Hiking in Maine

Note: According to the Falmouth Land Trust web site, each spring, trails are closed during the transition from frozen ground to ensure that the trails are not damaged during the rain and mud season. This year, trails will begin to close March 25th. All trailheads will be cordoned off and signage posted.

The Hadlock Community Forest in Falmouth, Maine, is accessible primarily from a small parking area near the end of Hadlock Road with a map and kiosk. Information regarding the almost 300 acre property, with a loop trail of about 2.9 miles, can be found on the Town of Falmouth’s website for the forest. Many activities are allowed in the Hadlock Community Forest, including hunting in-season, so wear blaze orange during those times. I visited on a mid-March day, needing microspikes for the entire trail. For me, this was part of a longer 6.7 mile loop through a connector to the Rines Forest.

The Hobb’s Brook Trail (white blazes) leads from the Hadlock parking lot to some foot bridges over marshy areas and quiet streams until reaching the Highland Trail (blue blazes), where I took a left, then a right to stay on the Highland Trail to the Perimeter Trail (yellow blazes) where I followed the easy, gently rolling terrain over pools, bogs, and boulders. These low areas provide many vernal pools in the spring thaw. Taking a right on the Highland Trail from Hobb’s Brook would bring you eventually via the Cross-Falmouth Trail to Blackstrap Hill Preserve.

A right on the Rines Trail after about 1.5 miles led toward Cumberland. Starting here, I heard a steady cannonade from the Falmouth Gun Club to the west. At a T-intersection with the snowmobile trail, I took a right, following the green blazes to an intersection with Cumberland Trails.

On the trail to Rines Forest, I disturbed an owl that swooped upward and set itself on a branch, regarding me sternly. I will cover the Rines Forest separately, but upon return, I continued on the Perimeter Trail to return to Hobb’s Brook, and back to the parking area.

In closing, a word to the good people of Falmouth, who, I can only assume, from my observation, are assembling a Hadlock Museum of Dog Poop. Bagging your dog’s poop and then hanging it from trees like Christmas ornaments in hell is not an acceptable practice. You’ve done less than half the job. I was floored by the amount of scatological decoration employed on this trail. It is a beautiful hemlock forest ruined by a disrespectful infestation of plastic-encased dog poop.

All that aside, the Hadlock Community Forest is a flat, easy hike for the family, and connects to Blackstrap Hill Preserve and Rines Forest for those looking to create a longer hike that’s not all that far from Maine’s urban centers.