Mason Hill Conservation Area

The trail map has since been updated and now uses and old forest road connecting a bit further down Quarry Road to complete the loop instead of the trail starting on either side of the kiosk. My 2022 visit which is now outdated is below.

From the grassy parking area the trail does indeed start on either start of the trailhead kiosk even though it may not appear so.  Growth on the edge of the parking lot made the start difficult to see despite the blue arrow pointing right at the righthand start so I instead took the more obvious left side.

I immediately questioned whether this was actually the trail but thanks to my extensive experience with forgotten town trails I continued on.  A massive pine had fallen that required going out and around, but it was still only about 500ft before I thought I’d officially lost the trail.  The trail is blazed blue, but inconsistently so it required a few false starts before finding the next blaze.  The trail crosses an old drainage ditch before meeting what must be an old section of Quarry Road (but I’m guessing the quarry isn’t on the property).

This backside of the loop was very overgrown with young pines, but walking over the smallest pines kept me on the trail.  I had to backtrack a bit to find the ‘Large Animal Cave’ indicated on the map.  No clear path led to this either so I poked around in that general area and the only thing I could find was a cool split rock next to a fallen tree.

The return portion of the loop was easier to follow though had a number of fallen trees as well and it quickly brought me right back to the parking area.