Hanover Senior Center Trails

Hanover Council on Aging, Center Street, Hanover, MA, USA

(781) 826-6505

Owned By: Town of Hanover

• Directions
• Trail Map

A half-mile loop trail with boardwalks and old stone walls, plus access to Torrey Brook. Part of a larger (3-mile) trail network that extends to Tindale Bog, the Nava-Stasiluk Conservation Area, and the Myrtle Street Fields/Ceurvels Park.

Features

Check out the large rocky outcropping on the east side of the Senior Center building.

For thousands of years, the land that encompasses what is now Hanover was inhabited by indigenous people. Circa 1617, there was a major outbreak of disease from European settlers that decimated an estimated 90% of the native population in New England, including the Massachusett and Wampanoag tribes that inhabited this area. There are still descendants of these original inhabitants living on the South Shore today, and they are known as the Mattakeesett Tribe of the Massachusett Indian Nation, the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, and Mashpee Wompanoag Tribe.

Trail Description

The loop trail through the woods around the Hanover Senior Center is marked with red Hanover Conservation blazes. The trail is narrow and traverses some wetlands. The green-blazed trail off the northern part of the loop leads to Torrey Brook and provides access to the Nava-Stasiluk Conservation Area and Myrtle Street Field, and onward to Tindale Bog. Bring a map!

Habitats and Wildlife

The woods here are primarily pine, with oak, beech, birch and maple and lots of fern. One of the stone walls on the property includes a large quartz.

Torrey Brook, a tributary to the Drinkwater River, flows through the property, as does a smaller stream that leads to Torrey Brook. The Drinkwater River flows into the Indian Head River, a major tributary to the North River.