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Today we headed back to Middlesex County, my old stomping ground, to hike another area that's been on my list for a while. While the majority of today's hike was in the
lovely Heathcote Meadows Preserve, we were able to hike in the smaller areas of Mapleton Preserve and Cook Natural Area, which are adjacent. The entire hike is mostly
flat, but the terrain is varied.
Using this map we parked at the park station for the D & R Canal on Mapleton Road and headed east on the Heathcote-Mapleton loop. We took the spur through the Cook Natural Area (not a lot to see here except the tiny Heathcote Pond) and then headed east taking the loop in a clockwise direction, repeating the southern part of the inner loop (the only way to do the entire thing is to repeat a piece of it). We then continued east to the playground at Monroe Court where we then headed south and then finally west, continuing along the Heathcote-Mapleton loop all the way back to the car. Total distance hiked was 5.4 miles in just under 3 hours.
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Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |