Bonyun Preserve in Westport Island, Maine, is owned and maintained by the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust (KELT), which has a printable map and description of Bonyun Preserve on its website, as well as in a container at the trailhead kiosk. The Preserve, free to the public, and open daily from dawn to dusk, is named for the landowners who donated the 74 acres of land to KELT in 2002. Dogs are not allowed (eight other KELT properties allow leashed dogs). In mid-September, we used the Thomas Point, Mill Cove, Junction, and Junction Loop trails to make a double lollipop loop of about 4.5 miles, which took us about two and a quarter hours. I navigated using the AllTrails app and the description received from Falcon Guides’ Hiking Maine.
A small parking area is located off lower West Shore Road in Westport Island. The trail begins with a wide, flat pine-needle surface, heading downhill to the intersection of the Junction Trail and the Mill Cove and Thomas Cove trails, then splits north, moving around the shore of slow, muddy Mill Cove. The trail then divides into a loop heading south to Mill Cove, and the other side of the loop heading west, then south as it traces Thomas Cove enroute to Thomas Point and the wide Sasanoa River. We took the trail outward in this counterclockwise direction, crossing the narrow peninsula through tall hemlock trees.
Birds were everywhere, and we heard the scratchy whoosh of winged flight nearby, made by a massive bald eagle leaving a nearby tree and heading across the bay. We saw great blue herons, downy woodpeckers, belted kingfisher, hermit thrush, dark-eyed junco, gulls, and cormorants, and heard blue-headed vireo, red squirrels, and chipmunks. The views along this stretch of the trail were incredible, with sun piercing between tall, straight evergreens, brightly-colored seaweed, twisted cedar trees, and light reflected off the tidal blue-green Sasanoa River as it moves toward the Sheepscot River and the sea.
We stopped to recline on the warm rocks at the point at the end of Mill Cove before moving back up the loop. The remains of Heal’s Mill and its mill pond are here, with placards on the trail detailing their history and purpose, primarily turning logs into boards and grinding corn into meal. You can walk across the narrow spit of land dividing the mill pond from the river, and gaze through grasses and wildflowers at fallen stones and old machine parts and wheels, now covered in barnacles and mud.
Continuing back towards the start, we then turned onto the Junction Trail, where a brief climb leads to an overlook of the mill on the east side of Mill Cove, before crossing Junction Road, and heading through stone walls, past Jewett Cemetery to a hilly forest loop, before returning to the parking area. On this trip, we stopped for lunch aways south, freshly crafted sandwiches at the Winnegance Restaurant and Bakery in Bath. On a later trip, we have since enjoyed the open air tasting room of Sasanoa Brewing (May – Oct, weather-dependent), which is just down West Shore Road from Bonyun Preserve.
Hiking in Maine 