Perpendicular Trail, Acadia National Park

Mansell Mountain is a great hike on the quiet side of the island. You might know it as the “Stairway to Heaven”.We went up the Perpendicular Trail to the summit. It’s a great hike for all seasons, although we have only done it in wintery conditions. In the winter, it’s not too difficult to find – there’s a small lot with a few spots.

Trail Stats

Parking: Long Pond

Distance: 2.6 mi

Elevation gain: 804 feet

Trails: Park at Long Pond, take the Long Pond Trail to the Perpendicular Trail to the Mansell Mountain summit. From there, take the Razorback trail to the Cold Brook Trail out to the parking area!

Kids: Advanced

Dogs: Advanced, there are some ladders.

You can take a few trails from this parking area, Long Pond Trail is a nice flat walk, and the Perpendicular Trail is the complete opposite 🙂 Long Pond is absolutely beautiful, in the winter or in summer – or in any season, as you can see.

The Hike

You hit a nice view after a pretty steep climb – totally worth it. The views are awesome. On this particular day in April, I forgotten my microspikes, but I didn’t realize it until we had gotten to the trailhead. #rookie! It turned out ok. I clearly didn’t die. SIde note – make sure to check out the Packing for Hiking in Cold Weather post we wrote!

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After we made it through the sketchy part, the views were astounding! We ascended until we reached a nice view point, where we made sure to take every advantage of.

LOL. It’s Long Pond, not Echo Lake. #facepalm

The Descent

We hit the Razorback Trail, and enjoyed it! It’s called the Razorback because of the mini peaks.

We tried our hands at the self portrait, but clearly I need some help. Stay tuned. The descent down Razorback was great! Nice views on Mansell Mountain and a great trail. This would be amazing in the fall!

The trail is about 2.4 miles and has about 915 feet in elevation gain – which would be no problem in the summer, but was a challenge in the winter – it definitely slowed us down. Plus I had no microspikes. BUT plenty of bruises to prove it. I don’t recommend it. 🙂

Apres Hiking

After we were done, we were SO HUNGRY. We were looking for some tater tots, so we hit up the Dog and Pony Tavern. BEST TOTS EVER. and Bloody Marys.

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