[Journal entry for October 6, 2018; Otter Brook Preserve, Harpswell Maine]. The morning is cool and clear. Dallas and I invite Gigi Estes (our cousin and member of the Plymouth New Hampshire Conservation Commission) to hike in the new Otter Brook Preserve on Harpswell Neck. We parked at the lot that is off of Harspwell Neck Road, about a mile north of the Mountain, and walk the figure-eight trail system, which is about a mile and a half long. The land is on the east side of Otter Brook, a small stream that drains into Harpswell Bay, on the east side of the peninsula. Most of trail winds through mixed woods that have recently been thinned, though some large trees remain. The hardwoods are beginning to show their fall colors; yet autumn has come late this year and most leaves are still green. Late summer wildflowers abound, including Roadside Aster (both the purple and white varieties), Goldenrod and Queen Anne’s Lace. Mushrooms or many different varieties are also extremely common; I guess that the wet weather of the last month has really encouraged them.

We stop at a viewpoint by a wetland, at a point where Otter Brook widens out into a broad meadow. The marsh grasses and bushes are only starting to turn amber and just a couple of maples around the periphery are red. The trail turns and parallels the brook. I find several placed where I can walk down into its marshy floodplain (for the brook itself is but a trickle) to view wildflowers, grasses and surrounding trees – mostly conifers such as White Pine, but with some colorful hardwoods, too. I find a couple of spots where the brook has widened out into broad, still ponds that reflect the blue of the sky. They are pretty sights. The trail the loops back through the woods, crossing several small streams and passing patches of fern, gone yellow, and wild raspberry, gone yellow and red.

In a few minutes we were back at the car. About an hour and fifteen minutes, including stops to view the brook.