Ipswich Pedestrians and Cycling Advocacy Group

The Ipswich Pedestrians and Cycling Advocacy Group (IPCA) was recently organized to promote safety for non-automotive transportation in Ipswich Massachusetts. We advocate for infrastructure that accommodates pedestrians and cyclists and will serve together as a resource for town boards and government. Your participation is important so that we can have an effective influence on town transportation policy.

Join us in our Google Group Forum Sign into your Google account and click on the image above.  Or you may email a request to be added to the list. Please include your name and preferred email address.

Monday, May 8, 2013, 8:00 pm: Join us at our third public meeting
Place: Town Manager's conference room 2nd floor, Ipswich Town Hall
Subject:  Promoting the warrant article on this spring's town meeting for improvements and repaving of Linebrook Road.

Click on the poster image below to open the picture file and print.  Please post at your favorite gathering place.

North Shore trails interactive map

Click on any of the green hikers in the map to view trails in and around Ipswich Massachusetts.


View Trails around Ipswich MA in a larger map

ECTA map of hiking trails in Ipswich

A map of hiking trails in Ipswich created by  The Essex County Trail Association can be purchased at Ipswich Cycle, Coastal Green Grocer, Rivers Edge Gift Shop, and the Ipswich Visitor Center

Ipswich Hills

Hills in Ipswich Massachusetts

Bartholomew Hill - 204' off Linebrook behind Doyon School
Bear (Boar) Hill - off Topsfield Road near Little Turner
Bush Hill - 193' off Topsfield Road
Castle Hill - 165' at end of Argilla Road
Elm Hill - Marini's Hill (Elm Hill Farm)
Heartbreak Hill - off Argilla Road
Jewett Hill - 212' off High Street at Rowley line
Little Turner Hill- 197' off Topsfield Road
Plover Hill - Great Neck
Prospect Hill - 262' Ipswich/Rowley line
Sagamore Hill - 172' Ipswich/Hamilton line
Scott Hill - 180' off Topsfield Road
Steep Hill - off Argilla Road facing Crane Beach
Tilton's Hill - near Treadwell Island
Town Hill - 184' East of town center
Turkey Hill - 240' between Pineswamp & Topsfield Road
Turner Hill - 250' off Topsfield Road
Vine Hill - off Topsfield Road (Masonic Temple)
Windmill Hill - County & Essex Roads (Cable Hospital)

Riverbend Trail at the Ipswich River Watershed Association

This short trail starts at Riverbend, the headquarters for the Ipswich River Watershed Association on County Road in Ipswich (map). Walk a short distance down the driveway from the visitor parking area and you'll see a trail sign on the left. The offices are on a small glacial knoll, so the trail heads downhill through a nice hardwood forest, then curves along the river to the IRWA canoe launch, just downstream from where the Miles River flows into the Ipswich River. Return to the parking lot by walking back up the trail. A bit downstream across the bend in the river is the Shady Brook Conservation Area, accessed at the end of Colonial Drive. If you canoe upstream a short distance, the Julia Bird Conservation area will be on the left (accessed on foot about a mile away on Waldingfield Rd. Protected by these and other local wildlife sanctuaries, the Ipswich River provides a haven for waterfowl, fish and small animals as well as scenic kayaking.

Continue reading to view an interactive trail map below

Hiking the Green and Red Trails in the Castle Neck Dunes

There are over 5 miles of trails through the dunes at Castle Neck, the peninsula that Crane Beach is on in Ipswich. A sign on the far right of the main parking lot indicates the trail entrance. On this three mile hike you'll start out on the Green trail, and after a short distance will have the option to turn left and follow the trails counterclockwise. Turn right, and the trail takes you through a forest of pitch pine before coming to another fork, where you continue right onto the Red Trail. Wigwam Hill rises before you with a steady but fairly gentle climb past the top of a chimney, all that can be seen of a house long ago buried by the sand. After a wonderful steep run down the back side of the second of two large dunes, continue past a short trail that ends at the Castle Neck River. The Red Trail bears left and comes to an intersection with the Blue Trail, which goes to the far end of Castle Neck. Continue on the Red Trail, winding through sandy dunes reminiscent of a desert. Eventually you'll turn right onto the Green Trail and walk through the side of the pitch forest closer to the ocean. Toward the end of this hike turn right on a Green Trail fork that ends near the first boardwalk at Crane Beach. Make sure to spend some time along the ocean before heading back across the parking lot to the trailhead.

Read more about the dune trails at Castle Neck
Download a trail map
Visit the Trustees of Reservations site

Interactive trail map:

Trails along the Ipswich River at Bradley Palmer State Park

This is a map of a stone dust handicapped accessible trail and other foot paths along and near Bradley Palmer State Park. The map starts at the handicapped parking area near the mansion and recently restored old house. A very flat stone dust path has a nice footbridge over a wetland and continues to the recently reconstructed footbridge over the Ipswich River that connects to Willowdale State Forest. You can continue along the river on the Bradley Palmer side, using either wider uphill paths or a rougher but wonderful path that meanders through trees and past old mill foundations along the river. When you reach Winthrop Street, take a sharp turn on a trail that eventually opens into one of the park's meadows. Near that point a wide path takes you back down to the footbridge, or you may continue on one of many paths through the meadow and eventually back to the starting point. The map below includes a section where I took one of the wider trails and then doubled back when it met the meadow trail.

