In the Dacquino Forest

Have you ever hiked around in the Dacquino Forest?  If you’ve been on the Bicentennial Trail south of Austin Rd, you’ve gone right through it. 

The town of Amherst acquired this ~70 acre forest in 1997 from Mary and David Dacquino.   It's a vital piece of property that was once part of the original Johnnycake Farm owned by the Moody family -- a quiet, peaceful wildlife habitat close to both the center of town and highway 101.

You can get there from either end of the Bicentennial Trail, of course, but there’s also a trailhead (and really lovely kiosk) on Dodge Rd, nearly across from where Crockett Rd. intersects.  Yes, parking is just a wide spot in the road (about 50 feet south of the trailhead), but even in winter it has space for 3 or so cars.

I spent several hours out there yesterday – not just because it was beautiful outside (and it was!), or that I wanted to wade through thigh-deep snow drifts for the daily cardio workout (yes I did!), or even that I wanted to experiment with putting on snowshoes while standing knee-deep in the crusted snow (not recommended!).

I went out to look at part of a proposed route for a cross-country ski trail out there.  

Now, I don’t cross-country ski at all.  Never tried, don’t have a clue how one goes about it.   Happily, there are much wiser folks than me around, and one of these sits on the ACC -- Bill Wichman.  After the Dacquino Forest’s timber harvest last year, he suggested that perhaps we could leverage the new landing and skid roads into a usable trail for skiers.  He even arranged for a crew of freshman from Souhegan to come out and start clearing part of the proposed route, and their hard work provided the corridor I used while trekking about in the trackless snow.

There’s still lots to do, but even though this project isn’t the hottest iron in the fire, it’s definitely something that’ll be fun down the road a bit – good news for the skiers among us (among you, rather).     Until then – while we’ve still got snow -- come on out and shoe around this peaceful gem.  You’ll be glad you did!