Waterboro Barrens Preserve, Waterboro

The Nature Conservancy barrens here are kind of wild! A few of the trails have hiker signs on them, but there isn’t much of a cohesive hiking network here that’s been set up with walkers in mind. The trails are a mix of mostly sandy roads and four-wheeler tracks, with some non-motorized tracks for foot traffic. The trails tend to be wide, flat, and level — I saw evidence of horses. There is not much shade, as the tree cover is intermittent.

I spent a few hours exploring the place and didn’t follow every trail, so my map is not complete. What I do show are a couple of possible loops you can do.

In addition, there are two particularly nice spots I’ve marked with red pins. One by Pine Springs Lake and the other at an interesting sand pool. Just upstream of the sand pool is a beautiful spot at the brook with great rock ledges (you’ll have to cross the stream to get here). It looks like there was once a massive concrete bridge (it’s actually a dam — thank you to a site visitor for the correction) that crossed the brook that is now falling down.

Lots of butterflies fluttering about, and lots of bird song.

From the parking lot it’s 1.5 miles to the sandy pool and stream, and just over a mile to the pond.

Directions: From Waterboro, take West Road 6 miles north to Ross Corner. Turn Right on Newfield Road, and continue one mile to Round Pond Road (dirt) on your right. Continue 700 hundred feet to the small parking area on the left. There is a space for handicap vehicles.