1-minute hike: Mount Battie in Camden

Difficulty: Easy to moderate difficulty, depending on the route and time of year.

How to get there: From Camden Center, go north on Route 1 approximately 1 mile. Camden Hills State Park is on the left side. Park in the large parking area and walk past the gate, straight down the road until you reach the sign for the Megunticook footpath on the left. That trial will take you to Adam’s Lookout, from there, continue on to Mount Battie Road. Cross that road and take Tableland Trail to the tower of Mount Battie. This hike to the top is about 2.7 miles in the woods. You can get back to the parking lot by walking 0.9 miles down Mount Battie Road. Mount Battie can also be reached by simply walking up Mount Battie Road from the parking lot (round trip, 1.8 miles). Or you can hike the Mount Battie Trail up the steep south side of Mount Battie (round trip, 1.2 miles), but in order to take that route, you must park outside the park, at the end of Megunticook Street in Camden.

Photo by Aislinn Sarnacki. A tower memorializing the men and women of Camden who served in WWI stands at the summit of Mount Battie in Camden Hills State Park on Jan. 8, 2012.

Information: Mount Battie (about 800 feet above sea level) offers one of the most beautiful views of the Maine coast. At the summit stands a stone tower that was dedicated in 1921 by the Mount Battie Association as an enduring memorial to the men and women of Camden who served in World War I. Pulitzer Prize winner Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), born in Rockland, often wrote poetry while sitting on the summit. A plaque of a Millay poem describing the summit view can be found near the tower. Camden Hills State Park is closed in the winter, but visitors can park outside the gates and walk to the trailheads. Visitors are asked to pay a small admittance fee.

Internet source: For information on the geology of Mount Battie, visit www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/bedrock/sites/jul01.htm and for information on Camden Hills State Park, visit www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/doc/parksearch/index.pl.

 

Aislinn Sarnacki

About Aislinn Sarnacki

Aislinn is a Bangor Daily News reporter for the Outdoors pages, focusing on outdoor recreation and Maine wildlife. Visit her main blog at actoutwithaislinn.bangordailynews.com.