Directions: From Rt. 27 in Boothbay, turn left at the light onto Rt. 96. Drive .3 miles and turn right on to Eastern Ave. Drive one tenth of a mile and Lobster Cove Meadow kiosk is on the left.
The 25-acre Appalachee Preserve, owned by Boothbay Region Land Trust, has a one-mile long trail that runs out to Appalachee Pond. This is a quiet, and little used trail for those who like a solitary walk.
Appalachee is on land that was once part of a section of Boothbay Harbor called Bayville. In 1906 Bayville was a summer cottage colony with 36 cottages, a boarding house and a summer post office.
In 1900 Professor and Mrs. Edwin O. Grover bought the property. Appalachee Pond was formerly called Mountain Lake, and then Mountain Meadow ice pond after Dexter Hodgdon dammed it and used it to harvest ice. In 1879 ice from the pond sold for $2 a ton.
Grover planted the pink water lilies in the lake, and also established a boys’ camp on the property. Grover also owned 2000 feet along Linekin Bay.
Around 1916, Appalachee Shores became a family camp with tents, which were replaced by canvas bungalows for a cost of $12.50-$15 per week. In 1927 Oliver Swope bought the property and built log cabins to rent out.
Swope sold the property in 1945 to Reginald Harris, who sold off the camps individually.
To get to the preserve, park at Lobster Cove Meadow Preserve kiosk and follow the trail to the first branch. Turn right along the white blazed trail and climb up over and then follow a ridge before descending to an ATV trail. Turn right onto the ATV trail, which follows picturesque Meadow Cove Creek with its pink pond lilies on the left.
Stay straight at an ATV intersection and walk along the path, that at times feels like you’re hiking through a tunnel made of alder trees. The trail comes out to a wooden fence. Walk out to the small clearing and turn left to a sign and footbridge over a dam. Watch for a great blue heron in the pond.
Cross the footbridge and turn left onto the historic Indian Trail that follows the back side of the creek for a short distance. The Appalachee trail is a one-mile loop trail that leaves the Indian Trail and circles around and re-joins it.
After an easy 10-minute walk from the bridge, the trail turns sharply uphill. About 30 yards after stepping over a black plastic pipe on the trail that has a metal splicing clamp on it, the Appalachee trail goes off to the right. The wooden sign is easy to miss, as it is facing the opposite direction.
Walkers who miss the first trail junction, can easily spot the second further up the Indian Trail. Turn right at the second junction and follow the white blazed trail watching closely for a turn to the right on a down hill slope. This turn is easy to miss. If you get to a paved road, you have missed the turn by about 30 yards.
The trail then goes up over ledge and curls around to the pristine back side of the pond. From the pond, follow the trail up over emerald moss-covered ledges, to bare ledge. From the bare ledge, the trail turns right and wanders through fairly new growth forest back to the Indian Trail. Turn left and follow the trail back to the bridge and dam.
Return to Lobster Cove Meadow by the same route you came, or hike straight ahead along the ATV trail.
Plan on an hour and a half to hike out to Appalachee, around the one-mile loop and return.
