Boyden Farm & Murkwood Conservation Area, Sandwich MA.

    A few days after hiking Lowell Holly Reservation in Mashpee, I decided to head back that way and hike George Ryder Conservation Area. They are right next to each other and I wanted to check it out. I went down 6A to Quaker Meetinghouse Rd. then to Cotuit Rd. and pulled into the big parking area. I mistakenly pulled into Boyden Farm Conservation Area, which I forgot is before Ryder. I figured why not do this one since I would be doing it eventually anyway.
     I noticed 2 trailheads at each end of the parking lot that has room for well over 20 cars. Seeing that I knew it was a loop trail. Maps are available at the Town hall but of course I didn’t bother. No fun if you can’t get lost once in a while. (Lol) I started on the left trail and headed into the thick woods away from the road at a slight angle before it seemed to head back towards Cotuit Rd. The narrow trail turned into a carriage road and again headed away from the road with a neighborhood on the left. The trail got narrow again as it went down a hill that ended up at what turned out to be Peters Pond. There was a nice beach a little further to the right but the trail didn’t seem to bring me to it. I went back up the hill and followed the trail that was now looping back to the other entrance on the opposite side of the parking lot. On the way back  I saw an opening that went into a big field. I saw a carriage road to my left and took it down to Peters Pond, past cottages to the main beach. I headed back and went back to the trail that did bring me back to the parking lot.

   The trail was about 2 ½ miles so I decided I would stop at Murkwood Conservation Area on the way back to Yarmouth. The entrance to the parking area that is more like a small field is on the north side of Rte 6A. There is a new trail sign on a telephone pole that heads into the woods. The trail is narrow and curves around and gives a choice of going left or right. I always seem to go left and I did again. The level trail goes over a boardwalk and follows around Scorton Creek Marsh eventually leading to some fantastic views of the marsh and Cape Cod Bay. The trail loops back to where there was a choice of left and right. There is also a trail that cuts through the middle. This worked out good as I added another 1.75 miles to my daily hike and added 2 more trails to my list.

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

Accessibility - 5 - Murkwood on 6A and Boyden on Cotuit Rd
Parking -  5 - 20+ at both
Length-  3 - Together they are a 5 but separately not long enough
Degree of Difficulty- 5-  both pretty easy with some hills at Boyden
Extras-  4 - Other parks in the area
Trail Markings- 3- None but don’t really need them
Trail Maintenance- 5 - No problems
Variation - 3 - Loop trails with cut across trails
Scenic  - 3 - Both ended up surprising me
Worth Returning - 4 - Together a nice hike
Surface - Roots, Pine needles
Map - no for Boyden  - but I found one for Murkwood after I did it
Beach -   yes
Facilities - no
What I liked - Both places I didn’t know the trail led to nice views
What I didn’t - No Markings --- until I realized it didn’t matter

Rating 40 out of 50