Passadumkeag Mountain

The 1,470-foot Passadumkeag Mountain is topped with a line of massive wind turbines. To reach the ridge they dot, you can hike up an old, eroded track for a bit more than 2 miles, following a power line the whole way. Once you’re at the top, you can walk along a grassy track to a craggy cliff overlooking the turbine maintenance road for distant views of Katahdin, the western peaks, and even south, to the mountains of Mt. Desert Island.

The hike starts out fairly flat, with a moderate hill or two for the first 1.25 miles. At this point, you’ll pass a little pond and the old fire warden’s cabin on your right. The trail gets significantly steeper around 1.46 miles, and also stonier and more eroded. Keep pushing up, following the power line poles. When you crest the summit, at around 1.9 miles, you’ll see a little cabin. (Behind it is the old rusted fire tower, toppled on its side.)

Continue past here, following the track; you’ll pass a fire tower on your right and then another on your left. To reach the view, walk past this second fire tower — don’t head down the hill. The track gets grassy and a bit overgrown, but you can push past branches to reach a rocky cliff, near a wind turbine, which looks over the maintenance road and beyond for nice views.

Directions: From Costigan, follow Greenfield Road for a long 18 miles. At 11.7 miles, the road turns to gravel. You can get by with a low-clearance road on the unpaved stretch but, of course, it’s always more comfortable to drive these back roads in a high-clearance one! Look for the spot where the power lines turn left, to the north, where they make their way up the mountain. There is a yellow locked gate here where you can park. There’s no sign saying please don’t block the gate, but it’s probably a good idea not to? You can park along Greenfield Road.