Trail Hound

Harwich Conservation Trails: Cache 'em before fall is over

October is the year in its prime.  It is ripe, colorful, mellow and secure.  But catch it quickly, before it withers and blows into a dusky dotage. 

In the past month or so, several new geocaches have been placed along trails in Harwich Conservation Trust properties.  Now is the time to explore these HCT trails in their autumn glory, and bag some finds.  Cache 'em while you can.

"Bank Street Bog Box" lies at the far end of, what else? Bank Street Bog.  Most passersby don't realize just how extensive these historic cranberry bogs are.  The round trip walk to the cache from the parking area is a good mile, and worth every step.  There are bluebird nesting boxes and wildlife aplenty to make this meadow and wetland preserve a habitat to explore.

For a walk through the woods, check out "A Boot, a Bike, and Mrs. Mehitable," at the Lee Baldwin Memorial Woodlands off of Lothrop Avenue.  The trail, which borders a red maple swamp, has a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk over the first segment.  Continue on and you'll find the three title items on your way to the cache.

Up the road, spend a little time encircling "Coy's Brook Woodlands," a 30-acre property which covers wooded uplands, an Atlantic white cedar swamp and the edge of the Herring River Marsh.  The geocache is a four-part multi so you get a full tour.

"In Your Soul," you know that a cache at the A. Janet DeFulvio Wildlife Sanctuary Boardwalk will reward you with sweeping views of the Herring River Marsh.  The short, fully accessible boardwalk brings you to a peaceful deck with a bench for watching nature play out in the classic salt-marsh landscape.  Ospreys soar around their nest and provide a dramatic show.  The cache is cleverly hidden, but as the cache description says, think outside - or inside - the box.

HCT and the Town of Harwich have many more paths to discover, and you can read about them in the full-color Walking Trail Guide available online or in the trailhead information kiosks.  Almost all the trails hold a geocache or two.  That just leaves Thompson's Field Conservation Area, 57 acres owned by the town.... Any geocachers looking for a good place for a hide? 

Happy trails.

Photos, from top:

Bank Street Bog

Lee Baldwin Memorial Woodlands

Herring River Marsh, from A. Janet DeFulvio Boardwalk