Millie’s Path is a short, picturesque trail that runs between Lancaster County Road and Old Mill Road behind the Foxglove Apartments and office buildings that face Ayer Road. The trail was built by volunteers in 1994 to give residents of the apartments walking access to Carlson’s farmstand on Ayer Road, which was where the post office is now.
At Carlson’s farmstand, basic food items, the daily and Sunday newspapers, hot coffee, breakfast and lunch, seasonal food, and gift items could be purchased along with a helping of town gossip. The path from the apartments to Carlson’s farmstand was the ideal example of town walkability.
This walking loop, with Millie’s Path as the critical link, passes through historic, natural, athletic, agricultural, and/or commercial areas of interest. It can be as short as a mile or combined with other destinations, such as the Harvard Alpaca Ranch. Or I could get in some laps around McCurdy Track before continuing on the walking loop. It is possible to walk to Red Tail Golf Club or get on Barnum Road at Devens from this loop.
So to start, I parked the car at McCurdy Track, although I could have parked at the post office, Charlie Waite field, or my dentist’s office and picked up the loop from wherever I parked.
From the track, I strolled through the pretty nature trail behind it, keeping the track to my back until I arrived at a stone wall with houses on the other side. I went through the break in the stone wall at the Town of Harvard Conservation Land sign. Maps labeled this as Stone Conservation Land. There the trail leaves the woods and opens up in a grass field. A mown strip cuts straight through the field and another mown strip goes around the perimeter.
I turned right. Where the field’s perimeter started to turn a corner, a Harvard Conservation Trust sign on a tree, on my right, indicated a spot that goes into the woods and to the edge of Bowers Brook. It’s a nice spot for blueberries or studying the brook.
I went back to the field and the mown path and looked for an opening in the trees in order to exit onto Old Mill Road. Across the road is an antique farmhouse with pretty fields on either side. A cracked mill stone is displayed in the yard, attesting to this road’s history.
The Old Mill Pond, also known as Golden’s Pond, shimmered as I walked past it toward Ayer Road, scanning the edge of the road for a worn area on the ground that leads into the woods and up onto Millie’s Path. This part of the path, from Old Mill Road to the Foxglove Apartments, is on private undeveloped property that is for sale. A snowmobile trail, directly across from Millie’s Path, leads through the woods to Sorrento’s Pizza.
Turtles rested on the trunks of trees that had fallen into the mill pond. A little path off the trail heads toward the sound of rushing water. I carefully followed this little path and saw the pond’s water tumbling over a dam down to the brook that ripples along under Old Mill Road and into wetlands.
Millie’s Path
Millie’s Path is a really nice bit of trail. Its width, the feel of the ground, its meandering style, the sense of safety, are all comforting and relaxing. The trail is below the hectic pace of traffic on Ayer Road but overlooks the gracefully flowing water in Bowers Brook.
Copious amounts of acorns lay on the path. Birdsong was in the air. At the Foxglove Apartments a bench has been placed at the edge of the high land overlooking the brook’s s-curves below. Foxglove and office buildings can be accessed from here by walking through a garden with raised beds and the parking lot. Beyond the apartments is a building with a dental practice and a chiropractor’s office, facing Ayer Road. This feels like the highest point on this short trail.
The trail continues to follow the brook, over boardwalks in wet places, as it descends to the edge of the water. You can see the remains of a stone wall and places where the water is undercutting the land’s edge like a scene from “Wind in the Willows.”
Crossing Bowers Brook
In back of the Acton Medical building the trail ends at a small field whose far edge abuts Ayer Road. A barely visible path along the hedgerow ends at Lancaster County Road and the paved access to a fire pond. The road immediately goes over a bridge crossing Bowers Brook. The back entrance of the post office is a few feet beyond, at the intersection with Gebo Lane.
I crossed Gebo Lane onto the Charlie Waite Field. Walking along the edge of the playing fields, parallel to Lancaster County Road, I came to a break in the hedgerow at a big boulder, behind Harvard Green. The track is across the road and I could see my car in the parking lot.
One of my goals in figuring out this loop was to not have to cross Ayer Road, but if a coffee from Dunkin’ is a necessity, a path could be designed through, perhaps, the playing fields and the abutting uninhabited lot for sale. Another thought in creating this particular loop was to avoid walking along Ayer Road, where the traffic is noisy, blows up grit and dust, and feels unsafe.
