Pairing Walks and Doughnuts

For the past few years, NSRWA’s Explore South Shore program has featured walking trails in its weekend posts. Since there are more than 200 public nature trails on the South Shore, in any given year we’re only able to highlight half of them. How many have you visited so far?

 

Know what pairs well with weekend walks? Doughnuts! This month’s article features nine trails to visit this fall. Consider stopping by a local doughnut shop as well. The chain stores have their fans, but this article focuses on smaller, locally-owned shops. 

Harbor Walk + Coffee Shack

Fully-accessible and scenic throughout the year, Marshfield’s Harbor Walk extends for a mile along the salt marshes of the Green Harbor River, and offers on-site parking on Joseph Driebeck Way, across from Harbor Park. Just a hundred feet or so beyond the western terminus of the trail is the locally-renowned donut mecca, The Coffee Shack (259 Dyke Road, Route 139). To explore further, stroll down the Brant Rock Esplanade, along Island and Cherry Streets, and past the town pier before returning to your starting place.

Cavern Rock Park + Donut King

The refreshingly challenging 0.7-mile trail at Weymouth’s Cavern Rock Park is a superb place to walk off a caloric overload. How convenient, then, that longtime regional favorite, Donut King, is just around the corner, at 411 Middle Street. In between, enjoy views of Whitman’s Pond, a headwater to the Weymouth Back River. Cavern Rock Park offers parking for 3 vehicles at 115 Westminster Road.

Wompatuck + Hornstra Farms

Have you visited Norwell’s Grove Street entrance to Wompatuck State Park? It’s an excellent starting place for exploring the southern portion of the 3500-acre park, in the Aaron River/Gulf River watershed. Around the corner on 246 Prospect Street, the farm store at Hornstra Farms offers freshly-baked apple cider doughnuts on Saturdays and Sundays, on a seasonal basis, beginning soon.

Whitney and Thayer Woods + Pour

You could spend all day at Cohasset’s Whitney and Thayer Woods! With 10 miles of trails and 824 acres, there’s a lot to explore, including Brass Kettle Brook, a headwater to the Gulf River. Fuel up in advance with a stop at Pour Coffee & Bagel. Co., right across the street at 190 King Street. Pour’s doughnuts are locally sourced, from the aforementioned Donut King. Whitney & Thayer Woods offers on-site parking at 380 Chief Justice Cushing Highway, Route 3A.

Knapp Town Forest + Hardly Saints Donuts

Stretching across 1,000 acres, the web of trails in and around Duxbury’s Knapp Town Forest might take a while to get to know. Start small, with the 2-mile Green’s Harbor Path and Kettle Hole Loop, which you can access behind the town offices at 842 Tremont Street in the Bluefish River watershed. Not far away, at 282 St. George Street, is Hardly Saints Donuts, which is open Wednesday through Sunday.

Folly Hill + Slacktide

Hanover has so many captivating conservation areas! Are you familiar with the Folly Hill and Bog Iron Trails, at 519 Broadway, in the Indian Head River watershed? The 130-acre property offers 3.6 miles of walking paths through woodlands and wetlands. Just down the street at 283 Columbia Road, Slacktide Coffee Roasters is known for the donuts it makes daily, from scratch.

McKenna Marsh + Union Square Donuts

The 2-mile loop trail through Hingham’s McKenna Marsh Conservation Area is a lovely place for a weekend walk. Enjoy views of Accord Brook, a tributary to the Weir River, along with forests and freshwater wetlands. The small on-site parking area at 130 Scotland Street is about 2 miles away from the Derby Street Shops, where an outpost of Somerville’s Union Square Donuts recently opened.

Humarock Beach + Dockside Donuts

Take a 3-mile walk on Humarock, Scituate’s expansive barrier beach, or enjoy river views along Central Ave. and River Streets, which run parallel to the water. In the off-season, you can park for free in the town lot on River Street, or near the beach entrance at 24 Marshfield Ave. A quick jaunt across the Sea Street Bridge gets you to Marshfield’s Dockside Donuts (17 Sea Street). Be sure to admire the South River as you cross the bridge!

Rockland Rail Trail + Hole in One

Rockland’s Rail Trail, is paved, wheelchair- and stroller-friendly, and scenic. It stretches all the way across town, for 3.5 miles, from the Hanover town line to Abington. It’s all within the watershed of French’s Stream and Cushing Brook, part of the Indian Head/North River system. There’s a parking area at 638 Market Street, and if you head west on the trail to #482, you’ll soon arrive at Hole in One, a donut shop with roots on Cape Cod. A walk and a doughnut -- what a great combination!

If you enjoy the outdoors, be sure to check out NSRWA’s Explore South Shore program. Every morning, we highlight one of the region’s best public nature places on Facebook and Instagram. Every weekend, we feature long and a short walking trails. Not on social media? We’ve listed all the locations on our website as well!

by Kezia Bacon

September 2026

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. You will also find thirty years of Kezia’s Nature columns there.

