Favorite Hometown Runs: Duxbury, Mass.

Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up to Frank’s post from March 2012, where he reviewed his favorite run in Kolding, Denmark. Check it out here.

While Duxbury, Mass. isn’t technically my hometown, I do consider it something of my “adopted” hometown. My parents have lived there for almost 20 years and I actually lived there for a year while a struggling (in more ways than one) newspaper reporter. In that year and a few times in the years following, I did a fair bit of running in and around Duxbury and one of my favorite runs is a trail loop through the North Hill Marsh area. So while I was spending a few days this week in Duxbury, I decided to run the loop again after a roughly 10 year absence. Here’s how it played out.

Here’s a link to a map of North Hill Marsh trails and another one of the Round Pond trails, in case you want to follow along. I sure wish I had the map with me during my run (I was sure my memory would serve me better, but alas Father Time had a couple tricks up his sleeve…) The trails are well marked with colors and letters, but of course, I learned these trails before there were markers, so the little buggers only served to confuse an already confused old man further.  

I usually park at the two small dirt lots on Mayflower Street. On one side of Mayflower Street is the Round Pond section of trails. While there’s not a lot of distance here, it’s a great way to start your run and get a couple really nice views across some cranberry bogs (that will be a view you get plenty of on this run!).  After meandering along the Yellow and White trails for a bit more than a mile, you can get the Red trail to cross Mayflower Street and start on the North Hill Marsh trails.

This is where the confused old man got downright befuddled. After starting out the way I had a hundred times on the Pond Loop, I somehow completely missed the Kettle Hole Loop which skirts the Mayflower Cemetery.  Instead, I cut straight over to the Green Harbor Trail and then caught the Connector Trail back to the Pond Loop.  Boy, it’s amazing what a decade will do to a guy’s memory.

The Pond Loop from there is a joy to run. It runs a complete circle around the pond, which is a Mass Audobon property. There are some nice views of the pond, bird watching stands, some running across cranberry bogs, and virtually no hills.  

Here’s a short video clip from the run.

Despite a couple wrong turns and dead ends (“I’m sure this trail used to connect to that bog!”) I enjoyed my first trip back to these trails quite a bit. It was fun to test not only my fitness, but also my memory (I think I failed on both counts but had a lot of fun in the process).