NEWBURY — Take a walk. Take a hike. Take your choice.
Newbury's Open Space Committee will show you where.
The committee has just printed a preliminary edition of "Welcome to Newbury: A Resource Guide to Walking Trails."
Right now it's just a double-folded pamphlet with descriptions of 11 walking sites or more strenuous hiking trails and a map showing where they all are located, but Open Space Committee member David Powell hopes it will evolve into something a little more sophisticated.
The pamphlet is free and is currently available only at the town clerk's office at Town Hall, Powell said. Although, the committee would also like to put it on the town's Web site (www.townofnewbury.org).
In addition to the descriptions and the map, the resource guide lists several Web sites and some books that are useful to walkers.
He said only about 25 copies were printed. The committee wants to see how the guide is received by the public before committing to more.
"We just wanted to see what kind of feedback we get," Powell said.
He said Assistant Town Clerk Leslie Haley has already offered one valuable suggestion: Specify whether the trails allow dogs.
"A lot of people who are walking are walking their dogs, or the dog's walking them," Powell said.
The guide describes the Bay Circuit Trail through Newbury, the Central Street playing fields, Coffin's Island, Great Meadow Farm, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Plum Island beach, Old Town Hill and the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm. It also covers three state wildlife management areas, Crane Pond, Martin Burns and William Forward, which are open to hunting in season.
Powell said people are sometimes reluctant to do much woodland walking in summer, when insect pests and ticks are out and about, but the guide should be a valuable resource during peak walking season in the fall.
