MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 6, 2020
Big Spencer Mountain is reached by a 1.8-mile hike from the north over a trail that gains a healthy 1,850 feet, well over half of that in the final 0.7 miles beyond the old fire warden cabin site. Rock staircases and a number of wooden ladders aid in the ascent of the eroded trail. But the payoff is big once you break treeline. Twenty years ago, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands established a system of ecological reserves to protect and monitor a cross-section of natural habitats around the state, which today totals 96,400 acres. Lands in ecological reserve owned by The Nature Conservancy, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife add another 112,000 acres. ~ Carey Kish