook providing significantly better views than Ocean Lookout since it's only 85 feet higher, so this would make a good turnaround point.

To head back down, we took the Adam's Lookout Trail, which brought us to another great vantage point before reconnecting with the Megunticook Trail.  Turn right going downhill on the Megunticook Trail and soon enough you'll be back at the parking lot.  This is an ideally located state park that appears well-maintained and is unique along the Maine coast (until you get up to Bar Harbor, of course).  There are many more trails in the park that provide different types of hikes, or you can combine some to make a pretty decent circuit.

Sadly, I deleted the pictures from this hike off my camera before I loaded them onto my computer so the Flickr photo below will have to do.  I do have the GPS-generated map, though!

Penobscot Bay from Adam's Lookout with town of Camden on the right (via Flickr)