Family Friendly Hike: Hedgehog Mountain
Trail Name: Hedgehog Mountain
Location: Freeport, ME
Distance: 2.8 miles
Elevation gain: 298 ft
Difficulty: Easy
Pets: Allowed
This week’s hike is extra special, because it’s very family-friendly. I love the idea of hiking with your significant other and kids, so I try and post hikes that vary in difficulty. Grab your fruit snacks and load up the van, because your kid’s are going to LOVE this one. Also, how cute is the name? Hedgehog Mountain?! If only I had seen an actual hedgehog!
This hike is within 10 minutes of Freeport, Maine. Making it the ideal stop after (or before) hitting up the L.L Bean boot and Ben & Jerry’s. If you want to be parent of the year, you could plan a whole day in Freeport around this hike! Don’t forget to stop at Maine Beer Company (for the adults) and the Desert of Maine (for the kids and kids at heart) to your agenda, you won’t regret it!
Ironically, the trailhead is located 0.3 miles down Landfill Road in Freeport, right before the Freeport Recycling Center. I was kind of weary about this, but it did not impact my hiking experience in any way, besides providing a good laugh. The parking lot is a good size, and there is plenty of room for hikers to park on the side of the road if necessary. I hiked this trail on a Friday afternoon and was easily able to find a parking spot. For a map of the trails, click here.
The trail starts with a cute wooden bridge, and then moves deeper into the woods. I’m going to be completely honest with you—I had a very hard time figuring out which trails go where, as they were very poorly marked and I forgot to take a picture of the map. So instead of having that happen to you, I want to share as much helpful information as possible so you feel comfortable hiking this trail.
About 1,000 feet into the trail, you will see a trail on your left. If you take that trail, it will bring you to a bunch of interconnecting loop trails. The outer trail in this loop is the trail to the summit. If you would like to do a quick, short hike, you could do a couple of the loops and then hit the summit and head back to the parking lot.
If you decide not to take the trail on the left, you will continue straight until eventually coming to a three-way intersection where you can either go left (which brings you back to the loop trails I was just talking about) or go right, which will bring you to another set of loop trails. After going right, if you’re looking to keep your hike shorter, you can take a right onto the Upper Connector Trail and then a left on the Senior Project Trail. If you would like to add a little more distance, you can turn right onto the Upper Connector trail and then another right (which is basically staying straight) onto the Keith Loop. This trail meets back up with the Upper Connector Trail if you take the Keith Cut Off Trail, or you can continue onto the Senior Project Trail. Either way, you will get back to the three way intersection.
My personal suggestion would be to complete the Keith Loop Trail and then come back and complete the Summit Trail, which will add a little bit of length to your hike. Once on the summit trail, you will reach the summit very shortly (i’m talking 5-10 minutes, tops). I won’t lie, summiting was very anti-climatic, but still nice. The summit was small and perfect for kids. It provides views of Pleasant Mountain, Shawnee Peak, Bradbury Mountain, etc. Some say you can see Mount Washington on a clear day.
Overall, I would recommend this hike for a short weeknight trek, or a family-friendly hike. If you would like to add some distance, feel free to mosey around all of the different loop trails. These trails are also great for snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, as well as mountain biking.
