Fields Pond Audubon Center

A trail at the Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden, Maine.

Unlike our experience at the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery, the trails at the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden, Maine are immaculately groomed and marked. This funny thing happens when you deliberately clear out all the non-needle trees. Only the firs, spruce, and white pine remain, and their needles carpet the trails in a crisp, clean bedding that simultaneously keeps your boots free of mud and the forest floor free of weeds and other volunteer bushes!

Top tip: Go on a cloudy, cool day and you’ll be the only ones in the whole park, like we were on this gloomy, but beautiful, Sunday afternoon.

Important note: The Audubon Center is not a dog-friendly venue, which makes sense when you consider that dogs and birds don’t always mix, and John James Audubon was first and foremost a birder. Bring your binoculars but leave Fido at home.

My only complaint was the amount of trash littering the trails, but I don’t blame the Audubon Center for that. That’s the fault of irresponsible visitors. Rather than moan about it, I’ll challenge you instead to carry one piece of trash out of the park with you when you go. If we all did that, it’d be spic and span—and safer for the birds—in no time.