Discovering the Rift Pond Trail: A Perfect Day Hike
A great day hike inside the Great Pond Maine Outdoor Adventure Center property is up to Rift Pond.
There is a well–marked trail that follows Collar Creek out to Rift Pond. It is almost a one-mile walk.
The signs let you know that the trail has plenty of rocks and roots.
Plan to walk half as fast as you normally do!
The trail is approximately one mile in length – we found it was a bit shorter.
This trail follows Collar Brook and ends at Rift Pond where you can fish with artificial lures only for brook and brown trout. The pond is 34 feet deep.
When they say don’t forget towel, sunscreen, water, bug spray – believe them!
When you first start on the trail, there are several nice thick sections of dock-like boards for walking.
Don’t get too excited – this system does not extend very far into the hike; maybe 100 feet. Probably more like 50 feet.
Be prepared to climb over rocks, negotiate long muddy stretches, find alternate paths over even bigger rocks, and pay attention to endless roots running in all directions.
This is not an even path, or a pathway. It is more like walking up a rocky watershed that just happens to be marked.
The hike follows Collar Creek almost three quarters of a mile upstream to Rift Pond.
Plenty of shallows and deep areas can be seen, tiny rocky beaches, and slippery rocks.
About a third of the way to Rift Pond, there is a large beaver dam.
It’s worth the hike just to get to see one of these in person, up close.
The lodge is nearly seven feet tall, upstream from the dam.
If you carefully examine the trees of the dam and the lodge, you can see the teeth marks on the logs.
Log after log is carefully felled then put into place to create the dam. These beavers must work very hard to accomplish this huge task.
What first looked like a tangle turned out to be a several-year-old beaver dam.
This photo does not show the scale very well, but this lodge is nearly ten feet tall!
You can view the careful construction of all elements of the build.
There are criss-crossed trees, smaller branches, V-shaped patterns around existing trees, and even mud wedged into the system.
We had fun finding trees that had obvious tooth marks where they were felled.
Of course, we wondered just how long it takes an otter to chew through a tree this size to bring it down. What an amazing process.
Don’t forget to retrieve the key, life jackets, and paddles back at the recreation center before you begin the hike.
It can take as long as an hour to negotiate all the roots and rocks to arrive at the pond.
If you remember to go by the rec center to pick up the keys; two canoes and two kayaks await you for exploring.
Once you arrive at the pond, you are treated to a unique experience.
Huge tad poles lie in the shallow water by the edge of the pond, and scatter noisily as you approach.
We could not imagine how the kayaks and canoes got to the pond. We wondered if they were dropped by helicopter, or slid in when the stream was iced over, or maybe dragged by atv during winter snow season. All our guesses were wrong!
The kayaks and canoes were taken to King Pond, paddled across, then portaged to Rift Pond, then paddled to their location.
When you arrive at Rift Pond, where my blue dot is, you will feel you have reached somewhere completely untouched by mankind.
There are no houses, no boats, no people.
In the shallows, where the water is warm, look for the golf-ball sized tadpoles. As you approach, they will scurry to deeper water, making shushing noise and tiny wakes in the pond water.
Don’t forget to be childlike and hunt for some good skipping stones!
Bill’s record was five skips, and mine is three skips.
No humans in sight.
Absolutely serene, silent, uninhabited.
Great Pond is indeed great camping for several reasons. See the previous article for more information about the entire camp!
First of all, they have the nicest showers of any MWR I’ve ever seen. While the regular showers are a bit tight, they are molded fiberglass instead of tile, so they always look clean. The handicap shower is made for royalty!
There’s a beach for swimming, kayaking, canoeing, and sunbathing.
We saw several people head out to go fishing as well.
Each site has water and electric but not sewer. I think this place is the reason that we purchased one of those portable sewer tanks. By the bath house, there is a huge pull-through area for waste dump.
For more information about Great Pond, go to https://get.dodlodging.net/propertys/great-pond-outdoor-adventure-center
I Don’t Go Anywhere Without:
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- Mustang Survival pfd’s and foul weather gear for military specifications equipment.
- Harvest Hosts for the wineries, breweries, alpaca farms, honey apiaries, camping on the fly!
- Crisis Medicine Tactical Casualty Care Course knowledge so we can help ourselves.
- MyMedic Individual Bleeding Control Kits. We take ours everywhere.
- North American Rescue CAT tourniquets.
- Travelex is our trip insurer – click for a free quote.
- Girls That Scuba – members discount card for all things diving.
- RoadId for $5 off your cycling/running/kayaking/travel/sailing id. Sailors are now wearing them!
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