Bay Circuit Trail : Andover MA Hammond and Mary French Reservations.

The Hammond Reservation lies across the Salem Street from the Skug River Reservation which shares a parking lot.

It also shares ownership being a property of the Andover Village Improvement Society. And it is the next segment of the Bay Circuit Trail in this corner of Andover.

It has some fine wooded upland sections before crossing a wetland along an old dike designed to retain water for cattle.

Before long it passes a stone wall leading to the Mary French Reservation.

The Mary French Reservation is a property of the Andover Conservation Commission and features a long boardwalk through the heart of a wetland.

Mary French was part of a generation of women who had a very significant role in open space preservation over the second half of the 20th century in Massachusetts when they began to serve on Conservation Commissions to oversee the implementation of wetlands protection legislation.

From there the trail passes through another stunning Conservation Commission parcel before meeting the Ward Reservation.