Happy Sunday. I have lived in Kennebunk 17 years, and I have passed the sign for Wonder Brook Park probably thousands of times. It is, after all, still in the village proper, on Summer Street, which is the main route between Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, and the beaches. It is an unassuming sign that simply says “Wonder Brook Park, Hiking Trails.” I have wondered from time to time what Wonder Brook is all about, and I think we even set out to explore it one afternoon 17 years ago, but got rained out. Yesterday, as part of my Saturday photo-prowl, I decided it was high time for Wonder Brook Park.

I had ulterior motives. Last weekend, at Emmon’s Preserve, I saw more Trout Lily plants, not yet in flower, than I have ever seen in the Maine woods, and I was looking for a place closer to home where I could check to see how they were advancing. I would like to catch the bloom if possible. My instinct was sound. The trails at Wonder Brook lead out through a relatively old pine forest (with some of the biggest Pines I have seen in Maine, like the multi-trunked giant above), caught in an angle between Wonder Brook itself and the Kennebunk River, and, here too, the Trout Lilies were thick on the ground, though nowhere near blooming.

The trails themselves are well marked and maintained, with little bridges over the many streams that feed into Wonder Brook, and split-log walks in the wet places. After about a mile, you come to an overlook on a tidal section of the Kennebunk River (where I saw a Belted Kingfisher), and then the trail turns north along the bluff over the river, providing some views through the trees of the rocky run above the tide’s reach.

I was also on the lookout for birds. I have been following the radar images of the migration and a small wave of birds was promised for Southern Maine this weekend. Evidently it had not crested over Kennebunk by noon yesterday. I saw the Kingfisher, a few Robins, Chickadees, and Titmice…but that was it. I did walk up on a Common Gartersnake crossing the path, who posed nicely for me.

Wonder Brook is amalgamation of Kennebunk Land Trust properties, set aside under conservation easements. I am always impressed at the efforts local Land Trusts in Maine make to open these properties to public enjoyment. The Wonder Brook trail system, with at least 5 miles of trails on various loops, clearly took considerable resources to construct, and must still take considerable resources to maintain.

Personally, I was delighted to find this pocket experience of the Southern Maine woods right here, right in Kennebunk, only a few miles from my front door. Now that I have found it, I am certain to return on a regular basis. I need to catch those Trout Lilies in bloom for one thing.

And for the Sunday thought. Well, I have to be thankful, when faced with a little gem like Wonder Brook, for spirit of conservation that moves people to set aside some land just to be…to be whatever it is and whatever it will be…with only enough human intrusion to keep people to a trail so the forest itself does not get trampled. I need to be able to get out in the woods, or to hike the Kennebunk Plains, or to walk along the little waterfalls of the Baston River at Emmon’s Preserve, or to stand on the rocks at Parson’s Park along the ocean in Kennebunkport. It is important. As important to me as church. I enjoy corporate worship, and I certainly find God in the praise of his people, but I also find my creator in the woods of Wonder Brook. I am pretty sure I need both to keep my faith a living faith.

And, with such thankful thoughts I am in a forgiving enough mood to overlook the tick I just found attached to my wrist. Another souvenir of my visit to Wonder Brook 🙂