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Print Friendly MapThe Boxford Rail Trail is a short, rustic pathway open on a former rail corridor in rural Essex County. Now home to overhead electric wires owned by National Grid, the trail is open via a license granted from the utility to the Town of Boxford for non-motorized recreational use. The grassy service is best navigated with mountain bikes and hiking boots.
The trail is a component of the developing Border to Boston Trail, which will one day span Essex County from Salisbury to Peabody. The entire planned route, including the Boxford Rail Trail, is also a crucial link in the East Coast Greenway, a gargantuan effort to establish a multi-use trail network stretching from Maine to Florida.
Parallel parking is permitted on both sides of the road at the trail entrances on Georgetown Road and Pond Street.
This was once a magnificent five star trail with an astonishing variety of plant species that supported a myriad of mammals, pollinator insects, reptiles and birds, and that did not compromise the power lines that run above it through a large wetland. But this past winter of 2020 National Grid completely decimated every living thing beneath their lines and up to the woods that run parallel. All that's left now are dead sticks and stumps. So far, National Grid has not used herbicides to inhibit regrowth and at least the wood ducks have returned to breed. But the trail is now a depressing sight. I can only hope that in time, nature will endure and re-establish what was once there and that utility companies like National Grid will be prevented by law from ever committing what was tantamount to an environmental crime. This is something I will work to ensure.
Nice spring walk-full sun, cleared path with side trails that are clearly marked (part of Camp Denison).
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