Kurt Diedrich's Climb
Recently, the hiking club made another trip up Dorr Mountain. This time we headed up Kurt Diedrich's Climb. While not as steep as the Ladder trail, Diedrich's Climb rises 450 feet in the matter of 0.4 miles. We started from the Abbe Museum parking lot, by the Acadia Wild Gardens. If you haven't visited the gardens, you really should. They offer miniature ecosystems from bogs and marshes to mountain top scrub.
A short 0.3 mile walk took us from the parking lot to the trail head at the north end of the tarn. If you end up walking towards the museum itself, you will have to do some light bushwhacking to get to the actual trail just to your left.
From the trail head, we climbed and climbed, stopping as often to admire the view as to partake in the blueberries. The trail side was covered in overburdened blueberries that were the perfect snack for our cookie-less hike.
Diedrich's Climb meets up with the Ladder Trail before completing another 1.0 mile to the top of Dorr. It's not exactly the summit. So we traveled the 0.1 miles to the official summit marker. Another mountain top crossed off the list.
Our route down followed the North Ridge trail (0.8 mile) to the Hemlock trail (0.5 miles) before returning us to the parking lot.
Total distance 3.2 miles in about 2 hours. It's a good alternative to the thigh-burning Ladder trail that is still a challenge.
