A Trek to Blueberry Mountain (the one near Weld, Maine)

There are several peaks named Blueberry Mountain, but the one that is the subject of this report is the 2,890 ft.  peak located near Weld, Maine.

The trailhead is located at the Blueberry Mountain Bible Camp.  Getting to the camp involves driving uphill for about 1.5 miles on a dirt road that leaves the west side of Rt. 142 a few miles north of Weld village.  The point where the dirt road leaves Rt. 142 is shown in the next photo. 

Signage at point where dirt road leaves Rt. 142

The Maine Trail Finder website (Click HERE) has a map and other details about accessing the trailhead.   But be aware of one typo, the Trail Finder website currently lists the hike as being 2.4 miles round-trip.  It's actually a 4-mile round-trip hike, as is correctly stated in the AMC's Maine Mountain Guide (10th edition).

At the end of the dirt road, as described above, you come to the Bible Camp's main lodge (see next photo).  This is where you park.

Blueberry Mountain Bible Camp's main lodge, which is where you park

With the main lodge at your back, look for a path to the right of the parking lot that leads to an athletic field.  Walk across the athletic field to a road which has seen some recent logging operations.  As a result, for the first 0.25 mile (about a 10-minute walk) the trail's corridor follows a road that has been chewed up by logging equipment.  When I was there, this short segment was marked with blue flagging to guide you (see next photo).

Blue flagging along logging road for the first 0.25 mile of Blueberry Mountain Trail

Once the logging road segment ends, the trail then becomes like a regular hiking trail.  The corridor is well defined and easy to follow.  Although they are widely spaced, there are blue blazes on trees and rocks to guide you, particularly at places where there are abrupt turns (see next photo).

Example of blazing at abrupt turns in Blueberry Mountain Trail

The trail has some sustained steep sections, but the footing is good.  It leads you through attractive stands of maple and birch forestland at the lower elevations.   At higher elevations, spruce and fir dominate and then eventually give way to low scrub and blueberry bushes.  Also along the way are some large boulders.  The one shown in the next photo was a bit unusual in that it was cracked neatly in half.

Cracked boulder along Blueberry Mountain Trail

Once you reach the top of the mountain the views are expansive.  There is plenty of room to roam around the bare rock and ledges which allows you to view various points of interest from different perspectives.  To illustrate this, the next two photos show essentially the same vista, but seen from different spots atop Blueberry Mountain.  For both photos, Jackson Mountain (+ small sliver of Little Jackson Mountain) is seen in the foreground.  And on the distant horizon are high peaks in Presidential Range and Mahoosucs.

Jackson and Little Jackson in foreground; Presidentials and Mahoosucs on horizon

Same vista as previous photo, but taken from a different spot atop Blueberry Mountain

There is a great view of Webb Lake from Blueberry Mountain (next photo).

Webb Lake, as viewed from Blueberry Mountain

There is a long lineup of peaks looking northward from Blueberry Mountain.  Please, someone correct me if this is wrong, but I'm thinking this vista includes peaks such as: Saddleback, the Crockers, tops of mountains in Bigelow Mountain Range, Sugarloaf,  Mt. Abram (Abraham).

Long lineup of peaks looking northward from Blueberry Mountain

Mt. Blue is clearly visible from Blueberry Mountain.  The following photo collage shows both a distant and a zoomed view of this popular mountain.

Distant and zoomed view of Mt. Blue as seen from Blueberry Mountain

The next photo collage is a bit of a mystery to me.  For my entire stay on the summit of Blueberry Mountain, I could see a bright light emanating from the top of a distant mountain off to the northwest.  The left panel shows the un-zoomed vista, and the right panel is a zoomed photo.  Most likely this light is reflected sunlight.  Does any reader have an idea as to which mountain this might be.  Could it be West Kennebago where there is a relatively new communication tower as part of the MSCommNet Project?

Bright light on distant mountain to the northwest, as viewed from Blueberry Mountain

To sum it up, other than the 0.25 walk along the logging road at the start of the trek, the hike itself was very enjoyable, and the views not only met, but exceeded my expectations.