Today’s patrol went to the Mud Pond on the town’s western edge. It is located in the middle of a tract of conservation land and it’s perimeter (of the pond) has zero private property.

It probably isn’t even a mile long and it’s width is what you see here. The trail I used to reach it is the only one officially marked and recognized. These credentials make it a very unusual place in central Maine, where waterfront property is a long-standing extremely desirable asset. It appears that all the shoreline is boggy and fern-and-sedge infested; there is no solid land or beach area from what I can see.

The tract does not allow pets or “bicycles of any kind” and, of course, motorized vehicles. I reach it via a dead-end dirt road which has about three properties with structures and a number of land lots, some are for sale. I have never seen any other visitors during my visit and given the rules and the lack of pond access, I am not surprised.

I suspect this pond would be quite useful as a control for comparing a natural pond environment to the usual Maine pond surrounded by residential and commercial interfaces.