Canterbury Trail, Cape Elizabeth

Two trail systems appear to merge in this neighborhood preserve — the Greenbelt and the Canterbury Trail, both I think overseen by the town’s conservation commission. The Greenbelt trails, marked with a black G, form the northern half of the trail system, winding pleasantly around a neighborhood. This section also includes a boardwalk through a marshy area close to Spurwink Avenue. The Canterbury Trail heads into the forest patch south of the development.

Quite a lot of the trails in this trail system are fairly smooth, without too many roots or rocks, making the place appealing to mountain bikers. Because of this, the trail system feels a bit wild and chaotic, with little paths all over the place. I stuck mostly to the blazed paths—the Greenbelt and the blue-blazed Canterbury Trail, which has a side loop blazed in orange. See the map below. But if you do wander off these blazed paths, you can do several smaller loops.

Directions: The best place to park is at the end of Colombus Road, where there’s room for two cars.