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Sucker Brook Cove

Wildlife Sanctuary

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About the Sucker Brook Cove Wildlife Sanctuary

Within the hilly, rocky terrain of the Monadnock region, the 21.35-acre Sucker Brook Wildlife Sanctuary occupies a portion of the northwest shore of the picturesque, 333-acre Silver Lake. From the Sanctuary, one can get an impressive view of Mt. Monadnock about seven air miles to the south.

The Sanctuary consists of closed-canopy, mixed forest of northern hardwoods, red oak, white pine, and eastern hemlock growing on and among the ample glacial erratics (boulders) typical of the area. Most of the shoreline area of the Sanctuary encompasses Sucker Brook Cove, a shallow, sandy bay of Silver Lake where a woodland creek, Sucker Brook, enters. Smaller woodland creeks and seeps also enter the Cove, and much of the Cove's shoreline is an ecologically interesting gradation of forest to wetland shrubs to open water with emergent and floating aquatic plants. The Cove hosts many forms of wildlife, including the Common Loon and Great Blue Heron.

The original 20.3 acres of the Sanctuary came to Audubon in 1979 as a gift from Elizabeth M. Shepard and W. Hardie Shepard. In 1991, Elizabeth M. Shepard donated an additional 1.05 acres of Silver Lake shoreline to the Sanctuary.

Description of Trails

There are approximately 0.67 mile total of trail on the Sanctuary, plus approximately another quarter mile along the access road along the Sanctuary from the parking area to the Cove Trail's terminus near the Lake. It takes about 1-1.5 hours to walk it all leisurely.

From the parking area leads the 2,019-foot Cove Trail (yellow-blazed), which meanders down to the Lake, and the 1,503-foot Hill Trail (red-blazed), which encircles the higher ground of the Sanctuary before joining the Cove Trail.

Hill Trail

This trail well illustrates the effects that directional exposure can have on the forest community. As the trail meanders along the eastern face of the hillside from the parking area, the forest is dominated by red oak and northern hardwoods, such as beech, sugar maple, and white ash. There is also black, white, and yellow birch, black cherry, witch hazel, and white pine, with hobblebush in the understory. After about 500 feet, the trail begins to turn west as it follows the contour of the hill, and the generally cooler, shadier conditions of the northern exposure now presented are evident in the noticeable change in forest type from hardwoods to the more shade-tolerant eastern hemlock. The cool, dark hemlock forest, containing also yellow birch and some red spruce, remains dominant for most of the remainder of the Hill Trail because, though mostly of western exposure, the trail drops down into a small, shady valley created by woodland drainages on their way to Sucker Brook Cove. The sparse understory in this shady habitat includes wintergreen, goldthread, starflower, bunchberry, partridgeberry, moss, wood ferns, and, on the glacial erratics, polypody fern. Near its junction with the Cove Trail, the Hill Trail leaves the valley somewhat, gaining more of a southern exposure, and the forest type becomes more white pine and hardwood-dominated again.

Cove Trail

From the parking area, this trail goes up a short slope through mixed forest to gradually begin dropping back into the small valley from which the Hill Trail emerges to meet the Cove Trail. The Cove Trail continues down the shady, hemlock-dominated valley to where the drainage of the valley meets Sucker Brook Cove. The trail follows the cove edge, but much of the cove is blocked from view for a while due to the dense border of wetland shrubs such as winterberry holly, mountain holly, speckled alder, highbush blueberry, maleberry, wild raisin, buttonbush, leatherleaf, meadowsweet, steeplebush, sweet gale, arrowwood, and glossy buckthorn.

The shallow, sandy cove and its edge supports an array of wetland plants besides the shrubs, such as blue flag, bur-reed, arrowhead, pipewort, marsh St. Johnswort, bladderwort, spatterdock, pondweed, swamp candles, turtlehead, water pennywort, water lobelia, sundew, jewelweed, royal, sensitive, and cinnamon ferns, sedges, and rushes. Included in the great variety of aquatic insects present is a good diversity of damselflies and dragonflies.

After following the cove's edge for about 630 feet, the trail takes a sharp turn to the left. At this point, there is a red-blazed, short spur trail to the shore and from which there is a great view of Silver Lake and Mt. Monadnock. The Cove Trail then brings one out onto the access road; going left up this road will lead to the parking area about a quarter of a mile away. Please do not turn right from the trail onto the road, as this leads to a private residence.

Visitor Information

Directions
  1. Please do not collect or in any way disturb plants or animals.
  2. Please keep to marked trails.
  3. Please respect private property.
  4. Only foot travel is permitted--no horses, bicycles, or motor vehicles.
  5. Motor boats are prohibited.
  6. Pets must be on a short leash and controlled at all times.
  7. Hunting, firearms, camping, fires, and swimming are prohibited.
  8. Please carry out all trash and litter.
  9. Be prepared for country walking.
  1. From Keene, drive east on Route 9 and take the Nelson exit (Nelson Road or Sullivan Road).
  2. In Nelson, turn right onto the road that goes past the library and Town Hall (Nelson Common Road) and up the hill, whereupon (0.3 mile) the road becomes Lead Mine Road.
  3. After another 0.7 mile, veer right at the fork in the road just after the cemetery.
  4. After 0.9 mile, turn left onto the private dirt access road for Brantwood Camp.
  5. Continue straight on this access road down the hill and past the shoreline camps for about 0.8 mile to find the trailhead parking area on the right. This access road is not plowed in the winter.
Coming soon: a complete trail guide of the sanctuary in PDF format.
Here is a trail map of the sanctuary. However, this is a large graphic image and may take a long time to download.
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