Rankin Preserve
Access to the Rankin Trail begins from Westford Road (Route 89) near the fire station.
Walkability: Moderate, with some steep sections and rocks in the path in many places.
Total distance: 1.9 miles
Elevation change: 275 feet (up + down), downhill on return.
Environment: The trail is blazed with yellow paint and markers, though some of the paint is fading. It is a loop trail that passes some ponds (former gravel pits) at the beginning on a flat wide road, then narrows and climbs to and across a ridge for a very pleasant walk in the woods. We turned right onto the loop, since that has more gentle slopes, so we would descend on the steeper part. At the top, a short (~0.25 mile) blue-blazed spur trail diverges to stay at the top of the ridge while the yellow loop starts onto a descending switchback. Just after the two trails rejoin, there is a red arrow pointing you down onto Ashford-owned open space and the Tremko Trail, which leads to the Tremko trailhead behind the senior housing complex at Pompey Hollow Park, then loops back up to the Rankin Trail.
Directions: The Rankin Preserve is shown on Google maps. It's on the west side of Westford Road, about 0.5 miles north of the intersection with Pompey Hollow Road (U.S. Route 44).
The link to the Joshua's Trust website for this trail: Rankin Preserve.
October 2023
Trail map from Joshua's Trust. Does not show Blue Loop (see below) or location of Tremko Trail junction, which is near the end of the Blue Spur Trail.
Location of Blue Spur Trail, not on online map. The Tremko Trail starts just past the Yellow switchback, and shares the path with the Yellow Trail where Yellow runs along the boundary.
Images:
Junction with the Blue Loop.
A rocky part of the trail.
A bit of a view from the top.
Looking down to the ponds.
A nice shagbark hickory on the trail.
