Denmark Mountain Hikers

Bald Pate 9:12:25

Hike Report – Bald Pate – 12 September 2025

Twenty-eight Denmark Mountain Hikers gathered in the parking lot at the trailhead to Bald Pate Mountain under sunny skies and a temperature of 70° on a beautiful fall day. Hiking with us were Matt Markot, the Executive Director and Jon Evans, the Stewardship Manager of the Loon Echo Land Trust, the organization that oversees the Bald Pate Mountain Preserve. The plan was to climb Bald Pate and then to continue on down to Jacob Schor and Rena Bloom’s home on Peabody Pond for a cookout. Rena met us at the trailhead to ferry down our pot luck offerings for the cookout that was to follow the hike. Prior to hiking we had a moment of silence to remember our leader and mentor, Allen Crabtree, who died on July 30 and his wife Penny, who had died earlier this week. We left the trailhead at 9:15 am and headed up the Bob Chase Trail, a modest .7 mile 260’ climb to the summit. We enjoyed some nice views towards and beyond Peabody Pond and warm sunshine as we snacked and socialized at the summit.

After about 15 minutes at the summit, we took our group picture and split into two groups: a smaller group headed back to the parking lot and drove to Jacob’s house. The larger group bushwhacked down the mountain, around Peabody Pond and on to Jacob’s house. The surrounding forest was beautiful with the fall colors starting to show. Jon Evans was able to educate us on various highlights and issues with the surrounding tree species. We reached Jacob’s home at 11:40 am after a leisurely stroll that covered approximately two miles from the summit.

Here we joined the hikers who had driven down from the trailhead as well as a few hikers who had skipped the hike. We enjoyed Jacob and Rena’s hamburgers and hot dogs as well as the pot luck servings of side dishes and desserts that the rest of us had brought. We spent a wonderful two hours eating and socializing in the beautiful setting of Jacob and Rena’s home on the pond. Reluctantly, we started ferrying those of us who had left our vehicles at the trailhead around 1:30 pm after a wonderful hike and lunch on a glorious fall day.

Here is an addendum with some interesting information from Jacob:

“Bald Pate Mountain is located on land that Loon Echo Land Trust (LELT) acquired the initial 450 acres of the Bald Pate Mountain Preserve. in 2002 from the SD Warren Company. A television broadcast tower had been planned for the mountain’s summit and local residents were less than thrilled by the idea and acted to preserve their mountain view, helping Loon Echo acquire what was then recently logged land. The preserve has been added too over the years and is now 486 acres with 6.7 miles of hiking trails.

The lure of food at the hike’s destination brought out more hikers than usual, perhaps as many as 30 people started the hike, though it seems we lost several along the way.

We were lucky to have both Jon Evans, LELT’s property manager, and Matt Markot, LELT’s executive director accompany us on this hike. Jon is the person in charge of trail maintenance for all of Loon Echo’s 9,300 acres and was able to complete the entire hike with us. Jon also plays an essential role in the Bridgton Historical Society and was able to tell us a great deal about the history of the mountain as well as share many insights to the forest flora that we hiked through. The DMHs group left the upper parking lot at about 10 AM and reached the summit in a timely manner. We then descended partway down the south loop trail and then, led by Jacob Schor and Andrew Bradford, followed an old logging road which brought us to the old snowmobile track that led us down to Peabody Pond. It was then a short hike south to where Jacob and his wife Rena Bloom live on the east shore of the pond. They apparently take great pleasure in hosting the Denmark Hikers and have done so on several past occasions; once again they seemed to have enjoyed the opportunity.”