On November 9, 2019 MFNC was treated to a walk (led by Art Goldsmith, one of the directors for High Lonesome) on the beautiful trails of this area in the Pakenham hills .  We were astonished by the variety of habitats which the area provides: old fields in stages of transition, forests, creeks, beaver ponds.  Art (our general, all-around naturalist) was ably assisted by Owen Clarkin (all things botanical), Erik Pohanka (birds and various other interests) and Kevin Keough (geology). With all of this expertise we had lots of opportunity to have our many questions answered.

There is a very old White Oak tree at the top of the Wolf Trail which we didn’t quite get to and the birds are known to be wonderful in the spring when the plants will be back in bloom and leaf—so many reasons to go back there!  And with the early onset of winter, it would be a great place to go snowshoeing.

There is excellent information about the High Lonesome section of the Mississippi-Madawaska Land Trust on the website, mmlt.ca

It is open to the public with well-marked trails of varying levels of difficulty.

Beaver Pond

Crossing the dam

Rock Polypody

Owl Box

Winterberry

Leatherwood