Category — Activities

Hey Everybody,

So, I recieved quite a few replies from my friends and Scouts on Facebook, and I have two adults, so I have a date for the first weekend. I will be carrying out the first trail clearing date on Saturday the 29 and continue on Sunday the 30. The day will start at 9:00 at the trail head on Williams Avenue in the Nabnassett section of town, and it will be ending at 2:00, with a lunch break at 12:30, so eat a good breakfast before you come. I will be needing donated tools for the weekend, like wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, and one or two hand saws. If anybody has one of these tools, please bring them with you on Saturday. I will obviously be bringing the ones that I own, but many more are needed. As always, I need to see long pants, boots, and work gloves on EVERYONE to assure safety against things like thorns, ticks, and especially poison ivy. Thank you everyone for the patience and hope to see you on Saturday or Sunday. Have a great rest of the week.

Yours in Scouting,

- Brandon

Congratulations to Matt L… who recently (with the help of his fellow Scouts) completed work on a new set of Orienteering Courses through the Nashoba Brook Watershed in Westford.

Matt designed and supervised the construction of the courses for his Eagle Service Project.  The three new courses start from the Texas Road parking area and extend the network of Orienteering Courses to 7 courses in total.  The original 4 courses (set by Jake L… last year) start from the Trailside Way parking area.  With the addition of the new courses, hikers can extend their hikes to encompass most of the network of trails in the Watershed.

The new brochure can be found with the original brochures posted on the Troop website here.  You can also find the link to the course descriptions on the front page of the Website.

So the next time you feel like taking a walk in the woods, download a copy of the orienteering brochure, grab your compass and see if you can complete the course successfully!!

Eagle Scout Jake L…. of Troop 591 in Westford, MA designed and supervised the construction of an orienteering course in the Nashoba Brook Watershed area as his Eagle Service Project.

The course allows visitors to test their map and compass skill while enjoying hiking the trails around Kennedy Pond. The course lengths will vary, but the average course will be for ¼ to 1½ mile in length. The orienteering course is marked by 4×4 posts placed at trail intersections in the conservation area. Each post is marked with a unique symbol.

Visitors follow the course directions to plot a course along the trails using compass bearings and distance to locate the course posts in order. If the directions are followed accurately, the order you find the posts will match the “answer key” on the brochure.

Courses start from either the Trailside Way or Texas Road parking areas and copies of the brochures can be found at the trailhead kiosks.  A practice course is also provided around the perimeter of the Trailside Way parking lot to get you started.

Copies of the brochures are also provided through the links below in PDF format that you can print and take with you before your hike.

Trailside Way Courses 1-3

Trailside Way Course 4

Texas Road Orienteering Courses

Visit the Westford Conservation Trust for more information about the Nashoba Brook Watershed and other conservation properties in Westford.