Saco Bay Trails: The Log Cabin Trail

TRAIL BASICS
Length (roundtrip): 1.1 miles.
Directions to trailhead: From downtown Saco, go 4 miles north on Main St which turns into Rt 1 North. Just past the Rt 98/Cascade Rd turnoff, turn left on Flag Pond Rd. After 2.2 miles, turn right on Lincoln Rd. In 0.9 mile turn right into the wooded parking area of the trail.
Estimated walking time: 45 minutes.

Log Cabin Trail is named for the landowner's nearby business, Log Cabin Perennials. A Saco Bay Trails sign is posted at the entrance as well as a wooden gate to keep out motorized vehicles. An area large enough to park several cars has been provided by Saco Public Works Department.

This trail wanders over a working wood lot that is also maintained with wildlife habitat in mind. Lumber for the construction of two houses has been taken from the property, and about 15 cords of firewood are selectively harvested annually. Dead standing trees and live trees with holes and cavities are left as sources of food and shelter for wildlife. Brush from harvested trees is cut and piled as shelter for squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and other small animals. Rare trees (for this parcel) are encouraged for biological diversity.

A pond which lies next to the road and just north of the trail attracts various bird visitors in summer Ð look for green and great blue herons, kingfishers, solitary sandpipers, wood and mallard ducks. Swallows and bats patrol the air above for mosquitoes. Deer and raccoons leave their tracks in the mud at the edges. Listen for frogs in spring and summer Ð seven species inhabit the pond at various times of the year.

The first part of the trail follows an old tote road for a quarter of a mile, supposedly in existence before the Civil War. The rock wall on your right is the property line. These woods were severely logged about sixty years ago, but they have grown back and now comprise a mixed deciduous coniferous wood.

At about 0.25 mile, a swampy area must be crossed. Volunteer parents and children from Mrs. Deletetsky and Mrs. Littlefield's third and forth grade class at Burns School have built several boardwalks on the trail. (They have adopted the trail and use it for nature study.) Go over the boardwalk and you enter an entirely different world where a thick dark coniferous forest greets you. Just ahead the trail forks. Follow the trail to the right, over another boardwalk, where fir, hackmatack, white pine, and red maple trees grow. Up ahead, the trail winds its way for the next 900 feet through a mature pine-hemlock forest with some trees reaching 100 feet tall. When snow covers the ground, look for tracks of red squirrel, partridge, snowshoe hare, coyotes, weasel and fisher. Try to find rectangular holes in a few large pines. Pileated woodpeckers make these as they search for ants and other insects, or build nesting cavities. Further on, the trail meanders through a dense young wood comprised of hemlocks, pine, and yellow and white birch which is slowly being thinned to allow for faster growth,

Soon another intersection in the trail is encountered; a double marked tree shows the trail turning sharply left back onto the original tote road again, heading back toward Lincoln Road. You are a half-mile from your car. Look on your right close to the ground for a live hollow hemlock where those Pileated woodpeckers have been at work. Here the trail goes almost straight and soon you'll come back to the place where you left the tote road. Continue straight. See what you can observe on the way back that you missed on the way in.