So I didn’t. I dusted off an old backpack, blew the spiders out of my old hiking boots, and downloaded the map for the Halfway Pond Conservation Area of the Wildlands Trust web site (Wildlandstrust.org). My intention was to walk a good portion the trails to the east of Mast Road, trails that are almost encircled by three ponds: Gallows, Long, and Halfway.
On the west side of Mast, adjacent to the small parking area that the Wildlands Trust has established, is a big unspoiled expanse of preserved open space called, I believe, the West Shore Preserve at Halfway Pond. It’s almost 250 acres all told, and includes a beautiful ‘cathedral’ of White Pines.
But I am familiar with that preserve (a winter exploration with my son is one of the entries on this blog), so I thought I’d work at finishing off the other trails in the area.
I parked in the same lot – about 2 miles down Mast Road from Long Pond Road, on the right. And although the Wildland’s map seems to suggest the entrance to the Gallows Pond Trail might be a few hundred feet further down Mast Road (on the left), it isn’t. The trail head is practically right across the road from the parking lot. As they say, ‘don’t blink or you’ll miss it. 12: 28 p.m. The entrance is easy to miss, though marked, and once on the path it is probably the steepest section of these trails that you will encounter. Note two things here: first, that you are on Wildlands Trust property – with its familiar white metal triangles marking their trails, and second, that this trail is also part of the proposed “Plymouth Wishbone” – a series of linked trails that, if accomplished, will allow hikers to go from either Ellisville Harbor in South Plymouth, or downtown Plymouth, and walk onwoodland trails all the way to the Carver border at the Myles Standish State Forest headquarters.
But hey, first things first. If you’re reading this you’re probably more interested in seeing if this particular hike fits your physical or philosophical needs : so back to the hike. The trail as I said, goes uphill right away, but not very steep really and, be assured, not for long. Just a minute or so uphill and then, your first decision. You’ve reached the intersection with the Whippoorwill Trail. You can go straight, to Gallows Pond, or take the right turn onto Whippoorwill.
My idea for this first local spring hike was to take Whippoorwill all the way to its end at the Blackmer Hill Trail, take that trail to its end (close to a small area of homes), then loop around on the Big Point Trail (great views of Halfway Pond Road) before meeting up again with Blackmer and returning the way I had come.
I anticipated that if I was out for a little exercise that – at a slow to moderate pace, it would be about a 90-minute hike. But given that I was going to be stopping frequently to take notes, or snap pictures, that would add another thirty minutes. You could probably add those thirty minutes to the hike if you brought along kids too. So to be safe – if you’re going to repeat this hike, give yourself two hours of hiking time. Fortunately, I live about ten minutes from the parking area.
12:33 p.m: So, at the top of that first little rise I took the right branch onto Whippoorwill and immediately the path began to wind down and around. At one point - a minute or so down the trail, it takes a sharp left hand turn. To keep hikers from missing that turn there is a bold arrow pointing left just before it, and a number of branches have been laid down at the turn to remind you.
Moments after that turn the trail squeezes between two young pine trees and about that same time Halfway Pond becomes visible, a distance off, through the trees to your right.
You’re far enough off the road now that you should begin to hear quite a lot of birdsong. At this point in the hike I could hear at least three different songs: Cardinals, Robins, a Catbird I thought, and maybe far off – always high up in the trees, an Oriole. And oh yes, sometimes we tune out the almost too industrious sound of Woodpeckers, but in these woods in the spring their tapping is almost always there in the background.
Pausing to listen to the birdsong, I also began to tune in a little more deliberately to the colors of the forest on this early spring day. The trees were not in bloom, but the moss was vibrantly green, and along the ground tiny dark waxy green leaves were often covering red berries. 12:42 p.m: A few minutes more of hiking and I came suddenly out of the woods and down onto Gallows Pond Road - or what I assumed was Gallows Pond Road. I got out my Wildlands Trust map and verified my position. At various points in this tangle of trails the path follows the roads, so I wanted to be sure that Whippoorwill continued – as it appeared to, straight across the road. It does, rising up a bit. Near the top of this rise I came across the first of nine or ten markers: small wooden stakes with metallic numbers applied to the top of each. They may be part of an educational walk of some sort, and may refer to particular trees, vistas or the like. At this point were stakes numbered 1 and 2.
I now heard ducks from somewhere below, most likely paddling about in the large wetland/bog that the map showed lay just ahead. Soon in fact the trail begins to skate around this large wetland area – the water on your left through the trees. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the trail never dipped beneath the water, or became too muddy. With the historic rain we had endured in the past thirty days you would think that the trail would have at least been a little mushy. But two factors were self-evident: first, that the people who had laid out this trail had shown some amazing foresight in keeping it far enough away from the naturally occurring wetlands and, secondly, that a large part of the reason for the flooding that people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island had experienced recently, was due to the loss of wetlands. Woodlands can absorb an amazing amount of rainfall. Instead of spending money to build retention ponds, why don’t we just leave more of the land in its natural state? I was about a quarter of the way around the wetland area – still on Whippoorwill Trail, when I came across a small stand of what I think were White Pine, including one enormous fellow at least 65 feet tall. I must have missed stakes 3 and 4, because at the base of that White Pine were stakes 5 and 6. And just a moment later I came to a nice tall bench set up to allow hikers to take a break and look out onto the wetlands.
