Lake Wood and Fawn Pond (Acadia National Park)

Recently I came across an excellent blog about abandoned trails in Acadia and decided to explore such a trail after work today.

Lake Wood is not exactly abandoned; the park includes it on it's website as a place to swim in the park and it has a parking lot and relatively clean pit toilet.   Most park maps do not highlight the pond, however, and there is no mention of trails in the area.  

The excellent Avenza mapping app was useful as it provides historical topographic maps among it's collection of maps.  A 1942 USGS map clearly shows a trail in this area leading to Fawn Pond.  

From the parking lot I followed a carriage road sized gravel path to the beach at Lake Wood.  I continued past the beach to a well worn but unmarked trail following the pond's shoreline.  

The trail led to a rock ledge overlooking the pond.   Past that point the trail became narrower and appeared less traveled but was still easy to follow.  The trail then met with a wider trail leading away from Lake Wood towards Fawn Pond.  

I arrived at Fawn Pond a short while later and was amazed at how peaceful and quiet it was.  I spent a few minutes watching a beaver swim around.  I would have loved to spend more time there but darkness was setting in.

The total roundtrip hiking distance was 1.6 miles.