A 10-acre Popham Beach parcel in hand, the Phippsburg Land Trust is building a foot bridge that will create one of the few long walking trails in the area.

Bob Cummings, who founded the Phippsburg Land Trust in 1973, said Friday the group awaits state permits to build the bridge, and already has moved in timbers. The bridge will accommodate a five-mile trail along Spirit Pond, a water body near Popham Beach that is virtually all ocean.

“It certainly will create a very beautiful walk along Spirit Pond,” Cummings said. “Five-mile trails are rare in this area. We don’t have many preserves in the area that go that long. It will be a good afternoon or day walk.”

Cummings said the Land Trust purchased the parcel on the northern edge of Spirit Pond last year for $105,000. The group still has $3,000 to raise.

The state owns 190 acres of undeveloped land that abuts it, and the Land Trust has 1.5 acres on the northern side of the pond, Cummings said. There is a scientific preserve on the east end, he said.

“By acquiring that land,” Cummings said, “it protects the entire northern edge of the pond and a portion of the western edge of the pond. “It certainly will create a very beautiful walk along Spirit Pond.”

The elongated Spirit Pond trails will mark the latest addition to “Walking Phippsburg,” which currently is comprised of 31 miles of hiking trails. Of those, 22 miles were constructed by the Land Trust — a major and expensive effort for a small, volunteer group with no full-time employees.

According to its mission, the Phippsburg Land Trust “preserves, protects and stewards special wild and natural places in Phippsburg for the benefit and education of our children, grandchildren and future generations.”

There will be no parking lots built along Route 209, which provides access to the Sprit Pond trail. There is one parking spot just down the road from the trail’s entrance to the road.

Cummings said that the Land Trust discourages the use of ATVs on its trails, but allows other activities, such as hunting.

Spirit Pond features an old stone dam that has been breached, but still delays the tides.

Cummings’ daughter, Brenda Cummings, is the current president of the Land Trust. For further information, call 443-5993.

lgrard@timesrecord.com

¦ WALKING PHIPPSBURG trails include:
— Noble Hill Preserve, a 20-acre loop along the Kennebec River,
near Fiddlers Reach Meadows.
— Mary’s Woods at Cutting Creek, a short walk to the upper
reaches of Cutting Creek salt marsh, off Old Ferry Road.
— Greenleaf Eastment, a one-mile trail to a Kennebec River salt
marsh, near Atwood Lane.
— Denny Point Road, a walking trail on the Basin Preserve off
Basin Road.
— Center Pond Preserve, a full 263 acres featuring vernal pools,
high ledges, woods, small streams and a large boggy area, off
Parker Head Road.
— Veteran’s Trail, a short trail at the Phippsburg Town Office.
— Bijhouwer Forest, a 73-acre forest with one of the northernmost
stands of mountain laurel in New England, off Devil’s Highway.
— Sprague Pond Preserve, a 110-acre parcel with woods and a
spring-fed pond off Basin Road.
— Ridgewood Preserve, a 65-acre preserve ascending through
woodlands to a ridge off Pride Rock Way.
— Malaga Island, a 42-acre island at the mouth of the New Meadows River in the Sebasco area. The landing is accessible only to
boats, which can be launched from Round Cove near the Rock
Garden Inn.
— Morse Mountain, a two-mile trail on the south side of Route
209. Take Route 216 to Morse Mountain Road. Parking is on the
left, and limited.
— Bill Jayne Trail, a short woodland off the Morse Mountain parking lot, toward the trail head.
— Cox’s Head Trail, a short trail from the shore on Atkins Bay to
the summit of historic Cox’s Head, site of the Revolutionary War
and War of 1812 fortifications, off Green Point Road.
— Totman Cove, an 88-acre preserve featuring 1,000 feet of
undeveloped beach, off West Point Road.
— Perkins Farm Trail, a trail through quiet woods and hills with
views of the ocean, with parking at Fort Baldwin.