Choose a big loop or a little loop and wind your way through the woods, across gurgling brooks and through a section of mature forest with giant pines. Start and end on a dirt road -- both trails are easy, mostly even terrain. Artists and photographers: areas without understory growth allow for some spectacularly lit dawns and dusks.
Popular with dog walkers, mountain bikers, snowshoers, artists, photographers, horseback riders, hunters (in season), and those who just need some time in the woods, the trails of Massabesic Experimental Forest are a wonderful network of short individual trails that can easily be linked together for a longer excursion in the woods. The forest is a dynamic place, changing from season to season and week to week. We hope you take time during your excursion to stop and listen and discover the beauty of the Massabesic Experimental Forest Southern Unit.
Leaving from the gated section of unpaved Ida Jim Road in Alfred, the B.C. Jordan and Littlefield Trails are found on the western side of the dirt road. Watch for a kiosk at the northern gate along Ida Jim Road.
The Massabesic Experimental Forest is a research forest purchased in the early 1930s by the USDA Forest Service to study Eastern White Pine. The largest blocks were obtained from Bates College, which in turn had received the land from the estate of Benjamin C. Jordan, an Alfred lumberman, around 1900. In 1947, approximately 150,000 acres in this part of Maine burned, but small tracts survived and are prime examples of what the forests might have looked like before the impacts of logging, farming, and fire.
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From Alfred village center, head southeast on Kennebunk Road towards ME-111. Cross over 111 and continue on Kennebunk Road for another mile, and then veer right onto Mouse Lane. Watch for Ida Jim Road (dirt road) on your left, where Mouse Lane makes a ninety-degree curve to the right. Turn left onto Ida Jim Road and continue 0.7 miles along the dirt road to a small parking area on your left, just outside the gate. For the B.C. Jordan Trailhead, backtrack along Ida Jim Road about 800 feet. For the Littlefield Trailhead, head 0.6 miles past the gate down Ida Jim Road.
Alternatively, park outside the gate on the southern end of Ida Jim Road (where it intersects with Whichers Mills) and walk north through the gate and into the Experimental Forest. It is 0.5 miles from here to the start of the Littlefield Trail.
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