Seboeis Riverside Trail

The Seboeis River is named for the Penobscot word for small lake (or possibly small brook), and it flows, often shallowly and slowly (at least during the drier parts of the year), for 28 miles from Grand Lake Seboeis into the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

In this beautiful area. you can walk along the Seboeis for 7.2 miles (12 kilometers), from Grand Lake Road, outside the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, to Philpott Bridge, which is in the monument boundaries. Both trailheads are reachable by car, but the northern one is easier to access. The trail is the creation of Penobscot River Trails, an organization funded by the the Butler Conservation Fund, a private philanthropy that also created the incredible Cobscook Shores parks in Downeast Maine.

This trail has many of the Cobscook Shores trademarks: a well-built trail with a big parking area, a charming and comfortable warming hut, a screened-in picnic pavilion with table and chairs, and an overall welcoming and relatively luxurious outdoors experience!

Because the trail is long and one way, people might want to pick a destination to head to before turning back. Penobscot River Trails identifies a few sights along the river, including Grand Pitch, about 1 mile from the northern trailhead. Once you get to this point, you can climb a short trail up a bluff that lets you peer down at the river below. Sugarloaf Mountain rises to the south. The river pools out widely after the narrower chute of the Pitch. A picnic table lets you soak in the scene.

Another good destination is the warming hut, particularly for people on snowshoes in wintertime. This is about 1.6 miles from the northern trailhead.

Finally, there’s a nice, open section by the river 2.2 miles from the southern trailhead (5 miles from the northern one), where you can rest at a screened-in pavilion.

While the trail is mostly flat, there are a couple of stretches where it climbs the bank steeply, requiring a switchback or two. The trail makers have marked the passing kilometers with wooden posts, and the steep sections are between kilometers 4 and 6 coming from the south (6 and 8 if coming from the north), and, slightly less steeply, between kilometers 3 and 4 coming from the north (8 and 9, if you’re coming from the south).

If you’re starting at the north end, which is the more popular launching off point, the trail begins on packed gravel, switching at around 1 mile to a more typical woodland path, right before you arrive at Grand Pitch (the trail is still remarkably smooth throughout, though, with just a few stony sections).

For campers, there are three first-come-first-served tent sites at a little parklike area across from the northern trailhead, off Grand Lake Road.

Directions: There are two trailheads at either end of the one-way path, but the northern trailhead is easier to access as it’s right off the paved Grand Lake Road, about 5.7 miles west past Shin Pond Village. You’ll find the large parking area on the south side of the road before the bridge. Across the street is the campground. The southern trailhead is reachable via a long, dusty drive on old logging roads. To reach this trailhead, turn off Shin Pond Road onto the gravel Grondin Road. There is a prominent sign at the start of Grondin Road for the Seboeis Riverside Trail, 12 kilometers away. Follow Grondin Road for 7.5 kilometers or so, until you reach another sign marking the intersection where you turn left. Go ~4.5 kilometers on Wapiti Road until you reach the four-spot parking area for the trailhead. From here, follow on foot the old jeep road 0.2 miles down to the bridge and river, where you’ll see the trail sign.