QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: Not sure
- Trail Mileage: ~3.2 miles in network
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: easy to moderate
- Sights: cedar swamp, paddler's trail
At this large preserve, which includes tracts of protected land along Lower and Upper West Bay Ponds, you can follow a meandering trail system that brings you through a cedar swamp and to a beaver pond.
According to my GPS, the outer-most loop trail is about 1.7 miles; the inner loop just a bit shorter, around 1.55 miles. Tacking on the spur to the pond will add 2 miles there and back. (From the trailhead, the path to the lake is about 1.2 miles, according to the land trust.)
If you want to have a watery adventure and explore even further, you can paddle up Lower West Bay Pond to a remote campsite on Upper West Bay Pond! Frenchman Bay Conservancy will lend visitors one of its canoes stashed at the pond’s shore. Directions for borrowing canoes are described on the preserve website.
A particularly pretty section of the cedar forest is located close to the second right off the woods road. Also, the 1.2 miles along the woods road, while easy, includes a couple of not insignificant hills!
Directions: The large parking lot for the trailhead is located off busy Route 1. The trailhead is 0.9 miles east of the Route 195 intersection with Route 1.
