Forbes Pond, Gouldsboro

I love the Maine Coast Heritage Trust preserves that are accessible by foot (okay, really by car), since I don’t have a boat (someday…). Forbes Pond preserve in Gouldsboro encompasses more than 900 acres of protected land around Forbes Pond and adjoining freshwater wetland.

When I visited in the summer of 2021, there were two trail systems on the east and west side of the pond. They don’t link up (yet?). The west side is more developed, with a parking area for several cars (surrounded by sunflowers) and two-miles or so of well-marked, pleasant trails. While these are easy, they’re rooty and rocky. They wind around, passing the wetland, bringing you to the shore of the pond. There’s a picnic table at a spot with a nice view. While you can certainly swim, it’s a bit weedy along the pond’s edge.

On the east side, you can walk along an old dirt road, which is wide and easy—possibly accessible to hardy wheelchairs—to the other edge of the pond. From the parking area, it’s just under one mile to the pond. The road’s not blazed, but easy to follow. Make sue to turn left at a junction at 0.6 miles. If you go straight at this point, you’ll eventually walk off the preserve.

Directions: From the junction of Routes 1 and 195 in West Gouldsboro, follow Route 195 (Pond Road) south 3.2 miles to the parking area on the left. The trails on the east side are off Route 186, or West Bay Road, approximately 1.6 miles from the intersection with Route 195. There’s a small parking here; the trail starts behind the gate.