Sherman Marsh Wildlife Management Area and Carolyn O’Brien Preserve

While this conserved tract has a lot to offer and is interesting to explore, you might be dealing with untended trails, blowdowns, and a bit of a bushwhack at times. The trail doesn’t get much use, so it can be overgrown and grassy in the summer, and the small parking area is unplowed in the winter. You can park on the side of Dodge Road, slightly before you get to the trail, but it’s best if you can pull into the trail (a worn old road), and park to the side. There is not very much room, perhaps space for one, maybe two cars if you really squish.

From the trailhead, you first follow an old woods road that can be muddy in the springtime. At roughly 0.5 mile, you’ll come to a trail on the left to the Carolyn O’Brien preserve. It was flagged with ribbon when I last visited. If you continue along this path, you reach a brook in about 0.1 miles.

Back on the main path, just a few feet before the O’Brien sign, you’ll see a footpath on your right marked with an orange triangle. It heads up to a high ridge covered in juniper, with views of the salt marsh through trees. You can take this footpath and make a two-mile loop, or continue on the woods road. 

If you continue on the woods road, you’ll go another 0.6 or so miles before you reach a junction. If you go straight for 100 feet or so, you can check out the remains on an old bridge across the marsh. Nice views here. Retrace your steps and look for the footpath to continue the loop; it is marked with old orange triangles. From here, the walk continues through forest, with views over the marsh. (The wetland was once a freshwater lake until the dam maintaining it was destroyed in a 2005 storm, allowing it to return to its natural state as a salt marsh). The footpath might be rough going in places.

The Coastal Rivers Land Trust explains that this preserve, like so many other wooded areas in Maine, was once a farm. Remains of the collapsed farmstead include an old piano that peeks up through the rubble!

Directions: Parking for the peninsula trail is a pull-off on Dodge Road, just a few hundred feet east of Middle Road, 0.8 miles from Route 1. The parking area is next to a mailbox for 173 Dodge Road. Park just into the woods road, but do not block access. There’s limited room here — maybe enough space, barely, for two cars.