Denmark Mountain Hikers

Mt. Tir’em on the schedule again: July 10th.

July 3, 2026

I’ve lost track of how many tiimes we’ve tried to hike this hill in the last year or so. The weather has convinced us not to go on several occasions. I think it was back in March that we cancelled one planned hike up due to rain, Then we tried in mid-May. Did we go? Probably not as it’s back on the schedule for July 10th.

Meet at the Denmark Church at 8:30 AM. or if meeting the group at the trail pay attention. We’re going to park eithher at the Daniel Brown Trailhead or if filled just a short walk down the road down by the the Congregational church and Town Office in Waterford. We won’t start hiking from there though as the group did a decade ago in Allen’s hike report below. Instead, we will ferry people up to the Grover Rd trailhead, hike to the summit and descend the Daniel Brown Trail back to where we left the cars. This isn’t exactly the route that is highlighted on the map below.

Below is the hike report that Allen Crabtree posted some ten years ago in April 2016 on his Facebook page:

Mount Tir’em – not Mount Tire’m!

It is so embarrassing when something you are convinced is true turns out not to be true. For years I’ve been calling the little mountain in Waterford “Mount Tire’m”, based on good advice. “Tire’m” is how both the AMC Maine Mountain Guide and Marita Wiser’s “Hikes and Woodland Walks In and Around Maine’s Lakes Region” spell it. Turns out I’ve been spelling it wrong all these years – it is really “Tir’em”.

When several people on the Denmark Mountain Hikers climb there on April 29, 2016 pointed out to me that the mountain should be spelled “Mount Tir’em”, I argued that my way of spelling it was correct. Then we passed signs on the “Mount Tir’em” apple orchard and the “Mt Tir’em Masonic Lodge” and I stood corrected. OK, “Uncle”! There were twenty Denmark Mountain Hikers on the trail on a bright and brisk Friday – Margaret Mathis, Leonard Rudin, Henry Banks, Fran DeMaio, Christine Larson, Nancy Thurston, Susan Gassett, Nancy Sosman, Bob and Marcy LaLiberte, Kathy Huchthausen and Lara, Barbara Smith, Dianne Sinclair, Claire Ball, Lynne and Bruce Garrow, Mary Glatz, Carol Madsen, John Patrick and Allen Crabtree.

Mount Tir’em is a small 1,104-foot mountain in Waterford, Maine that offers nice views of the Long Lake Region, Bear Pond, and the Presidentials. This is an easy hike despite the daunting name the mountain carries. According to Warren’s 1879 History of Waterford, Maine “the local Native Americans, members of the Pequawket tribe of Fryeburg, would complain that climbing the steep mountain would ‘tire’m out.’” We took the Daniel Brown trail that leaves Plummer Hill Road and climbs steeply at first, then moderating to an easier climb to views from the ledges. There is a large glacial erratic split boulder near the ledges that makes for interesting scrambling. We hiked to the summit on the Daniel Brown trail then strolled down the snowmobile trail on the back side of the mountain and came out at the apple orchard up Plummer Hill Road a short distance from where we had parked the cars. The easy 1.25 mile hike took 25 minutes to the summit ledges, and another 45 minutes back to the cars. Temperatures were in the high 40’s and low 50’s and the breeze kept the blackflies at bay. No DEET was required, compared to other hikes here in previous years when the pesky flies were a real problem. We were a little early this year on our hike, and although the lower trail goes through a large section of Trilliums, only two were in bloom. Another week or two should bring them into their glory. We did find some trailing arbutus in bloom at the summit, and some bloodroot near the apple orchard. A fine hike with a fine finish – Carol invited us all to the Waterford library where they had laid out a spread of drinks and cookies for everyone to share after the hike. Thank you Carol!