View an interactive map of hike

Gordon College and Chebacco Woods

Today I headed over to Gordon College in Wenham Massachusetts to do some mountain biking on their nice paths, dirt roads, and the connections to the trails in adjoining Chebacco Woods. I edited out the wrong turns on narrow marsh trails or gnarly hillocks to create the enjoyable 7 mile ride below. This best maintained trails are appropriate for beginner and intermediate cyclists and take you through through hemlock and beech forests, over glacial eskers and around two large ponds. The narrower wetter or hillier unofficial trails take you through some extraordinary wetlands and through huge glacial boulder fields.

View a trail map from the Essex County Trails Association (ECTA)

View an interactive trail map below:

Hiking the Ipswich Greenbelt

This 19 mile hike follows the Bay Circuit Trail, starting from the trail to Prospect Hill off Rt. 133 in Rowley MA. It continues south through the Dow Brook and Bull Brook conservation lands and enters Willowdale State Forest. In the middle of Willowdale the route departs from the primary Bay Circuit Trail and joins the Ipswich spur, crossing the Ipswich River and continuing on the Discover Hamilton Trail through Bradley Palmer State Park, the Pingree Reservation, Appleton Farms Grass Rides,  Appleton Farms, New England Biolabs and Maplecroft Farm. The map displayed continues for three miles along Argilla Rd. on the route for the proposed Ipswich to Crane Beach Recreational Trail. 

View an interactive map of this trail

Pan-Ipswich Challenge

The 3nd Annual Essex County Trails Association Pan - Ipswich Challenge is a 20 mile walk that will be held on Saturday May 5th, 2012. Start on the trail from Hood Pond to Linebrook Road where you join the Bay Circuit Trail. Depart the main trail on a spur that crosses Topsfield - Ipswich Road . Cross the Ipswich River on the footbridge and continue, following the Discover Hamilton Trail. This will take you through Bradley Palmer State Park, crosses Highland Street and continues through the Pingree Reservation and Appleton Farms Grass Rides. From there the route passes through Appleton Farms, New England Biolabs' Proctor Estate, Maplecroft Trail and continues along Argilla Road to Steep Hill at Crane Beach.Read more and sign up at the ECTA site.

Pan Ipswich Trail walk start: dirt parking lot off Rt. 97 on the right just before Hood Pond

View a map with turn by turn notations by clicking here 
Interactive Trail Map:

A hike at the Pingree Reservation

The Pingree Reservation is 136 acres of preservation land in Hamilton MA, located on the grounds of one of the 'Great Estates' of the early 20th century. The trail is a part of the Bay Circuit Trail and connects to Harvard Forest. This walk is a loop on wide paths past streams and over several eskers, beginning at the Pingree Reservation entrance on Cutler Rd. in Hamilton MA, directly across from the last gate into Appleton Farms Grass Rides. There is no parking at this trailhead, but just past the commuter rail bridge on Cutler Rd. is a pull-in for one or two cars, near the entrance to Harvard Forest

Just before the end of this hike I turned right and crossed the commuter rail tracks for a short time in Harvard Forest, 100 acres of conifer plantations and upland forest owned by Harvard University and said to be the oldest continuously studied ecosystem in the country. To access the Pingree trails from this location, follow the trail from Cutler Rd. and take a right where it crosses the commuter rail tracks to join the Pingree trails.
Pingree Estate trail map from the Essex County Trail Association (ECTA.
Harvard Forest trail map from the Essex County Trail Association.
Continue reading to view an interactive Trail Map

Boston's Emerald Necklace

In 1877 Boston  park commissioners endorsed a continuous linear park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (creator of New York's Central Park) along the Charles River to Franklin Park,; from Back Bay through Brookline, Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. Eventually roads and highways divided the Emerald Necklace necklace into six unconnected parks with often very dangerous crossings. Today the Emerald Necklace is being protected by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy

The Emerald Necklace includes:  Boston Common Public Garden Commonwealth Avenue Mall Back Bay Fens The Riverway Olmsted Park Jamaica Pond Arnold Arboretum, and Franklin Park.
View an interactive map of Boston's Emerald Necklace

Boone and Dow Park

Daniel Boone Park is at the top of Spring St. in Ipswich MA. Turn left into the park entrance and park at the designated parking area. In 1957 the park was established by Ipswich Rotarians as a testimonial to the Rev. Daniel Boone, rector of a local church and tireless worker for the residents of Ipswich.

You may first wish to walk back down the hill and cross the road to a short trail that takes you to a plaque on a bolder honoring artist Arthur Wesley Dow, who gave fifteen acres to the Town. The boulder reads: “I give to the Town of Ipswich Bayberry Hill (so called by me) within said town with a commanding view which is dear to me over the marshes, creeks, river and hill to the ocean to have and to hold by said town and its inhabitants forever for the use of the public as a place of recreation and enjoyment.”

Return to the parking area and follow the trail clockwise around the pond. Continue behind the town water storage tank and take the trail down to a small secluded older section of the town cemetery. The trail then joins with the; Old Coach Trail and ends up back at the park entrance.  
Continue reading to view an interactive map of this hike at Daniel Boone Park.