Marsh views and a remote island: Try these great Sandwich hiking trails
Editor's note: This is part of our Best Hikes on Cape Cod series, which will highlight trails across Cape Cod all summer.
Read our recommendations for hikes in Chatham, Wellfleet, Truro, Provincetown, Orleans, Yarmouth, Brewster, Barnstable and Harwich.
Sandwich has a lot of great hiking to offer, and it's a convenient trip from most parts of the Cape. The Sandwich Department of Natural Resources has a very handy conservation land web page, with some great maps. More information about land conservation in town is available at the Sandwich Conservation Trust website.
As you start planning your Sandwich adventures, make sure to take ticks into consideration. You may want to look into treating your clothing with permethrin, an insecticide that keeps ticks from clinging to your apparel. The spray form is available at many Cape hardware stores. Several clothing companies (including Insect Shield and L.L. Bean) sell clothing that is pre-treated with permethrin — the protection lasts for about 70 washes.
As always, sunscreen and water should be part of your tool kit. So, lace up the hiking shoes and let's take a look at some of the top trails in Sandwich:
East Sandwich Game Farm/Talbot’s Point Conservation Area
This combo platter of the adjoining East Sandwich Game Farm and Talbot’s Point Conservation Area offers a total of about 245 acres to explore. There are huge marsh views, cool forest trails and you can sidle right up to Scorton Creek. I think the easiest place to park for this hike is the parking area at the end of Talbot's Point Road in Sandwich.
One of the Talbot's Point trails winds around an island-like upland that projects out into the huge marsh, past intriguing trees and rhododendrons. But that's just the start of the charm here. You'll cross bridges, an open meadow area and even see bat boxes.
It might make sense to plan this hike around the time of high tide, when the marshes are filled in with water. It just adds to the blue dreamscape of the entire experience.
Murkwood Conservation Lands
I drove by the Murkwood Conservation Lands on Route 6A in East Sandwich a million times before curiosity got the best of me. I think it was the name that finally made me stop: "Murkwood" sounds like an Edward Gorey story. I pulled into the little parking area on the east side of Route 6A (roughly 480 Route 6A for a Google Map search) and had a blast.
It's one of my favorite walks on Cape Cod, mainly because there’s rarely anyone else there and you have a 129-acre kingdom to yourself. The trail loops past bogs, marshes, big trees and provides a distant view of Cape Cod Bay. The foliage can be excellent here in the fall.
Toolas Preserve and Great Island
This is a relatively short hike, but it takes you to an amazingly beautiful place. According to the Sandwich Conservation Trust website: "Recently used to farm vegetables, strawberries, raspberries, and for forage by cows and horses, the one-and-a-half acre Toolas Preserve located along the Cape Cod railroad track in East Sandwich was an ancient site of native Wampanoag American activity."
Now this sounds like a small place, and it is. It is scenic and peaceful, however, and one part of the trail, a bit overgrown, leads to a bench with a lovely marsh view. But it was this sentence on the Sandwich Conservation Trust website that fired my imagination: "Walks of this area often start at Toolas Preserve, pass through Little Island, and end up on Great Island."
The walk out to Great Island takes you through a breathtaking marsh landscape that makes this worth the trip. Exploring Great Island is fun, too! There is a small parking area on the north side of the railroad tracks next to Great Island Road.
Eric Williams, when not solving Curious Cape Cod mysteries, writes about a variety of ways to enjoy the Cape, the weather, wildlife and other subjects. Contact him at ewilliams@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @capecast.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Great hiking trails in Sandwich on Cape Cod
