Saturday, March 25, 2023
North Buzzy Brook Trail and McLaughlin Road, Sunkhaze Meadows NWR (Milford)
Friday, March 24, 2023
Bald Mountain (Dedham)
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Maine Forest Yurts (Durham)
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Great Meadows, Assabet River, and Parker River National Wildlife Refuges (Massachusetts)
My daughter was spending her spring break in Massachusetts so I met up with her and spent part of our time together visiting national wildlife refuges.
Great Meadows is a 3,850 acre wildlife refuge primarily located in Sudbury and Concord. 85% of the refuge is water and wetlands. We visited the Concord section of the refuge Saturday afternoon, hiking a mile on the Dike Trail and climbing an observation tower. The refuge was surprisingly busy for a cold overcast March day.
The 2,230 acre Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge is also located in Sudbury on land previously owned by the military. The refuge has over 15 miles of trails through a variety of forested habitats. It also contains old ammunition bunkers from when it was a military installation. We hiked an enjoyable 2.8 miles and enjoyed watching a pair of geese swimming close to shore.
Sunday morning we went to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newbury. Parker River is a 4,662 acre coastal refuge with sand beaches, dunes, shrubs and thickets, bogs, swamps, fresh and saltwater marshes, mudflats and rivers.
We arrived in time to watch the sunrise over the ocean. This is one of the nicest national wildlife refuges I've been to in New England. There are numerous board walks leading to the beach, a few short hikes, and an excellent visitor center. Our favorite hike was the1.3 mile Hellcat Boardwalk Trail, which is almost entirely boardwalk except where it crosses over the refuge road. The trail leads to three different overlooks that showcase different ecosystems. Like Assabet, Parker River became surprisingly crowded while we were there despite temperatures in the 30s.
Sunday, March 5, 2023
Kanokolus Bog Preserve (Unity)
My son and I went snowshoeing at the Kanokolus Bog Preserve in Unity this morning. The 189 acre preserve is managed by the Sebasticook Regional Land Trust and is an example of a raised level bog ecosystem.
The preserve’s parking lot had not been plowed so we parked on Route 202 and walked in. The trail was covered by close to a foot of undisturbed snow due to two recent snowstorms, providing a muted, isolated feel to our hike. Several animal tracks crisscrossed the trail. We took the Winter Bog Access trail to ITS-85, a snowmobile trail which bisects the preserve and provided temporary relief from breaking trail. We hiked a total of 1.25 miles.