For our first adventure, we tried some Greenbelt Properties.
The first property we visited was Thurlow’s Field. This property is not listed on their website and is located on Bachelor St in West Newbury, Massachusetts. My husband had found this location with a friend of his when they had gone out photographing birds. This small property is meadow with a pond at the back end of it. There did not appear to be many trails here and the one trail we found and went to the back side of the pond was soggy and tried to suck your shoes off your feet. On the plus side, my husband saw some ring necked ducks to photograph and I found the top half of a baby deer skull stuck in tree and picked clean.
The second place we popped in at was Allyn Cox Reservation in Essex, Massachusetts. This property was supposed to have a trail that ran between two private properties to something called Clam House Landing. My husband and I could not find that trail when we arrived at the property and did not want to trespass on private property. There is a meadow on this property that looks out over the salt marsh and parts of Eben Creek. You are able to see an osprey nesting platform, which was vacant at that time. We did find one of the two scenic viewpoints on this property and it was a beautiful view looking out over the salt marsh. The website says you can launch canoes and kayaks into the Essex River from the Clam House Landing. I wish we had found that trail that would lead there. I would love to check out the area and possibly go kayaking here. The meadow here was also soggy but at least it did not try to suck your shoes off your feet.
The last place we went to was the Julia Bird Reservation in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Once we arrived we looked at the trail and it was flooded. As a result, we made the decision to not explore this property.
We will probably try more Greenbelt properties later in the year. Currently it just seems that many of them are flooded due to the winter snow and spring rains we have had.