Riverbrook Preserve

After all the mixed precipitation of November, we finally had a clear sunny day just before Thanksgiving. It was the perfect opportunity to take a drive and explore a relatively new preserve in Waldoboro. The Riverbrook Preserve opened in 2017 with 1.5 miles of trails but additional trail work at the preserve had extended the trail network. An additional loop that led to the Medomak Brook increased our walk to almost 3 miles. For an updated trail map, one needed to take a photo of the map that was posted at the kiosk. Since the directions provided us with a well-known landmark (about 1 mile from Morse’s Sauerkraut) we had no difficulty locating this preserve, but it also helped that the parking area and kiosk were in an open field.

From the kiosk, the first portion of the trail was a path that had been mowed through the field. The only difficulty during this part of our journey was the partially frozen ground making things a little uneven. To our left, we caught glimpses of the Medomak River. In the middle of the field, we crossed a bridge that spanned a wet area. My husband did comment about how high the water must rise based on how high this bridge sat above the water.

Once we entered the woods, it was pretty easy to follow the trail. Every intersection was equipped with blue arrows and a number from 1 to 9 which corresponded to the map posted at the kiosk. The wooded path started off as a smooth dirt road, but as we traveled along, we did have to contend with the usual rocks and roots found in any wooded terrain. As the day warmed up, we also walked through a number of muddy sections which made me think that this could be very wet during the spring.

We decided to make the loop in a counter-clockwise direction. After veering off in that direction, we stopped briefly to study some red-capped lichen growing from the remains of an old stump. I was not entirely sure, but I think they were known as British Soldier Lichen. I spent some time attempting to get a decent picture of these tiny red soldiers before moving on.

At the top of the first loop (at intersection number 4), we began to explore the second loop. It wasn’t too long before we had views of Medomak Brook. The woods seemed a little darker here but perhaps it was because of the contrast with the open space across the brook. There definitely seemed to be more roots and blow-downs here, but there was plenty of evidence that trail crews had recently cleaned things up.

At intersection 9, we took a detour to try and spot the beaver dam. Along this side path was a sign that the preserve ended at the river. Since there was a bridge across this water way, we did walk to the middle of the bridge for a better view but, alas, we could not find evidence of a beaver dam. At the next intersection however, we did find the remains of the old mill that was marked on our map. We watched the water flowing past the stone remains of a small dam and made some comments about industrious beavers (yes we do have a weird sense of humor) before continuing on our journey. Maneuvering across this stony area was the most difficult part of our journey but once past this area, the trail evened out.

We stopped once more before completing this upper loop so that I could study a beautiful star shaped ice pattern in a small pond. This upper loop went along an old farm road for a while before intersecting with the lower loop. From there we went left to compete the lower portion of the trail system and to view the rapids marked on the map. From here, it was a short journey back to the field and the kiosk. It had been a lovely 2 hour adventure.