Flax Pond Conservation Area - Dennis MA

The day after hiking Crow’s Pasture was raw, cloudy, cold and windy  That trail is perfect for a nice day since part of it is wide open and leads to the beach. I decided on a place I had driven by many times but had never tried.
      Flax Pond Conservation Area in Dennis off of Setucket Road was a nice find(about 2/10 a mile past the Yarmouth/Dennis town line). This trail has many choices and that’s part the reason it has been so long since my last blog. I wanted to hike the whole trail and each time I have gone back, I found another trail I wanted to explore. I went four times this week, finding something new each time. The other 3 days I went twice to my “home trail” - Callery-Darling - and once to Chapin Beach since it was another especially nice morning in March.
      From the small parking lot follow the access road past the power lines about ¼ mile to Flax Pond. There are two choices - left or right - Left brings you around the pond but just as you get around the corner there are 4 or 5 no trespassing signs. There is a sub-trail leading away from the beach that goes up a decent hill that will bring you to  the power lines and loops back to the access road.
       Taking a right at the pond starts up a hill and gives you another left/right choice. The left trail (A) is wide and keeps going up with the pond on the left. It starts going away from the pond and heads past some watersheds and to Dennis Highlands Golf Course which will be on your left.. The right trail (B), which is also nice and wide, heads down away from the pond. The B trail keeps going until it comes to another access road. Going to the right leads you to Setucket road and is about a mile from the pond. Going to the left you will see Dennis Highlands Golf Course on your right, and will connect with A by the watersheds.  In between A and B is dense hilly woods. There is a third wide path that cuts the two in half and many sub-trails that connect them all. Some of these are very big hills. There are also many sub-trails that connect to the many surrounding neighborhoods.

Ratings 1- the cellar  2- shoddy  3- tolerable  4- worthy  5- wicked good

Accessibility - 3 Have to know where it is or you drive right by
Parking - 5 - Free
Length-   5 - Very good with all the trail choices
Degree of Difficulty-  3- 5   the main trails are easy the sub-trails can be very hard with very steep hills and very narrow paths
Dog Friendly- 5 - the dogs seem friendlier than the people
Good for Family- 4 - wide paths not much of a beach area
Trail Markings-  4  easy to follow but can be a little confusing at first
Trail Maintenance-   5-. Well traveled
Variation - 5-  so many choices
Scenic  - 2-  can see the pond at  the beginning

Beach -   fresh water

What I like - Plenty of choices
What I don’t like-  plenty of choices (lol)  some days you don’t want to have to choose

Overall Rating-    41-43 out of 50