Hall Environmental Reserve

Trails in orange are on the Hall Environmental Reserve; trails in blue are the Sanford-Springvale Rail Trail; trails in green are part of the McKeon Reserve (which appears to be in development).

The Hazen Carpenter Trail on this Mousam Way Land Trust reserve offers a great education as you walk its ~1-mile length. Not only is it pretty — it takes you through woods, along old stone walls, and around a pond — but someone very knowledgeable about natural history has written a series of elegant facts about different aspects of the land. These write-ups are hidden in little wooden boxes you flip open to read as you make your way along the trail.

You can do a roughly 2-mile loop around Deering Pond if you continue from the Hazen Carpenter Trail to the six-mile Sanford-Springvale Rail Trail and return via the reserve’s Vigue Trail.

The pond is surrounded by conservation land; it’s probably beautiful in all seasons. The land trust describes it “as a tea-colored bog pond with floating mats of dwarf shrubs and sphagnum moss.” Additionally, a small colony of rare Rhododendron maximum can be found in the reserve. There are lots of rocks and ledges in the pond, so Native inhabitants called it Tombegawoc, or “the pond of the rocky reefs.”

The trail circumnavigating the pond is a popular spot for walkers; there were many out on a recent weekday.

Directions: The best place to park is at the Rail Trail trailhead off Hanson Ridge Road, about 0.3 miles from the intersection with Blanchard Road. There is also a little driveway off of Deering Neighborhood Road that was not plowed in the winter during our visit.