The trails are in very good shape dry, and often wide enough for two people to run abreast – providing you keep your eyes open for the not-infrequent piles of horse manure.   There is ample parking at the gate for several cars.   Trails are generally easy – a few small hills but mostly pretty level.

M15 to White Banks trail

Trail entrance

YMCA Trail

Entrance to the trail is in the right rear of the parking lot.  Enter the woods to the right of the shed and hear right along the edge of the drainage ditch.  A short incline brings you to the trail head. The trail immediately runs down an incline with a steep hill to the left. This hill comes out at the Middleboro High School. After crossing a small brook that is usually dry, the trail runs through a marshy area(trail is dry) and winds around to the left into the remnamts of an old sand pit. Go straight through the pit and pick up the trail on the other side.

From there you run behind some newly constructed homes and eventually out to Wood St.

Wood Street and beyond
The trail comes out on Wood St. across from St. Mary’s Cemetery and resumes in the rear right. After a short while you’ll come to a weedy pond. There is no other access to this pond besides the trail. I hear it has good fishin’ though I’ve never tried it. Right after the pond is another sand pit. The next landmark would be the rear of a large building whose frontage is on Rt. 28 – I think it’s Wood Ventures.

After that the trail winds down into some narrow spaghetti trails and finally peters out behind a house not far from Cherry St.

All in all, a nice litte trail, close to downtown, and a nice option if you don’t want to go far for a trail run/hike/ride.

Trail head

YMCA trail head

Pond on YMCA trail

Bogo and I ran this trail today.   It starts in Rochester on North Ave not far from Rt. 105.  The trailhead starts at gate R7 (Rochester gate 7).  There is ample parking on a dirt fireroad that runs up to the gate parallel to North Ave.    It is a mostly wide trai (fireroad wide) almost totally dry and relatively level minus a few hills.  The trail runs roughly straight in.  At the bottom of a hill bear left and take the trail to the right of the small sand pit.  Bogo tells me that this was a honeypot – a dumping area for crap in days gone by.  Eventually the trail comes to a causeway that goes out to Great Island on Great Quittacas Pond.

There are several very scenic overlooks that look out over this almost totally unspoiled pond.  There are a number of smaller trails that run for short distances off the main path.  This area connects with the land that runs along Route 105 to the east up near Negus Way.

Bogo here – Just a bit of an addition, Mark. This is a great area to get in a four or five mile run when it is real windy out.  I hate running in the wind and if you skip going on to the island you’ll be in the woods the whole time. Just explore the trails that are all in great shape.  There is also a nice parking area where North St. meets route 105.

Rochester - gate R7 trail