Guggins Brook Conservation Land

Guggins Brook downstream from stone culvert

The 55.5-acre Guggins Brook Conservation Land, acquired in 1975 through a Self Help grant, is a predominantly low-lying, frequently wet area through which Guggins Brook and Inch Brook flow. The main access is from a small parking lot on the easterly side of Route 111 (opposite Birch Ridge Road) about .5 mile west West Acton center. Here, the conservation area abuts Water District land that the fairly lengthy access trail traverses over often-muddy ground before crossing Inch Brook on a short bridge into the main Guggins property. A secondary access, also lengthy, is from Central Street by way of an easement granted by the New View community. The only safe public parking for this entrance is about .3 mi. away at the tennis courts on nearby Elm Street.

The trail system does not conform to the model used for most conservation areas, as it consists of a pair of nearly independent loops of similar length. The main loop (yellow-blazed) can be reached by either of the two access trails. The secondary loop trail (blue-blazed) does leave and rejoin the yellow-blazed trail, but it is a long loop that touches the yellow trail in three places. Traversing the outer portions of both loops, a hiker can make a 1.0 mile walk from the junction near the Inch Brook bridge and back.

Two other short secondary trails bisect two bulges of the main loop. This unusual trail configuration is due to the extensive portions of the conservation area which are wet throughout most of the year except in very dry years. The driest area, and also the most scenic, is traversed by the yellow trail. All trails are appealing because they cross on several bridges and boardwalks the different streams and wet areas. Some trail sections have been improved by ‘corduroying’, that is, placing logs cut to a standard length side by side into a muddy base.

Guggins Brook, flowing east from Boxborough, bounds one side of the conservation area and gives the property its name. The Brook is channeled through culverts under the trails at several points and parallels the main trail below its confluence with Inch Brook, which drains a large swamp in the conservation area where there are no trails. The combined waters eventually join Fort Pond Brook, which forms one corner of the property, just beyond the woodlands and outside of the conservation area.

This conservation area is not suitable for either horses or mountain bicycles because of the wetness, but there are some very scenic areas, particularly along Guggins Brook where it flows through a canal bounded on one bank by a raised dike. Here the water is calm, quietly flowing through a lovely straight streambed.

Trees found in the parcel include white pine, red maple, oaks, hemlocks (many of these in a dark quiet grove that the main trail passes through, near the center of the parcel), quaking aspens, and occasional apple trees (remnants of the orchards that were once common throughout Acton).

Guggins Brook Map

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