McDougal Orchards and Lowd Environmental Reserve

McDougal trails in blue; Lowd Environmental Reserve and connector trails in orange.

You can go for a long walk in the miles of wide, forested trails around the 346-acre orchards, especially if you connect to the trail system beyond the farm’s boundaries. These unmarked trails will bring you to Mousam Way Land Trust’s 14-acre Lowd Environmental Reserve and elsewhere (checking AllTrails is a good idea if you’re new to this area and want to explore).

The highlight of the McDougal trail system is the quiet pond, “Old Boney.” Or is it Old Bonny? It is more the latter than the former, although people fish here, so there could be fish bones around! There’s another smaller pond on the other side of this big farm, which is owned by Hanson Farm Corporation. McDougal Orchards maintains the trails.

Because motorized vehicles aren’t allowed here, the wide forest tracks tend to be mostly dry and often pleasant. I found that a couple of the trails more exposed to the sun were grassy and overgrown. While the walking is mostly easy, there’s a steepish hill in the area called Oak Hill, near Boney Pond.

Overall, this would be a fabulous place to X-C ski! (The farm says it occasionally grooms the trails.) I didn’t see any trail blazes, so bringing a trail map could be a good idea. The main drive, from the farm’s headquarters to its big orchard, is a dirt road so should be passable for most wheelchairs. There’s also a fairy village near the start of the trail system (with a door to nowhere! Or anywhere).

If you start at Lowd Environmental Reserve, you’ll start from a large, grassy parking area. The trails in the ~0.5-mile loop are narrow and don’t seem well used. They cross a stream and follow the top of a little ridge covered in blueberries. The description of the land on the preserve’s webpage is really wonderful and detailed.

Directions: The address for McDougal Orchards is 201 Hanson Ridge Road, in Springvale. Park at the big parking lot right at the entrance and walk down the main driveway to access the trail system. Lowd Environmental Reserve is on Oak Street, a half mile from Springvale Square.