QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: 48.5 acres
- Trail Mileage: 0.8 miles one way
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: easy to moderate
- Sights: freshwater marsh, stream, woods
The 0.8-mile Gowen Trail connects Clark and Meetinghouse Roads. (But you can only park in a small pull-off area on Meetinghouse Road.) The trail is well-marked and fairly easy to walk. The bog bridges over the wet areas are really nicely made, and their rough, textured surfaces should help prevent slipping.
The highlight for me was the hauntingly beautiful freshwater marsh (haunting, perhaps, because a mist hung over it on the day I visited). Ghost Meadow is rather small, if the little clearing the trail passes through about mid-way is Ghost Meadow. Or perhaps Ghost Meadow refers to the misty marsh? I tried to find the history of the name but I couldn’t track it down on the internet.
Directions: The pullover at the Meetinghouse Road trailhead is basically equidistant from the road’s intersections with Chick Crossing Road and Branch Road—roughly 0.7 miles from both.
