Directions to Tumbledown's Parker Ridge Trail
Tumbledown's Parker Ridge Trail is on Map 19 B/C1 in the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer
Hiking distance: 1.9 miles to Parker Ridge and another 3 tenths of a mile to Tumbledown Pond.
Note: Update 2016, since we've hiked Parker Ridge, a new trail has been built from the Brook trailhead to the beginning of Little Jackson and Parker Ridge trails. It's 1.1 miles and is called Little Jackson Connector. I'm not sure if you can still access the trails from the dirt road we drove in on. If not, you have an extra 1.1 miles to add to the hiking distance.
To get to Tumbledown Mountain's Parker Ridge Trail travel Rt#156 from Wilton to Weld. Continue through Weld Village on Rt# 142. Then take a left onto West Side Road, travel about .5 mile and then bear right onto the Bryon Road. The left would take you to Mt Blue State Park on Lake Webb. In about 2 miles you will pass a cemetery with a nice white fence around it. Take another dirt road to the right immediately after the cemetery. Drive in as far as possible (probably not more than a half mile). You might need a truck to make that last knoll. There are little clearings on the right to park at the top of the knoll and the bottom. There is a sign pointing towards the Little Jackson Trail. Just follow that trail for a ways (it is old logging road that is blocked of with trenches through it. After awhile there will be a fork in the trail with signs for both Little Jackson Trail and Parker Ridge Trail. Parker ridge trail bears left.
The trail starts off with a gradual descent for about a mile then rises steeply. There is some scrambling up some big rock ledges to get up on the ridge. It is 1.9 miles to Parker Ridge and 2.2 miles to Tumbledown Pond.
This is a fantastic hike. All of us liked it much better than Tumbledown's Brook Trail. Much more senic. The views are fantastic from Parker Ridge.
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