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Hike of the Month: Paul C. Dunn Woodland Preserve

Posted Tuesday, February 4, 2025
NewsHiking TrailsAshburnham

 

If you’re looking for a leisurely weekend hike, escape into the quiet beauty of Ashburnham’s Paul C. Dunn Woodland Preserve, Mount Grace’s second largest conservation area. Spanning 166-acres, this woodlot offers an easy 1-mile hiking loop that meanders through vibrant mixed forest and lively wetlands. Alongside the trail, you’ll even see an unmistakable glacial esker – offering clues of our region’s glaciated past.

Watch Exploring Ashburnham's Paul C. Dunn Woodland Preserve on YouTube to get a glimpse of this beautiful trail!

The preserve offers great opportunities for recreation year-round, including hiking, fishing, birdwatching and hunting. Enjoy the choruses of frogs and birds in the spring, abundant wild berries through the summer and beautiful fall foliage. Come winter, this conservation area also offers great terrain for snowshoeing and wildlife tracking. This property, which was given to Mount Grace in 1991 by Paul and Laura Dunn, has never been farmed. Instead, it historically provided a source of lumber for the region’s numerous wood turning and furniture factories.

About the Trail

Starting from the trailhead kiosk, hike through groves of white pine and spruce, up a series of small hills to the top of a glacial esker – a line of mounded gravel and sand that melted out from the underbelly of a glacier over 14,000 years ago. The esker forms a peninsula that looks out over a large grassy wet meadow with beautiful views of the northern branch of the Miller's River to the north, and wetlands of birch and red maple to the south. After crossing a small stream, keep an eye out for several small trail spurs that will take you to more views of the wetland and interesting geologic rock formations, before looping back to the main trail.

As you progress through the southern and eastern sections of the trail, the forest gives way to open stands of oak and red maple and old logging roads lined with moss and ferns. Along the trail you can see evidence of sustainable logging: several large, open sections where dead wood was left to promote habitat structure for a variety of wildlife. Look for a wide array of birds, including hawks, owls, pileated woodpeckers and numerous songbirds. You might also spot herds of deer and perhaps a solitary moose in the early mornings.

Paul C. Dunn Woodland Preserve Trail

  • Distance: 1.2 miles
  • Type: Loop
  • Elevation Gain: 39 feet

Directions:

2 Hewitt Rd, Ashburnham, MA 01430

From the junction of Route 12 and Route 140 in Winchendon, take Route 12 (Spring Street) east. Turn north (left) on Depot Rd toward Sunset Lake. Depot Rd turns into Dunn Rd after crossing Sherbert Rd. Continue on Dunn Rd for 1 mile and turn east (right) onto Hewitt Rd, a dirt road, directly opposite from Blueberry Rd.