There is a lot to the title, but this is an easy hiking adventure in Baxter State Park where you hit several destinations and and have a mix of walking with canoeing along the way. This hike starts at the Kidney Pond Campground with a Canoe across the pond.
This hike starts at the Kidney Pong Campground parking lot in Baxter State Park. Which is about 30 minutes or 11.5 miles of gravel road from the Togue Pond Gatehouse were you enter the park. Day use parking is in the circle before you reach the labeled parking spots. To do the full proper adventure you will need to ask the ranger at the Kidney Pond Campground for keys to the Lily Pad Pond Canoes. The park ranger office hours are 8-9am and 8-9pm, otherwise its just luck. There are only 3 keys and the best chance of getting a key is to stay at the camp ground because you can get the keys right at 8am before any day use people can arrive (park gate opens at 8am and its a 30 minute drive to the campground). We showed up at 9:15am and happened to hear a radio off in the distance which led me to the ranger on duty who happened to have 1 key left.
We had originally planned to hike around Kidney Pond based on a trail map but the park ranger said “You don’t want to do that” and explained that it meant carrying paddles and life jackets around the pond since they are needed for Lily Pad Pond. Instead he reommended canoeing across Kidney Pond. Canoe rental fee is $1/hr so have a few bucks handy for that.
Behind the library at the campground there is a selection of life jackets and paddles. We opted to bring our own PFDs in case the ones at the campground were in rough shape.
There were 10 or so canoes at the dock so we picked one and loaded up our gear and started off across the pond.
It is a nearly straight shot across Kidney Pond, maybe a little to the left and you are looking for a sign that says “Lily Pad Landing” and a couple logs to beach the canoe on.
Once docked, we brought our life jackets and paddles for a short “0.4” that feels like 0.25 mile walk in the woods.
Near the end the pathway turns into split logs to walk on with dense grass overgrowing the pathway until you reach Beaver Brook and the next set of Canoes that your key should unlock.
The brook slowly meanders left and right for about a 10 minute canoe trip where you can spot pitcher plants, bog rosemary, and a good view of Katahdin.
Beaver Brook opens up into Lily Pad Pond. Once into the pond head towards the left side of the opposite end. There is a pretty obvious indent and you can see some large rocks poking up through that aren’t anywhere else. Move towards those and dock the canoe onto the flat muddy area.
From this landing you access the Windy Pitch Pond trail that takes you to Little then Big Niagra falls and finally to Windy Pitch Pond. If you also happened to have keys for a canoe at Windy Pitch Pond, youll need to bring your life jacket and paddle along. I dont think it is worth it for how small that pond is.
The trail is easy and nothing special to look at. It is very dense woods most of the way until you start hearing the falls then it moves downhill more and thins out a bit. We quickly reached Little Niagra Falls.
We did not see a lot of good places to hang out so we went right for Big Niagra Falls which was just a couple more minutes down the trail.
This area had some nice flat-ish spots for lunch. We were able to dip our feet in while eating.
Getting to Windy Pitch Pond was another 0.4 mile walk in the woods. The woods this time were about as green as it gets. Moss and greenery everywhere except the walking trail.
Then you reach Windy Pitch Pond, which is pretty small. There are 2 Canoes behind me in this picture. We did not get keys to these, but I don’t think we missed much. This trip is more about the adventure and stops along the way than the destination.
