QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: 1,910 acres
- Trail Mileage: ~5 miles in network (be ready for a long walk!)
- Pets: no
- Difficulty: easy to moderate
- Sights: 10-acre spring-fed pond, pitch pine forests
Sprague Pond Trail in red, Mica Mine in green, Denny Reed in blue and New Meadows 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 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 off of 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 .7 miles.
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.
