Bay Circuit Trail. Duxbury Doorway.

Duxbury marks the spot where the southern end of the Bay Circuit Trail meets the sea. Humans began gathering here not long after the glacier receded and it was an early settlement reward for Pilgrims who had fulfilled their obligations to the initial collective that formed in Plymouth.

Myles Standish was among those who obtained this coveted real estate.

In our time, Duxbury  has allocated substantial acreage for preservation with enthusiastic support. The Cushman Preserve and the Bay Farm are two tracts that begin at waters edge. Cow Tent Hill lies just a bit inland from Cushman. 


The beach and littoral zones are defining facets of the place with all the glories and complications wild popularity brings.

Piping Plover (male) on nest at Duxbury Beach, MA from scott hecker on Vimeo.

Powder Point marks the bridge way to the long barrier strand that anchors the Gurnet.

The Bay Circuit Trail heads inland from waters edge at Bay Farm with two options, south toward Kingston and north toward Pembroke. Both meet in west Pembroke.

The northern option runs through Duxbury and meets a cranberry bog melange at the Duxbury Bogs , a 1971 gift from the Loring Family. The North Hill Sanctuary  and related tracts lie to the Northeast. The trail then passes through the Lansing Bennett Forest tracts before it crosses to Pembroke. 

The French Atlantic Cable landed in the town in 1869 making it an early communications hub. It was also the launch pad for a small ship building empire. Various maritime mercantilists cashed in over the years and made their way to greater glory in Boston.


Now the movement runs just as well back the other way with soaring options unimaginable to that long ago Mayflower wave.

Note For the Urban Carless. Kingston is handily on the Old Colony commuter rail line 2.3 miles Southwest of Bay Farm.

The Bay Circuit Trail: Ancient Framingham Crossroads.

The Bay Circuit Trail enters north Framingham along the Sudbury edge near the height of land for the entire trail, Nobscot Hill. Garden in the Woods, lies a bit to the southeast.

A Walk through Garden in the Woods from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

The trailhead begins at Weissblatt Conservation Land and passes south through the Boy Scout Reservation and Wittenborg Woods. This part of the town is also home to a number of farms.


Callahan State Park is the next major area along the trail before it passes into Marlborough to follow the Sudbury Reservoir.

The Commonwealth's  park system here and elsewhere is particularly well suited for mountain bikes...

... and dog walks.

I first encountered Rattlesnake Plantain in some corner of that park back in the 80s drawn by the silvery variegation lacing its leaves in the shadow dappled understory.

From there, the trail heads south to reenter Framingham briefly where it crosses the Sudbury River below the dam and then passes over Route 9 before turning toward Ashland.

One of the earliest trade trails sleeps beneath a section of route 9. The Old Connecticut Path indicated an area for confluence and exchange.

And now it is a rail junction of some complexity with Amtrack, Conrail and Commuter rail all converging.

Note For the Urban Carless. The Ashland stop is fairly close to the trail where it runs to the west of Framingham. It is a fairly vast area so plan on an entire day should you choose a commuter rail option.

Bay Circuit Trail: Ipswich Inroads.

Cottages at Little Neck and Crane's Hill, Ipswich, MA; from a c. 1920 postcard.

Ipswich is home to a host of land conservation support efforts and has made substantial contributions to the Bay Circuit Trail within its boundaries with more work ongoing to meet the Atlantic at Crane Beach. 

Walking to Crane Beach, Ipswich MA from Sarah Coyne on Vimeo.

Ipswich might be expressed as having several facets. The dunes and drumlin of the Crane Estate complex front and protect an intricate estuary world edged a with salt marsh fringe. 

Beyond the shore lies a fabric of wetlands and uplands, farms and forests with a river at its core.

Among the organizations focused on this venerable place are the Ipswich River Watershed Association and the Essex County Trails Association. The town core has a history trail and an Essex County National Heritage Area center.


There is even a special Ipswich Bay Circuit Archive. The Essex County Greenbelt Association is located in nearby Essex and has a significant role in the ongoing acquisition and management of protected green spaces.

Willowdale is a superb place for basic bicycle touring as many of its trails are Bradley Palmer's old system of bridle paths. 

Note For the Urban Carless. Ipswich is very well served by what may be one of the most scenic commuter rail lines with loop potential between Ipswich and Hamilton/Wenham.

Bay Circuit Trail: Moose Hill Convergence.

Sharon, Massachusetts, along what I call the Southern Arc of the Bay Circuit Trail system is a counterpart activity hub to Andover. It has a number of protected lands including a cluster at Moose Hill consisting of the Massachusetts Audubon Society Sanctuary and Moose Hill Farm, owned by the Trustees of Reservations.


Moose Hill itself is also the height of land point for the southern arc and the swath of Southeastern Massachusetts rolling toward Providence.


Here is a handy summary.


