Scarborough River Wildlife Sanctuary

«ORDER 73. ORRRRRRRRRDER 73.»
«ORDER 74. 74, YOUR ORDER IS UP.»
This is how our walk through Scarborough River Wildlife Sanctuary started. With the sweet, sweet sounds of Ken’s teenage girls calling out orders through their insanely loud speaker system and is the overwhelming scent of deep-​fried seafood permeated our noses. Not sure about you, but that’s everything I want when spending time in nature. Who cares about listening to bird calls or smelling leaves, right?
In all seriousness, this 1.5 mile loop was pleasant enough — full of marshes, wetlands, forests, and fields. We did actually listen to many birdsongs, got to hear bullfrogs at the pond (which comes up unexpectedly from a tiny hill you walk up towards the end of the trail — it was actually very cool), watched chipmunks chase each other (amazing how noisy those little things are when crashing through the brush), enjoyed the hues of pink and white from the tremendous amount of apple trees along the path, walked along beautiful wooden bridges, and even found a tremendously random chair overlooking the ocean (seriously, see the photo).
It was a very flat trail, and to be honest there were several places where the path had eroded, leaving giant blue tubes exposed forcing us to literally jump over them to the other side. Many of the signs marking trees and other interesting historical points (like — did you know? — the area used to have a golf green in it) were also cracked or missing entirely. Oh, and our walk ended the way it started. We were still a good half mile in the woods when the smell of fried seafood hit us and «ORDER 109. 109. ORRRRRDER 109. YOUR ORDER IS UP» blasted our ears.
Now that I’ve seen this place once, I probably wouldn’t come back for any reason. But it is a GREAT trail (once it gets fixed up) for kids, walking your dog, for those who are less mobile, or if you’re trying to escape the OOB-​madness.

A whole
lot
of
history
The Scarborough River Sanctuary is a 52 acre parcel of land that has a couple of easy miles of hiking trails. Nothing strenuous or difficult, this is more a quiet stroll than a hike.
A few small hills but nothing extreme in the least. Most of the trails are soft grass and I even think someone comes by and mows it from time to time.
Much of the sanctuary is rolling fields and flood plain and one eventually leads down to the river. Unfortunately because of all the recent rain we couldn’t quite get that far. It was getting just too soggy and wet.
The area has lots of cool history and was a popular spot for the native Americans who fished the river and hunted and lived in the woods. It later became farmland and even a golf course at one time before it was finally declared a wildlife sanctuary.
Not a place for hard workout. Just a very quiet, peaceful and lovely place for a walk. A piece of land that people have walked, used and appreciated for a long, long time.