New England Trail/Metacomet-Monadnock Trail: MA Section 10

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Features Birding · Commonly Backpacked · Lake · River/Creek · Views · Wildlife

This is a very tedious portion of the NET/M&M since it's almost nothing but road-walking. It starts from the junction of Federal Street/Cheryl Circuit and runs northwest along Federal Street. It turns right at Gulf Road, crosses Route 9, and continues along Gulf Road for a ways.

The trail turns left when you reach the parking area for Scarborough Brook Conservation Area. This is a nice little area to relax for a few and take in the sights. There's plenty of wildlife-viewing opportunities at the pond here. If you're lucky enough, you might be able to pick a handful of cranberries before you get back on the trail.

The trail ascends slightly, travels along the edge of a property, then arrives at Packardville Road. While the website shows this portion of the trail ending atop Mount Lincoln, the sign is here at Packardville Road. The sign for New England Trail/Metacomet-Monadnock Trail: MA Section 11 would create an overlap, so I've ended it here.

Flora: Sheep Laurel, Striped Maple, Sugar Maple, Red Oak, Blueberry, American Chestnut, Paper Birch, Beech, Trailing Arbutus, Boxwood, Sourwood, Pokeweed, Forsythia, Lesser Periwinkle, Norway Spruce, Spotted Wintergreen, Pipsissewa, Rattlesnake-Plantain, Hepatica, Yew, Garlic Mustard, Red Cedar, Mountain Ash, Hawthorne, Raspberry, Staghorn Sumac, Stonecrop, Christmas Fern, Hydrangea, Common Mullein, Poison Ivy, Japanese Knotweed, Phragmites, Large Cranberries.

Fungi: Tinder Polypore, Birch Polypore, Parchment Fungi.

Fauna: Geese, Beaver (dam), Kingfisher, Woolly Bear, Bluebird, Titmouse.