QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: 30 acres on mainland
- Trail Mileage: ~2 miles in network
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: easy to moderate
- Sights: Hog Island, Muscongus Bay, granite ledge, meadow
This beautiful Audubon sanctuary includes a 30-acre mainland parcel with a roughly 1.5-mile loop, as well as the 330-acre Hog Island, which is located a quarter-mile offshore and has a three-mile trail. Dogs on leash are allowed on the mainland parcel but not on the island. To visit Hog Island you’ll need your own boat, but there is no public boat launch on the mainland preserve.
The mainland trail network includes vistas of Hog Island and of a little cove in Hockomock Channel filled with fishing boats. The paths bring you through a sloping meadow, to a little pond, into forest, and to views of the narrows.
The easiest path is the Meadow Path, a 0.2-mile trail through a field thick with milkweed, and also the dirt lane that bisects the middle of the property — Audubon Road — which offers wide-open views of the meadow, bay, and shingled boat house (topped with a large osprey nest). Slightly more moderate are the two woodland loops — the 1-mile Hockomock Point Trail and the 0.5-mile Pine Tree Trail — which are rooty and have some uneven terrain. Both have nice stretches along the bay where you can watch boats go by. At the far end of Hockomock Point, you can walk out onto the coastal ledge.
Directions: 11 Audubon Road, Bremen. From U.S. Route 1 in Waldoboro, turn left (south) onto Route 32. After 7.6 miles turn left onto Keene Neck Road. The sanctuary is 1.6 miles down at the end of the road. The visitors’ parking lot is on the left before you reach the main buildings. It is marked with two large parking signs.
