Denmark Mountain Hikers

May 8, 2026

By Jeff Sturgis

On a bright, cool morning in the 40’s, 11 Denmark Mountain Hikers gathered at the parking lot at the Bri-Mar Trail that goes up Rattlesnake Mountain in Casco.

Hiking today were Jeff Sturgis, Jacob Schor, Paul Waterhouse, Tina Estes, Jane Gibbons, Beverly Reid, Phil Johnson, Dale and Kitty Nelson, Janet Arens and Kathy Huchthausen. After our trailhead picture, we started out on the trail that first crosses a field before it dips into the forest. The trail meanders through a mixed hardwood forest rising gently. There were several blowdowns, some apparently from the winter season [and a number that were remembered from our last trip up the trail] that had not been cleared, but these were not serious obstacles.

After about .4 miles, the trail started to rise more steeply until we came out on a ledge with a limited view to the east over Crescent Pond. We continued on over the ridge until we came to a nice ledgy clearing with great views to the south over Panther Pond to the northern end of Sebago Lake. Shortly before arriving at this site around 10:00 AM and about a mile from the trailhead, Laura Sullivan and “Turtle” caught up with us. They had gone to a trail on the west side of the mountain. Finding no one there, they realized their mistake, called Dale to give us a heads-up, and caught up with us. 

We had heard of another lookout further up the trail, so while so while some of us stayed put (the few of us who recalled a similar scenario on a prior excursion to this same viewpoint), most of us continued on to find this other scenic view. After about 15 minutes of hiking, they met another hiker approaching them. He told them that there was, indeed a scenic view further on, but it involved a descent into a saddle and up the other side to reach it. The consensus was to turn back and rejoin the others at the first lookout.

So, we all reunited at the ledge and enjoyed a nice lunch. The sun that we had enjoyed at the beginning of the hike was now obscured by the clouds and, as the temperature dipped, most of us had to don the jackets and shirts we had shed on the way up. After a leisurely lunch enjoying the view, we took our summit picture and headed back down around 11:00 AM.

The return was uneventful as we were careful not to slip on the leaves left over from the fall. There was a hint of things to come as a few early black flies started buzzing us, but not enough to necessitate pulling out our bug spray. We arrived back at the parking lot at 11:40 AM after a nice hike of about 2 miles with a modest 585’ of elevation gain. 

Schedule Change for Next Week

NOTE: After some discussion the group decided to change the schedule for next week’s hike. We’ll be replacing the scheduled hike up Round Mountain in Albany with a hike up Mt Tire’m in Waterford. Back in March we had cancelled a planned hike up Tire’m due to rain, so the feeling was that we should make this change because there is the chances that the trillium may be out for us to enjoy. We’ll move the hike up Round Mountain to the summer schedule.

May 15– Easy – Mount Tire’m (1,073 ft), Waterford, ME – 1.75 mi RT,  554 ft. elevation gain.  RT hiking 1 hour.  RT driving 1.5 hours. 

Meet at the Denmark Church at 8:30 AM. The Daniel Brown Trailhead is on the Plummer Hill Rd just beyond the Congregational church and Town Office in Waterford. We will ferry people up to the Grover Rd trailhead, hike to the summit and descend the Daniel Brown Trail. If there isn’t space enough to partk at the trail head, we park at the Town Office lot.