503. MA NET - Shutesbury: Beaver by the Brook

This beaver used to live on a section of trail in Leverett that had gotten so "chewed up" with private property gaps that it lost its connection to the NET! Consequently, Trailhead Tessie also moved this beaver to Shutesbury so that it could once again find itself on the current official NET route - and with a real beaver pond to boot! Here are her updated clues from October 2016:

Quabbin “Off-Reservation land". (Sorry, no dogs.) Park at a small hiker lot near Quabbin Gate SH7, located on Cooleyville Road in Shutesbury. Caution: There seem to be many different Cooleyville Roads! To find the right spot, drive about 4.2 miles north on Route 202 from the intersection with Amherst Road in Pelham, and turn left onto Prescott Road heading west. At about 1.2 miles, there will be a sharp right for Cooleyville Road (if you kept going straight on the main road, it would also be called Cooleyville and then eventually would turn into Leverett Road.) Take that sharp right, and now you are driving on the M-M/NET. See the white blazes? Follow this gravel road for about 1.4 mile down the hill until you reach the bottom, where the road crosses over a small bridge. Look here for a small hiker pullout on the right and park.

Walk a bit down the road in the direction you were driving (northeast) to see a second bridge just like the first. If you cross the bridge and walk a short ways, there is a nice view of the beaver pond. When you are done looking, come back to the area between the two bridges, and look carefully for Gate SH7 on the northwest side of the road. The entrance may be somewhat overgrown, but it is between the two bridges. Walk past the gate and follow the white blazes. After about 7 minutes, the trail will take a right turn at some electric poles. Keep following the blazes for only a few minutes and you will arrive at a small brook that flows into the beaver pond. Just before the brook, on the right, will be a large twin pine, with a beaver in front.

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