"“A nice place to live because it’s naturally beautiful,” says a welcome sign in Post Office Square, and Sharon lives up to this motto.  “Lake Massapoag--the treasure of Sharon for its fun, beauty, and peacefulness,”  writes a student. “The Lake is about 400 acres of water. When the sun sets, beautiful, vibrant colors reflect off the Lake.”  Lake Massapoag is known for its concerts, fireworks, fishing, and good swimming on Memorial Beach.  From the 1800s until the 1940s, Sharon was a summer resort to which people would come to stay at inns and hotels to enjoy the clean air and the Lake. The Town proudly holds the 2,250-acre Massachusetts Audubon Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, and has 60% of Borderland State Park comprising 1,260 acres within its borders, as well as the Warner, Massapoag Brook, and King Philip’s Rock nature trails.  In addition, the Town has been successful in preserving an additional 1,500 acres of its area of 24 square miles as public conservation land, totaling more than 5,000 acres of protected open space in Sharon."

Rick Ripley (above) has prepared a valuable series for his public access cable show.

It has it's own grassroots community organization, Sharon Friends of Conservation with an impressive content mix that includes a great overview.

The unifying element here is an array of trails. The Warner Trail leads of to the south all the way to Cumberland, Rhode Island. It parts company with the Bay Circuit Trail to the southwest near the borders of Foxborough and Walpole.

The eastward leg of the Bay Circuit Trail dips south along Lake Massapoag to meet Easton at Borderland State Park.

(Image Courtesy of Boston Public Library Photo Collection.)

This intrepid crew caught the annual rites of toad mating at Borderland.

Note For the Urban Carless. The wonders of Sharon are yours to discover through the capacities of commuter rail. 

Bay Circuit Trail: Andover Village Improvements.

Courtesy of the Norman P. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.

Andover is a microcosm of the entire Bay Circuit Trail System. It began to think about land preservation in 1894 when the Andover Village Improvement Society, (AVIS), was born. Since then, it has put 1100 acres under protection with a fairly comprehensive run of ecotones, glacial terrain traces and spots touched by the long history of the place.

And the spirit of volunteerism couldn't be more lively. Participation in the Bay Circuit system varies by town and Andover could be considered a hub if not the hub because the Bay Circuit Alliance has long had its home there and its Conservation Commission is comparably exemplary. 


It even has an organization given to weaving all the protected jurisdiction strands into a handy mosaic, the Andover Trails Committee.

I identified five areas of the town to provide a sense of its relationship to the Bay Circuit Trail and the other features that have shaped it over time.


1. Bay Circuit East.
This part is defined by the highest point in the area, Holt Hill, in the Charles W. Ward Reservation. The other anchor is the venerable Harold Parker State Forest. Between these two lies a string of gems including the Skug River/Hammond Reservations and the Mary French Reservation.


2.The Main Street Corridor.
Route 28 was cobbled together from a north to south patchwork of old turnpikes that began with a road from the market town, Medford, to the farm settlements along the Merrimack Valley edge.

Foster's Pond, at the southern edge with North Reading, has its own organization in addition to The Peggy Keck and Goldsmith Reservations. Heading north the Pustell Reservation follows. 

3. The Shawsheen Watershed Corridor.
This is also joined by the offspring of the Andover and Wilmington Railroad. It runs along the eastern edge of the river.


This may well be a defining feature of the town and considerable effort has been expended to make it shine. Following the river from south to north, the Sanborn Reservation is the first of these efforts followed down stream by Pole Hill, site of a ghost resort long gone to nature. Further downstream lies Pomp's Pond, home to a freed slave in Thoreau's time.


The Vale Reservation and the Shawsheen River Reservation form a centerpiece cluster that ties the Ballardvale neighborhood to Andover Center. And, at the point of confluence with the Merrimack, Den Rock Park is a collaboration with the city of Lawrence.


All these and other preserved lands are part of an ongoing creation, the Shawsheen River Greenway.


4. Bay Circuit West.
The trail continues to Tewksbury and beyond until it's eventual terminus in Duxbury.


As the trail rises from the Shawsheen river heading west, it immediately meets another cluster of parcels beginning with Indian Ridge Reservation and followed by Bakers Meadow and West Parish Meadow and the nearby cemetery,which has a thoughtfully designed walking tour.


There is a second cluster further westward built around the Harold Rafton Reservation, the largest property protected by AVIS. From there the Bay Circuit Trail heads toward the Merrimack. One additional parcel in this area lies at the edge of Tewksbury, the Nat Smith Reservation.

5. The Merrimack River.

The river's southern side is shaped by the bluffs of a kame terrace draped with white pine and returning oak forests. The principle parcel given to its southern side is the Deer Jump Reservation, a long and sinuous thing of beauty.

This is but a handy overview. These areas will get more detailed visits in future posts. As it is, we just finished several hours of video shoots to augment Andover's inventory.


Note For the Urban Carless. The wonders of Andover are yours to discover through the capacities of commuter rail.