I saw a few ducks scurrying into the more dense portions of the wetlands, so as I sat on the bench and had a nice pear, I began to call to the ducks, hoping to lure them closer. I have to say that my quack was fairly authentic, and for a while every time I quacked I heard a response, of sorts. But though they responded vocally, they kept their distance. Oh, by the way, near the bench is stake #7.
After leaving the bench and continuing alongside the wetlands on Whippoorwill I saw stake #8 (a dead tree?) and shortly after that the trail turned to the right and came to an unmarked Y intersection. To the left (north) the trail continues on and meets the Joe Brown Trail – then I believe becomes the Conant-Storrow Trail. To the right (southeast) Whippoorwill continues for its last few minutes before it runs into the Blackmer Hill Trail.
I took the right fork and probably no more than a minute later came to the well marked intersection with the Blackmer Hill Trail. Here – if your ultimate destination is Big Point, you can go either way and loop back to this intersection afterwards. I took a right turn.
The Blackmer Trail must have served some specific purpose in the past, for it is remarkably straight, about five feet wide, and occupies a deep furrow. It was perhaps an old logging trail, or cart path. After taking that right turn the Blackmer only continues for a relatively short distance before it ends – and to continue you must go left onto the Big Point Trail. Now you are headed almost directly toward Halfway Pond and then, moving parallel to its northern shore with beautiful vistas of the water to your right. The trail undulates up and down and in and out a bit – and you are well above the water here. You also pass through several small stands of Beech trees, which stand out in the otherwise gray woods because they hold on to their pale yellow leaves through the winter and into spring.
Up and down for a minute or so, and then you make a final climb and come to a nice high bench. This is the ‘Point’, a vantage point from where you can see a large part of Halfway Pond and – across the water, the sandy northeastern shore of a small island in the middle of the pond. This is an intriguing little island, owned by the Nature Conservancy, with no public access.
It had taken me just over an hour to get to this halfway point, at the Point, on Halfway Pond, so I took off my backpack and had a five minute break (granola bar, diluted cranberry juice). I don’t want you to think that you need to bring a pack on these local hikes: I often wear one just to remind myself of what it takes to do the kinds of hikes I really love, in the Whites of New Hampshire or the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine. Though it always pays to be ready for any eventuality when you hike, the trails in Plymouth are never more than 30 minutes in any direction from roads or residential developments. The bench at Big Point is maybe 20 or more feet above the water – at the edge of a steep, sandy cliff. It is possible to make your way down to the water’s edge, but I’d advise against it if you are alone or with small children. The soil is loose, and there is not much to hold on to. And when you get to the bottom – unless you have a boat waiting for you, you really won’t have a better vantage point for pictures.
1:42 p.m.: After a nice break I continued around the loop of the Big Point Trail, heading east along and above Halfway Pond for a minute or so, then northeast away from the Pond toward Blackmer Hill Trail. At first, after leaving the bench, you pass through a nice stand of older Beech Trees with their smooth, gray bark. Here many have the ‘eyelets’ that remind me of the Ozian forest that Dorothy and the Scarecrow passed through – but what I am told is actually evidence of Beech Bark Disease.
When the trail turns away from the Pond there is a glade of sorts, where for the first time the trail is not so easily followed. Here I suggest looking ahead for the Wildlands Trust markers or – looking back for those same markers. It seems there are more markers for those coming south on the trail. Once you come through that glade though, the trail moves a little more easterly, and shortly thereafter you come down onto Blackmer again. Check your map. This intersection is oddly and I think, insufficiently marked. The only signage identifies the way back to Big Point (where you just came from). If you go right on Blackmer (east) you will be headed toward West Long Pond Road, and the end of the Joe Brown Trail. If you go left (west), you will complete the loop you began when you first encountered the Blackmer Hill Trail where it intersects with the Whippoorwill Trail. Once on Whippoorwill again, backtracking to the parking lot on Mast Road, you can pick up a little speed if you like. While it took me nearly an hour to get to Big Point on my way in, without all the pauses for photographs and notes on the way back it took me about a half hour to get to my car.
Overall, Whippoorwill to Blackmer to Big Point is a nice walk. On this early spring day I saw no other hikers, enjoyed a degree of solitude, and stretched my legs a bit. Mast Road is fairly heavily traveled (as I neared it on the way back I saw a convoy of three phone company trucks heading up to Long Pond Road) but as soon as it is two or three minutes behind you the woods are nicely quiet. At Big Point car sounds from beyond the development south of the water (Halfway Pond Road) are evident, but the pond itself appears pristine. Probably my favorite stretch of this walk from an aesthetic perspective was the dip into and along the wetlands off Whippoorwill. At that point in the hike you are in large bowl, and the silence is only broken by the sound of ducks and other birds in the trees. In the summer, when the trees are in full leaf and all of the creatures are out and about, it would probably be quite a boisterous place to be.
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