We almost never go hiking in the afternoon, but we had a few hours of free time this afternoon so we headed south to Middlesex County to hit a small park that's been on my
list for a while. According to the park map there are a total of about 3 miles inside the park. But we were surprised to find more!
Using this map we parked at the boat launch and after visiting the pond from the launch, headed south on the paved park road to the blue-blazed Mill Pond Trail, a beautiful trail that parallels the pond with many signs naming trees along the way. We next headed west on the white-blazed Farm Road trail with the intention of completing the 1.4 mile loop in a counter-clockwise direction before heading back along the western edge of the farm to the car. But when we reached the SE part of the Farm Road Trail loop we encountered the trail head for a Yellow trail that is not on the map. But there was a kiosk at that point, with a beautiful trail heading east into the woods filled with saplings. So we decided to take it and see where it went. It continued to the eastern perimeter of the park, bordering a small rectangular body of water (with a bat house on the bank) before heading north, then east through more woods all the way back to very near the car. In essence, we ended up doing almost a 3-mile loop! Had we added the trails that we missed, we would probably have added another 1.5 or 2 miles, but we were short of time. We can log those trails next time, when we also hike the Farrington Lake Trail. You can see our track here. Total distance hiked was about 2.7 miles in an hour and 40 minutes.
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Road to... |
...boat launch |
Taking... [photo by Laura] |
This frog photo |
Fall colors on bank |
Turtles |
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Fisherman in boat |
Canada goose |
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Paved road to... |
...Mill Pond Trail |
Birdhouses on Eco Trail |
Ferns |
Tree signs |
Bench overlooking pond |
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Stone steps |
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Early fall color |
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View west |
Mallards and goose |
Mallards (one molting) |
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You think? |
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Heading west on Blue |
[Photo by Laura] |
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On Farm Road Trail |
Two interested... |
...deer |
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More deer bolting |
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Egret bolting |
Views of lake... |
...at southern part |
View from behind beaver dam |
Beaver trap? |
Back on Farm Road Trail |
Beaver activity |
Kiosk at Yellow trail head |
Boardwalk on Yellow |
Heading east |
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Boardwalk on Yellow |
Body of water on eastern edge |
Bat house on bank |
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Yellow continues through woods |
[Photo by Laura] |
Lamb's Ears |
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Swamp across road from... |
...boat launch |
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