Visit The Historic Hatch Mill

Milestone birthdays are both a time to reflect and to plan for the future. As our nation celebrates its 250th birthday, I’ve been thinking about our local waterways -- what was happening on them in 1776, and how they have changed.

Today, we value the North River for recreation, for serenity, and for its scenic beauty. But 250 years ago, the North River was a bustling center of industry and commerce. A sawmill, iron forge, or grist mill stood on nearly every major tributary. Shipyards produced vessels for whaling and trade. Packet ships sailed up and down the river, and back and forth to Boston, buying and selling both local and exotic goods. Riverfront properties were valued for their accessibility, and in many cases for the salt marsh hay that grew there naturally.

Wouldn’t it be fun to go back in time and truly experience our local communities and waterways as they were 250 years ago? While time machines remain a fantasy, we are fortunate to have the next best thing available to us: active historical and preservation societies. There are many excellent organizations across the South Shore that provide varied historical programming – talks, tours, plays, even comic books! – along with interactive exhibits. Today I’d like to highlight Marshfield’s Hatch Mill, which stands at the edge of Two Mile Brook, a tributary to the North River.

Two Mile Brook

Prior to European colonization, Two Mile Brook sprung from Cooper’s Pond, off today’s School and Forest Streets in Marshfield, and snaked downhill, flowing for about 2.5 miles to the North River. The freely-flowing stream provided habitat for wildlife and both fresh water and a source of sustenance for the Native Americans who inhabited the area.

By the 1770’s, at least two mill dams had been constructed on the brook, with two more to follow. Each dam created an impoundment – a manmade pond – and thus along the way, Clark, Magoun, Oakman and Mounce Ponds were formed. For a time in the 1800’s, each dam fueled one or two mills simultaneously, making this relatively diminutive stream an industrial powerhouse. There were gristmills and sawmills, carding and fulling mills for the production of cloth, along with shingle and boxboard mills for processing lumber. Each was operated by a member of the Hatch family.  

As early as 1647, Walter Hatch established a home on the banks of Two Mile Brook, near its confluence with the North River. Writing his will in 1698, he bequeathed all of his land, housing and barns, along with a corn mill and a fulling mill, to his two sons, John and Israel. So while their exact locations seem to have been lost to time, we know that mills on this stream date back at least that far. 

In 1752, Israel Hatch established a grist mill at today’s Hatch Mill site on Two Mile Brook. Sixty years later, Deacon Joel Hatch added a long-log sawmill. The grist mill remained in place until 1839, and then the structure was moved to another Hatch property, to be used as a carriage shed. But in 1859, Samuel Franklin Hatch repurposed its foundation, constructing a short-log sawmill, for boxboards. In 1872, he updated the water wheel to a turbine and upgraded the up-and-down saw to a circular saw.

Hatch Mill interior

The mill site continued to pass through generations of the Hatch family, ending with Franklin Decker Hatch, who acquired it in 1912 and operated it until his retirement in 1965. Between 1965 and 2004, there were various attempts to preserve the mill site, but efforts really kicked into gear when the Hatch Mill Group took over and commenced a series of restoration projects. 

Thanks to them, visitors can now stop by several times a year to tour both the interior and exterior, to learn how the saw mill worked, and to enjoy close-up views of the associated tools and machinery. It’s fascinating, and well worth an hour of your time on a Saturday. Seeing first-hand what’s involved in operating a small sawmill significantly enriched my understanding not just of mills, but also their impact on the community. 

Two Mile Brook dam at Hatch Mill

Mills and factories still exist on the South Shore, but they no longer rely on moving water to fuel them. While the buildings and the millworks may be gone, in many cases the dams still remain in place. From Hingham to Plymouth alone, there are 225 obsolete dams! For more than two decades, NSRWA has been working with landowners, local governments, and the state’s Department of Ecological Restoration to assess these dams and determine which ones can be removed. Read my article about the South River dam removal at Veterans Memorial Park in Marshfield to learn more about the “how’s” and the “why’s” of dam removals. 

https://www.nsrwa.org/a-milestone-for-south-river-herring/

The Hatch Mill offers an excellent opportunity to go back in time and gain a better understanding of the historic significance of a little stream like Two Mile Brook. Open Houses take place each year from May to September. The next one takes place August 29, from 10 am to 3 pm with another on September 26. For more information about the Hatch Mill, visit its website, www.hatchmill.org.

Hatch Mill interior.

If you enjoy the outdoors, be sure to check out NSRWA’s Explore South Shore program. Every morning, we highlight one of the region’s best public nature places on Facebook and Instagram. Every Tuesday, it’s a spot with water access, including other historic mill sites. Not on social media? We’ve listed all the locations on our website as well!

by Kezia Bacon

August 2026

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to protecting our waters. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. You will also find thirty years of Kezia’s Nature columns there.