Bald Mountain Adventure Trail, Clarendon, NB

In the winter, this is a 4.6 km out and back trail to a look off. (Warning, this is a remote area with spotty cell service at best. Know your abilities and use at your own risk.)

How to get there:

From Fredericton take the Trans Canada highway east to Highway 7/ Saint John exit. It is about a 25-minute drive south to the 101 Welsford, Fredericton Junction exit. (Yes, you could take the 101 all the way from Fredericton but it is a long, slow drive. I don’t recommend it.)

Continue on 101 north past Wirral, to Claredon about 16 kms from Welsford, turn Left on Ogden Road for approx. 2.8 km. This is a dirt-road with no power poles. I saw skidoos on this road.

You will come to a natural right-hand turn, follow it for approximately 800 m. There will be a fence along your right side. Go to the end of the road where the plow turns around. Park on side but make sure not to block the turning area

You will head out on foot from here. There are two unserviced wood roads that branch from here, take the one on the left. When I was here snow was deep with a slippery hard crust and was uneven with ruts from an ATV. I used snowshoes and took them off for the hike up from the trail head, attached to my pack.

The hike in to the Bald Mountain Adventure trail sign is approximately 1.5 km in the above road. You will come to a defined wide space. In the summer, I believe you can drive to this spot. it has a bit of a view. The trail sign will be on your right.

From here it is only 500 meters to the summit. You will hike through a mixed evergreen forest up into deciduous forest with lots of birch, that is quite striking in the winter light. You will start to climb towards several large boulders. The benefit of a winter hike is that with no leaves on the trees, you get a mostly unobscured view of the landscape.

Keep going for another 100 meters, there is a arrow pointing to a lower trail to a rock face feature. It was down a slope with no trail cut so I didn’t go down. I continued up for another 200 meters. Here is the summit; a wide flat spot with a generous look-out westward. I couldn’t resist a little snow toss to celebrate the beauty.

It was windy and cold at the top so I only stayed a few minutes and turned back. For a well prepared person this is a nice winter outing. This area has lots of offer summer and winter. I covered it in a post several years back Welsford, New Brunswick.. Zone 3 NB.

For more winter outdoor adventures see, You Have to See the Midland Ice Caves, Maliseet Trail to Hay Falls, N.B. Parlee Brook Amphitheatre, Friar’s Nose, The Cuts Quarry, -Skating Rink,

Happy travels from Maritime Mac.