QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: 67 acres
- Trail Mileage: 0.7 miles one way
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: moderate
- Sights: views
From Route 2, you can climb just under 500 feet in elevation, in 0.7 miles, to a lookout over the village of Rumford Point, the curvy Androscoggin River, and nearby hills and more distant peaks. The trail is consistently and moderately steep the whole way, but is not a killer. It helps that it is so short. Plus you can take a break at the first of two lovely lookouts. Google Maps says the summit is 1,149 feet, Strava calls it 1,181 feet.
Once you reach the end of the blazed trail at the top, you might see a well-worn but unmarked path continuing into the woods, but its destination remains a mystery to me at the moment, since I turned around and headed back to the trailhead.
Inland Woods and Trails says this 67-acre parcel was conserved in 2020, along with 15,000 additional acres of the Chadbourne Tree Farm. The origin of the mountain’s name is unknown. “The trail is named Mystery Mountain due to the fact that the name of the mountain is…well, a mystery! Best to embrace the unknown,” IWT writes.
Directions: The address is 1782, U.S. Route 2. Once at this address, you’ll see a narrow dirt road heading up a short hill. Drive up this entryway — it should be passable for low-clearance cars — and you’ll see the parking area around the bend to the right. You can find trails up the mountain at either end of the parking lot. One is for the Mystery Mountain Trail; the other is the grassy, at times overgrown Sweet Fern Road. These two trails converge roughly halfway up the hike.
