26 OLD TOWN HILL: Marsh and Farm Loop

KEY AT-A-GLANCE INFORMATION

LENGTH: 2.6 miles

CONFIGURATION: Loop

DIFFICULTY: Moderate

SCENERY: Salt marshes, woods, and hay fields, with a view of Plum island from the hilltop

EXPOSURE: Mostly shaded

TRAFFIC: Light

TRAIL SURFACE: Mostly packed earth with grass sections and some gravel roads

HIKING TIME: 1.5 hours

SEASON: Year-round 8 a.m.–sunset

ACCESS: Free

MAPS: Posted at the entrance

FACILITIES: None

SPECIAL COMMENTS: If planning a hike here in the summertime, bring along a bathing suit, because at mid-to high tide on a hot day, a swim in the nearby creek is a pleasure you won’t want to miss.

WHEELCHAIR TRAVERSABLE: No

DRIVING DISTANCE FROM BOSTON COMMON: 38 miles

Old Town Hill: Marsh and Farm Loop

UTM Zone (WGS84) 19T

Easting: 348042

Northing: 4736893

Latitude: N 42° 46' 10"

Longitude: W 70° 51' 26"

Directions

From Boston, take Storrow Drive east and merge onto I-93 north via the ramp on the left and drive 1.8 miles, then take Exit 27, on the left, to head north on MA 1. Drive 0.4 miles, merge onto US 1 north, and go 13.9 miles. Merge onto I-95 north. From I-95, take Exit 54 and follow MA 133 east 4.5 miles. Turn left onto MA 1A north and drive 4.8 miles. Shortly after crossing Parker River, turn left onto Newman Road. The entrance and roadside parking for ten cars are approximately 0.5 miles ahead on the left.

IN BRIEF

Surveying salt marshes and Newbury’s tallest hill, this hike explores a landscape that remains much as it was in the 1600s when a small group of colonists first settled the area.

DESCRIPTION

In 1633 a ship named the Mary and John hoisted sail and departed England’s Thames River to deliver 71 passengers to new lives in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Of these travelers, 2 were bound for Plymouth, 1 for Roxbury, 7 for Salem, 26 for Ipswich, 9 for Salisbury, 16 for undeclared destinations—and 9 for a new settlement they would call “Newbury.” After wintering in Agawam (now Ipswich), Reverend Thomas Parker and eight others pushed farther north to rich land they found at the mouth of the Quascacunquen River.

Today a monument commemorating the settler’s arrival sits on the Old Town village green. The monument is topped with a bronze replica of the Mary and John and bears the names of Newbury’s first citizens. The one-room school they established stands across from the monument on the green’s northern side. The meetinghouse they hastily built for a place to convene and worship was the 12th church the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This rustic shelter and its several replacements are gone, but services continue at the Old Town Church, erected nearby in 1869. Since it opened in 1635, Newbury Congregational Church has had just 11 pastors.

Arriving with little but each other and the clothes they wore, this group of nine quickly set to work building homes and clearing land for farming. Fearing attack by malevolent beings, particularly American Indians and wolves, the settlers passed a law that no house could be built beyond a half mile from the meetinghouse.

The quality of life in Newbury proved good and the first farms productive, so the population quickly expanded. As families grew and new immigrants arrived, the settlement spread to what are now the towns of West Newbury, Bayfield, and Newburyport.

Much about the region has changed in the years since, but to a remarkable degree, much has stayed the same. Many descendants of those aboard the Mary and John, my family included, still live in the community. Thanks to various conservation organizations, the landscape has stayed largely as the setters found it. Farmers continue to harvest salt marsh hay on the vast and beautiful marshes that lie along the Quascacunquen River (renamed the Parker River in honor of Reverend Parker), and Old Town Hill, farmed for generations by the Bushee family, remains much as it was in horse and buggy days.

From the parking area on Newman Road, hike southwest on the wide packed-earth trail. Several hundred feet along you will pass a trail heading uphill to the left. Continue on descending the hill to arrive at a causeway leading between tracts of marshland. Looking west here, you will see the Little River, a tributary of the Parker River. To the northeast, you can scan acres and acres of fragrant wetland dominated by a salt-tolerant grass called spartina.

On the far side of the causeway, a path splits off to the right, but continue straight up a slight rise to reach a cedar and oak grove on an island surrounded by tidal-zone marshland. The narrow path winds as it leads to a lovely small “beach.” If the day is hot and the tide high, pull off your shoes and jump in for the water is clean and the current gentle.

From this spot, the trail continues northwest along the edge of the woods, switching east to cross a hayfield thick with timothy, vetch, and patches of milkweed. At the end of the field the trail descends to the causeway crossed earlier.

Double back a short distance to the path running up a steep hill to the right. A climb up this banking leads to a wooden bench where you can relax and look out over a gorgeous view of the river below. From this spot, continue hiking east, paralleling a stone wall on the left. Ducking into the shade of hickory branches, bristly cedars, and scrappy black cherry boughs, continue until you come to a break in the wall marked with daylilies and an arrow pointing left. Heed the arrow and hike north alongside the hay field. As it is still a working field, you are likely to see huge shrink-wrapped bundles of hay waiting to be hauled off to feed the county’s horses and remaining cattle. At the corner of the field, the path continues through a parting in the weeds, reenters woods then quickly links back to the trail you came in on.

To expand your hike to Old Town Hill, cross Newman Road aiming north to find the trailhead marked by a white sign bearing a symbol of a hiker. Another sign posted nearby identifies this path as part of the Bay Circuit Trail. Traveling east through woods bordering Newman Road, the trail leads to an intersection near a pine grove planted in rows. Bear left to pick up a wide, packed-gravel trail. Swinging southwest as it gains elevation, this old wagon route leads to a pasture atop Old Town Hill. The Bushee family’s herd once grazed on timothy and clover here, now the meadow is a butterfly haven choked with milkweed and Queen Anne’s lace. Turning southeast to cross the hilltop, the mowed-grass path passes several old fruit trees holding out among the vigorous young Norway maples. The path reenters woods briefly before spilling out to a second field. From here, the township’s highest point, you can see for miles on a clear day. Thick clouds or summer haze may hide Plum Island and the sea from view, but you’ll know they are there by the fresh scent on the breeze.

To find the trail, walk east along the edge of the field 100 feet or so. Leaving the clearing, the path slants off to the right to retreat back into woods. Curving east, it then spills down a stony slope and arrives at a wide, open hay field at the foot of the hill. Loop around this tract of green, walking the periphery counterclockwise. When nearing where you began, look for the symbol of a backpacker on a white sign, and return to the woods, heading northwest.

As the trail bends this way and that, sections of boardwalk help keep your feet above water. After much twisting and turning, the trail arrives at a two-pronged fork. Pass the path that heads uphill under the pines and continue on the route bearing right. At the next split, stay to the left to rejoin the wagon road that scales Old Town Hill. Take up this route once more, hiking right to return to the intersection at the pine grove off Newman Road and head back to the parking area.