The Phippsburg Land Trust acts as the steward of the Spirit Pond preserve, which lies along the north and west shores of Spirit Pond, a tidal pond near Popham Beach. A new trail leads to the McDonald Sanctuary Preserve, on the eastern shore of Spirit Pond, where the Land Trust owns an additional 10 acres. The McDonald Sanctuary Trail, which crosses to the Land Trust’s lands on the Spruceville bridge, is a short loop though old growth hardwoods and along the shores of Spirit Pond. Birding around Spirit Pond is excellent with many species of water, wading, and woodland birds present.
The McDonald Preserve loop (starting at the "trail junction" landmark) is orange blazed. The connector from the southern parking area to the McDonald loop is white blazed. The Spirit Pond Loop and side trails are blue blazed.
The split trail on the west side of the trail system consists of the muddy trail bypass on the west and an old woods road on the east.
Trail guides are available at the trailhead Spirit Pond Preserve Trailhead.
Visit Phippsburg Land Trust online for more information or contact:
From the Center Store in Phippsburg, go 4.6 miles south on Main Road/ME-209, turn left onto Popham Road/ME-209, and continue 1.4 miles on Popham Road. The small parking area is a dirt road on the south side of ME-209, about 5.3 miles from the Phippsburg Town Hall and about 0.3 miles west of the Popham Road/ME-209 intersection with Parker Head Road. An additional small paved parking area, for no more than 2 cars, can be found on the Popham Road about 0.5 miles south of this intersection. The parking here was actually designed to benefit the local clam diggers, who use the lot to access the flats in Spirit Pond. Note: use caution backing out of this lot, especially during busy summer traffic.
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We stumbled upon this trail when we couldn't find parking at Bates–Morse Mountain Conservation Area and we were so pleasantly surprised. Beautiful trek around the pond and salt marshes with lots of wildlife (variety of birds, crabs, small mammals) The old mill dam was unexpected and truly lovely. This was a great September hike, I'm sure a few weeks later with the color change it would have been even more gorgeous.