New hiking trails make me so happy. As do new mountains with trails. Whenever I hear such news, I snap a screenshot, print the page or scribble a note as a reminder to get out there and see what’s what.
It’s a joyous affliction I’ve had pretty much my entire life, but especially over the last 15 years while serving as editor of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s venerable “Maine Mountain Guide,” the beloved hiker’s bible.
Mount Tuck is located just west of the Penobscot River, perhaps a mile or so south of the magnificent Penobscot Narrows Bridge. The wooded 565-foot hill straddles the town line between Prospect to the north and Stockton Springs to the south, which claims most of the mountain. The land is owned by Coastal Mountains Land Trust, which purchased the summit area in 2019 and has since acquired most of Mount Tuck.
Several Novembers ago, just days after learning about it, I hiked Mount Tuck for the first time. With field notebook and GPS in hand and appropriately clad in blaze orange, my wife, Fran, and I strode up the old woods road leading to the summit footpath, eager to get a good look-see at what the land trust had done to the place. About a mile and a half of easy climbing, roughly 500 feet of elevation gain, brought us to the top.
The route wound up the mountain’s west slope before turning east and then south to the high point. Thickly cloaked with thin stems of paper birch, beech and red maple, there were no views to be had at the summit sign. So, naturally, we kept walking.
The trail gently descended and crossed over to a clearing of exposed ledge, lichen and scrubby pines, where a couple of old green metal lawn chairs were well positioned for looking out.
The view eastward over the Penobscot River was a real beauty, taking in Blue Hill Mountain and Wallamatogus Mountain and extending beyond to the familiar rounded profiles of my home mountains on Mount Desert Island, from Cadillac and Sargent to Norumbega and Bernard. Not too shabby for a little over an hour’s effort.
We returned the way we came, muttering among ourselves how nice it would be if there were a loop here.
Fast forward to late summer of 2025, when I heard about a new trail on Mount Tuck. I filed the nugget away until early November, again dressed in orange and again in the company of my lovely wife.
We excitedly ascended to the summit and scampered to the overlook on what is now called the Summit Trail. One green chair remains, accompanied by a rusty white metal table. A happy hour setup.
The view was just as grand, and we drank it in fully before starting down the new South Slope Trail, completed in the summer of 2025. The freshly cut path followed a pleasing contour, where golden-brown ferns and mossy green ledge outcrops provided plenty to admire.
Angling downslope, we sauntered awestruck beneath stately old hemlocks, red spruce and white pines that towered tall and straight above our insignificant frames. Wow.
Mount Tuck would have made the 12th edition of the “Maine Mountain Guide,” but the manuscript had already been submitted and was headed into editing, so no go. Working now on the 13th edition, however, the mountain is a lock for inclusion.
And I can happily report that Mount Tuck will join a growing list of new mountains and new trails. Have I mentioned that new trails and new mountains make me happy?
Since that second visit, I’ve hiked two other mountains that will be new additions to the next “Maine Mountain Guide.” The South Peak of Bauneg Beg Mountain in South Berwick was a project I’d been keeping an eye on for several years, while Sedge Ridge, also known as Mount Winnebago, in Fayette was one I stumbled upon purely by accident.
The Bauneg Beg Mountain Conservation Area South opened to the public in October 2025. The 75-acre property, owned by Great Works Regional Land Trust, protects the southern and highest summit of the mountain.
Three trails, with a fourth in the works, lead hikers through a beautiful landscape where the vistas stretch from New Hampshire to the Gulf of Maine. I was thrilled to hike all of them a few weeks ago.
A couple days later, amid the hills and dales of Readfield, I was poking around in my Gaia GPS app trying to get oriented when I noticed a mountain with trails in Fayette, the next town west. Well, you know darn well I trundled right over.
There I found the Oak Hill Conservation Area, owned by Kennebec Land Trust, and a fine 1.1-mile loop on pretty Sedge Ridge. It was a very sweet saunter indeed.
The current, beefy 12th edition of the “Maine Mountain Guide” weighs in at 622 pages and features more than 700 trails on over 300 mountains, covering north of 1,600 miles of hiking.
Mount Tuck, Bauneg Beg Mountain’s South Peak and Sedge Ridge, among numerous others, will help expand the next guide, which is expected to appear in print in the spring of 2028.
Meantime, you know where to find me. Do let me know if you have any info to share.