Vale Reservation

Short but very nice hike

Most of it is just a line and not a loop, so walk and turn around. But it's a great little hike along the Shawsheen River, at least if it's not bug season. Lots of marshy land would make it an extra buggy destination some times of the year

Great atmosphere. The place has well designed boardwalks. It has many roots on lower paths so it is smart to pay attention.

Ballarvale's central park. Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is a nice place to go for a nature walk. Trail is easy to follow, with minor deviations here and there. Not much straining on inclines - trail is nearly flat all the time. Some tree roots and stumps scattered around the path, perhaps positioned by the wood fairies or nymphs for their amusement (at your expense). There is a 88.23% chance you will run into someone else, 76.07% chance they will have dogs, and 51.23% chance the dogs will be running around free (previous stats provided by a cluster of thousands of AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google cloud nodes running non - stop analysis of trail probability models for 2 months. Either that, or the stats were made up to "enhance" the review). So you most likely won't be alone the whole walk (not counting the occasional fairy or nymph you may think you caught a glimpse of from the corner of your eye). Still; a good place to commune with nature and ponder mysteries inloving chicken's and eggs, or chickens crossing streets - all without traveling outside the Andover area and staying within the known dimensions (mostly)

Great place to walk the trails, great place to bring your dogs for a walk & to see more wildlife I love walking here