Partridge Pond (Amherst Mountains Community Forest)

public land records

Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.

Amherst Mountains Community Forest, Hancock County. The guide lists "Two campsites, each with fire ring, picnic table and privy" and prints the coordinate for each in the text as well as in the map table. 4.8 miles of hiking trails including the Bald Bluff Trail loop and trails to both Partridge and Ducktail Ponds. Brook trout fishery with special rules. BPL does not state on this guide whether the two campsites are drive-up or walk-in, so camp_type is left UNKNOWN rather than guessed. MAINE PUBLIC RESERVED LANDS -- THE RULES THAT APPLY HERE. Fees: maine.gov/dacf/parks/about/public_reserved_lands.shtml (read 2026-08-14) says fees are "Generally not charged; In a few instances such as inside the North Maine Woods, Public Lands are managed in cooperation with neighboring landowners and fees are collected." Reservations: maine.gov/dacf/parks/camping/backcountry_camping.shtml says "Remote campsites are almost exclusively first-come, first-serve; reservations are not generally possible." STAY LIMIT, from the Bureau's own rules page maine.gov/dacf/parks/about/lands_rules.shtml: "No person shall camp, stay overnight or maintain any tent, camper, shelter, trailer or other camping unit on any public lands for more than fourteen days in any 45 day period, without the prior written permission of the Bureau." FIRE: open fires only in authorized campsites with fire rings, or under a Maine Forest Service permit; "Dead and down wood only may be used for campfires. No living trees shall be cut without the Bureau's prior written permission." Untreated firewood from outside Maine is BANNED -- buy it where you burn it. ABANDONED PROPERTY: BPL staff may take custody of personal property left unattended more than 3 days. Hunting and trapping are permitted on these lands in season -- wear blaze orange in the fall. Pets must be leashed and attended in campsites. WATER: BPL does not list drinking water at this site and none is claimed here. These are primitive sites on lakes, ponds and rivers; surface water is NOT represented as potable. Carry water in or treat it. COORDINATE PROVENANCE: latitude and longitude are copied from the "Campsite Latitude / Longitudes" table printed by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands in Amherst Mountains Community Forest guide/map (https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parksearch/PropertyGuides/PDF_GUIDE/amherstguide.pdf), downloaded and text-extracted 2026-08-14. This is the agency's own published coordinate for the named site -- it is NOT a geocode, NOT OpenStreetMap and NOT a field visit. No accuracy figure is published with the table. GIS CROSS-CHECK: the point falls INSIDE the state's mapped "Amherst Mountains" parcel (Maine GeoLibrary, Maine_Conserved_Lands_BPL_Interests, queried 2026-08-14). Nearest town: Amherst ~2.6 mi -- STRAIGHT-LINE distance to the nearest OpenStreetMap place=city/town/village, NOT a driving distance. In the North Woods the road in is routinely two to four times that on gravel. SEASON: BPL publishes no open/close date for these primitive sites on the guides read this fire. Access is over gravel logging roads that are generally passable June-October (the Machias River guide's words for comparable roads); mud season and snow close them. Confirm with the regional BPL office before a shoulder-season trip. Ingest 2026-08-14. || REVIEW 2026-08-18 (nightshift-verified): re-fetched the agency source and re-checked this row. The coordinate in this row matches the campsite coordinate the Bureau prints in the "Campsite Latitude / Longitudes" table on the Amherst Mountains Community Forest map (https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parksearch/PropertyGuides/PDF_GUIDE/amherstguide.pdf) (re-downloaded 2026-08-18, HTTP 200) to the last digit. The three shared BPL rules pages were re-read 2026-08-18 and still carry the exact sentences quoted above: fees "Generally not charged; In a few instances such as inside the North Maine Woods, Public Lands are managed in cooperation with neighboring landowners and fees are collected" (maine.gov/dacf/parks/about/public_reserved_lands.shtml); "Remote campsites are almost exclusively first-come, first-serve; reservations are not generally possible" (maine.gov/dacf/parks/camping/backcountry_camping.shtml); the fourteen-days-in-45 stay limit and "Dead and down wood only may be used for campfires" (maine.gov/dacf/parks/about/lands_rules.shtml). DUPLICATE CHECK: no published or approved camp anywhere in the DB sits within 1 mile of this coordinate (matched on coordinates, not name). NOT re-verified this fire, and still resting on the ingest fire's word: the Maine GeoLibrary parcel cross-check, and the straight-line nearest-town distance. No site was visited. PROPERTY RE-CHECK: the guide read today says "Two campsites, each with fire ring, picnic table and privy." and names no fee anywhere; Amherst is in Hancock County off Route 9 and is NOT inside the North Maine Woods gate system, so the general BPL "generally not charged" applies and free-camping stands. This site's coordinate is printed TWICE by the Bureau and the two agree exactly: the map's coordinate table and the guide's Services & Facilities bullet both say "Partridge Pond: Lat 44.859174, Lon -68.400307". Independent sanity check: OpenStreetMap puts Partridge Pond at 44.8605, -68.4035 (way 97334365, Overpass query 2026-08-18), about 0.2 mi away -- consistent with a site on the pond shore.

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.