Knight Nubble

Knight Nubble – Acadia National Park, Maine

We went up the Perpendicular trail and summited Mt. Mansell First. The Perpendicular trail is steep and felt like doing a million stair climbs of just straight up. Once you get to the summit the trail becomes much more gradual. We took the Razorback trail over to Knight Nubble summit. Razorback was beautiful with magnificent views and easy walking terrain. The summit of Knight Nubble was pretty with nice lookout spots along the way. Next, we went over to Little Notch Summit as it’s only about .1 miles from the summit of Knight Nubble and also a very easy walkover. After Little Notch summit we decided to also grab Bernard Mountain summit which is about .2 miles from Little Notch summit. There was a bit of a climb between Little Notch and Bernard but nothing too declivitous. After Bernard, we walked back to Little Notch and took The Sluiceway trail down (steep and rocky) down to Gilley Trail and over to Cold Brook Trail which leads to Long Pond Trail and back to your car! Overall this loop was about 5 miles long and really awesome views. The hardest part of hiking this one was the initial summit up. Once you’re up grabbing the other peaks was pretty easy.

There are many trails up to Knight Nubble Summit. You can take the Perpendicular trail, which is a very enjoyable but steep trail – read more about The Perpendicular Trail Here – or you can take the West Ledge trail on the west side of the mountain. which is still a bit laborious but not as intense as the Perpendicular trail. There’s only room for about 2 cars at the parking lot at the beginning of West Ledge trail and can be a bit hard to find. You could also take Gilley trail or Sluiceway trail up. Sluiceway trail is a bit of a rock scramble up, especially after the Gilley trail merge. The Gilley trail is a very gradual and pleasant walking trail.

Hiking Knight Nubble With Your Pup

Java had no issues hiking these trails. Some sections were strenuous but all the trails were very dog-friendly. There wasn’t much bouldering involved and the trail just getting steep he handles well.