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Adventures Out

Down on the Boardwalk

Boardwalks offer a special magic for kids, an adventurous path to follow that makes a sound all its own as their feet patter along the trail. Boardwalks also often protect natural vegetation and fragile landscapes, allowing you to explore marshes, dunes, swamps, bogs and other habitats without leaving footprints behind. Here are three great local boardwalk choices, all meandering through splendid natural habitats.

Find Birds and Braille

At the Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Norfolk, not only is the Pond Loop Trail wheelchair accessible, the first section features a self-guided post-and-rope trail for the visually impaired, with 11 interpretive signs in English and in Braille. When you reach the extensive boardwalk that follows along Teal Marsh, look for turtles, muskrats, fish, great blue herons and other creatures. The trail loops around a beech grove, with an observation deck where you can view ducks and geese at Kingfisher Pond. If you continue on the Pond Loop Trail, you’ll pass the former mill site, the mill dam and a waterfall before returning to the Nature Center. The trail is less than a mile long, making it a great destination for young walkers. An interpretive trail guide is available in large print, Braille or MP3 audio.

Cross a Bog

Most boardwalk slats run perpendicular to the direction of the trail, but the Ponkapoag Pond Boardwalk at Blue Hills Reservation in Milton is designed plankstyle. The boards spring up and down with your weight as you traverse a bog. It’s best to have one person on a plank at a time, to avoid submerging your feet in the coffee-colored water. (Wear boots or old shoes, just in case.) Neither land nor water, the bog features carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews that eat insects. Look for Atlantic white cedar, moss, cranberries and high-bush blueberries. The entire trail around the pond is 4 miles long. If you just want to do the half-mile boardwalk at the northwest corner of the pond, park at the reservation’s golf course.

Tour a Marsh

Head north to Plum Island near Newburyport and enter the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. At the Hellcat Wildlife Observation Area, a 3.5-mile drive from the refuge entrance, the Hellcat Interpretive Trail boardwalk meanders 1.4 miles through freshwater marsh, shrub/thicket, swamp, dune and maritime woodland habitats. You can follow the .6-mile Dunes Trail or the easier, but longer Marsh Trail. Both include many stairs. Along the marsh trail, look for beaver signs (pointy tree stumps) and the beaver lodge in the North Pool by the observation tower. The manmade wetlands are home to birds, fish and other wildlife. Numbered markers along the way refer to information available in the interpretive trail guide. Plum Island has limited parking, and parts of the refuge may be closed to protect the nesting and feeding habitat of the piping plover, an endangered shoreline bird. (In July and early August, call ahead for a report on the greenheads, a hard-biting insect you might wish to avoid.)

(BPP, 7/09)

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