The trip report
Written by PaceAlong
If this were Halloween-time, saying that we were ghosted might be cool but this is April. We were ghosted by the hike leader!
Four of us had assembled per the instructions at the Slade’s Corner Road, Dartmouth, MA parking area at the Destruction Brook Woods, 1 PM. After no messages from the leader we checked the website and were puzzled to see that the leader’s profile had been removed. Not to be deterred, with a beautiful day and many miles travelled to get here, we set off at 1:30 PM to explore the loop trails within the 280+ acre conservation area. We exited shortly after 5 PM having hiked 5+ miles. Conditions were dry and no bugs.
We found the trail signage relatively easy to follow. Plus, we used the maps provided to navigate our way. We had chatted with a hiker who was just returning from an outing with his dog. Kindly, he gave us a recommended itinerary. We followed the red trail to the green which took us onto the neighboring town conservation area. That would bring us back to a short connecter to the red and, then, over to the yellow and blue loops. Being late afternoon, we mostly explored the yellow loop.
The land is relatively flat with gentle wide and well-maintained trails with mostly a deciduous forest cover. Mature white pine and lots of young pine regenerating were mixed throughout. Of note, were some mature American holly trees. Originally, the land was a former estate. Many old stone walls defined once-upon-a-time pasture areas, the cellar hole of the 1850’s era house was interesting to see and we visited the Gidley Family cemetery. In some of the wet areas, the skunk cabbage was unfurling its bright green foliage. We saw geological formations called eskers, sandy mounds left behind from the glaciers. In another area we encountered some hillier geography with large rock formations that just seemed to pop up from nowhere in the forest. Destruction Brook is a small brook that crosses the land. A pond created by a stone dam makes for a beautiful view. This would have been the area to have lunch, though, we had eaten earlier atop one of the eskers where the warm sun shone through the pine trees. Along the way we had been looking out for the Atlantic White Cedar trees that had been mentioned only to find them on the way out near the beginning of the trail.
We met a number of people along the way, some of whom had dogs, including a Belgian Shepherd and a Bernedoodle. This is a very dog friendly site.
The people of the Dartmouth, MA area have a real gem at their pleasure. For more details see: https://dnrt.org/destructionbrook.
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About this event
Come and enjoy the beautiful farmcoast and meet up at Destruction Brook. Meet at Slades Corner Road parking lot entrance at 1:00 p.m. Feel free to bring your leashed dog. Anticipate at least 6 miles of hiking.
https://dnrt.org/destructionbrook/
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