Looking east from Potaywadjo Ridge
If you’re familiar with the Appalachian Trail in Maine, you’ve probably heard of Potaywadjo Spring. The spring is one of the biggest in Maine. Water bubbles up out of a gravel bowl ten feet across. Nearby is the swankiest lean-to in the state. It’s maintained by LL Bean, and they spare no expense. The privy is a two-holer with seperate doors and curtains on the windows. Next to the lean-to is neatly stacked split firewood. Needless to say, thru-hikers talk about it a lot. What most hikers don’t know is the trail to the top of nearby Potaywadjo Ridge. The trail is well-blazed but is faint in places because so few people use it.
Day hikers generally don’t hike in this area either. It’s a long hike from anywhere. If you hike in from where the Jo Mary Road crosses the AT, you’d be looking at more than 13 miles in and out. I decided to find a shorter way.
Cooper Brook from the bridge
I dug out all my maps and guides and realized that the AT crosses a snowmobile trail where it follows Cooper Brook. If I could get near Cooper Brook, I could cross and pick up the AT. Turns out that the snowmobile trail is drivable right up to the bridge, which is intact. That means I cut the thirteen mile hike down to 8.0 out and back with 1086 feet of climbing (more than 600 feet of the climbing are on the Potaywadjo Ridge Trail over little more than half a mile). That’s managable, and I didn’t have to ford the stream.
To get to the trailhead. Turn west on Jo Mary Road off ME 11 between Brownville and Millinocket. Drive 0.1 miles to the gate. Stop and pay your entrance fee (right now it’s $11 for an adult Mainer—less for kids and seniors, more for out of staters). Drive 6.0 miles to a major intersection. Turn right, staying on Jo Mary Road. Drive 2.8 miles. Turn right onto a smaller road at the sign for Buckhorn Camps. Drive 1.7 on the windy road through cut-over areas past several small side roads. Cross Duck Brook then almost immediately bear left at an intersection, staying on the main road. Drive another 2.4 miles on the same windy road. As you near Middle Jo-Mary Lake, a snowmobile trail goes off the right and the road bears left. Almost immediately you pass the road down to the boat launch (visible a hundred feet away). The road passes through the Buckhorn Camps parking area then bears right. Almost immediately it turns left. Drive 2.1 miles to the bridge over Cooper Brook. This last two miles is kinda rough. I did it with my CRV with no problems. The first section crosses an esker. The sandy road is covered with softball-sized rocks. This is the worst section of the road. Next you pass a turn around on the right and the road enters deeper woods. This section is pretty smooth but the weeds growing on the hump in the middle of the road scrape the undercarriage of your car the whole time. There are a few rocks you need to watch out for along this section. After that, the road passes through a borrow pit. Cooper Brook becomes visible on the right down a steep slope. The road re-enters the woods and is much like before. Just when it’s getting rocky enough to be sketchy, you go around a gentle bend and the bridge appears. Just before the bridge there’s a wide spot where you can carefully turn around. This last two miles seems to be less road than snowmobile trail. To start the hike, cross the bridge on foot and turn right onto the Appalachian Trail.
A rare sight on the AT in Maine: a bridge over a brook
The hike:
0.0 Walk across the bridge over Cooper Brook. Turn right on the AT less than 10 feet beyond the bridge.
0.5 The trail wanders through damp woods between Cooper Brook and Mud Brook. You have to cross two channels of Mud Brook. When the water is low, this may be possible without getting your feet wet. The rest of the time, don’t cross the first channel where the trail does (there’s a rope safety line to mark the trail). Bushwack about 100 feet upstream. You’ll find a spot where you can cross on a combination of rocks and logs. You can see Mud Pond as you cross. Across the first channel, angle to the right and bushwack back to the AT. When you get to the second channel, bushwack about 50 feet downstream. There’s a log jam you can cross easily. Across the second channel, turn left and bushwack back to the AT.
Looking up toward Mud Pond from the crossing over the first channel
The official crossing of the first channel. Notice the safety line
1.9 The trail crosses a dry, pine-covered ridge with nice views of Mud Pond. The trail turns away from Mud Pond and heads through classic Maine AT to Lower Jo-Mary Lake. This section is all rocks and roots held together by mud. But the woods are cool and beautiful. You come to a fork in the trail. The AT bears left away from the lake. A blue blazed trail bears right along the shore. Follow the blue blazed trail into Antlers Campground. You come to a wide open area in a stand of tall red pines. To your right is a small beach on the lake. Straight ahead is a trail that leads to several tent campsites. Turn left and walk away from the lake. In a short distance, you reach the AT. Turn right.
Lower Jo-Mary Lake at Antlers campground
Antlers campground
3.1 The trail leaves the shore of the lake and passes through mixed forest, much more open and sunny than the hike so far. Eventually, the trail returns to the shore of Lower Jo-Mary Lake and crosses a gravel beach.
The beach
3.4 The trail follows the curve of the shore, crossing a brook on rocks. You climb a bit away from the lake and reach Potaywadjo Ridge Trail. A small sign facing the other way marks the trail. The trail itself is barely visible. It’s pretty overgrown here. Turn left onto Potaywadjo Ridge Trail.
4.0 Potaywadjo Ridge Trail is little hiked, so the trailbed is pretty faint in most places. It is blue blazed. The route is obvious. I was only in doubt twice. Low in the climb a large, fallen tree obscures the trail for about 50 feet and higher up there’s a section of climbing through boulders that is obvious but unblazed.
The climb begings gently through mostly hardwoods. As it steepens the forest becomes more mixed. You climb up through a couple of boulder fields before reaching the first of the ledges. Parts of this climb are very steep, often with loose dirt covered with acorns. Luckily the trail doesn’t go straight up the ridge, mostly you climb as you slab to the west.
Where the trail climbs onto the ledges
4.1 The trail crosses three ledges separated by stands of twisted pines. Each successive ledge is more open with wider views. Near the west end of the third ledge, instead of a blaze, the word END is painted on the rock.
Looking southwest toward Jo Mary Mountain with the White Cap range in the distance.
From the ledges
While on top, I bushwacked around to see if I could find a view north and of Katahdin. I assumed not for two reasons but felt obligated to check. First, if there was a view of Katahdin, the trail would continue to it. Second, most ridges and mountains in Maine have steep south faces and more gentle north faces. This is a function of the physics of how ice sheet pass over a mountains. That tends to mean you get great open views south and rarely get open views north. That proved to be the case on Potaywadjo Ridge. I did find evidence that moose hang around on the ridge in winter—scat and trails.
One of the ledges not on the trail that is slightly higher than where the trail goes.
8.0 To complete your hike, retrace your steps back to the bridge over Cooper Brook. At Antlers, you can stay on the AT and slightly shorten the return hike (that’s why the distance numbers don’t seem to add up).
Along the AT
Two final notes: Potaywadjo Spring (and lean-to) are 2.0 miles north on the AT from Potaywadjo Ridge Trail. If you’re feeling ambitious or want to make this a two-day hike, the spring is worth seeing. Also, less than a half mile north of PRT a side trail leads down to Lower Jo-Mary Lake and good swimming spot with some beach and rocks.
