Sprague Pond Trail

Sprague Pond Trail in red, Mica Mine in green, Denny Reed Trail in blue and New Meadows Trail in lilac.

You can do a lovely and long walk in the varied woods around Sprague Pond on the Basin Preserve, a huge tract of land protected by The Nature Conservancy. The Basin is a protected harbor off the New Meadows River.

The high points of the Sprague Pond trail, literally, are massive boulders with ledge tops and scruffy pitch pines. The preserve also has a deep water pond, with rock ledges for sunning and for jumping into the cold water. There is a short trail, called the Meditation Trail, that goes about halfway round the pond.

The loop is 3.5 miles. The access trail from Basin Road is about 0.7 miles and passes a chestnut seed orchard.

TNC says that in 2006 an anonymous donor gave The Nature Conservancy 1,910 acres in Phippsburg, including miles of coastline around The Basin, a saltwater inlet on the New Meadows River. The Denny Reed, Mica Mine and New Meadows trails are also part of this land.

Directions: To access this loop, find the parking area off Basin Road, a bit less than a mile from Route 209. TNC is growing chestnut trees in the field by the trailhead as part of an effort to produce blight-resistant seeds. There is also a parking lot off Route 209, which is much closer to the little swimming pond.