Hatchville Road in Late Fall: A Restored River on One Side, a Farm's Final Weeks on the Other

"May this river flow freely, not just with water, but with the spirit of hope, resilience and the respect for life." Elizabeth Gladfelter read those words from Wampanoag Historical Preservation Officer David Weeden at the restored Upper Coonamessett River, according to CapeNews. Partners had gathered on a sunny day in late October to see new interpretive signs and tour a stretch of river that had opened to the public that summer.

That was last October. This is the restored upper river's second fall, and it changes how Hatchville Road works through the cold months. For years, late fall on this road ran on Coonamessett Farm's calendar of pumpkins, the artisans fair and Christmas trees, and things went quiet after Christmas Eve. Now the river across the road has its own calendar, and it doesn't end in December.

What Opened Across the Road

The Upper Coonamessett bogs reopened in summer 2025 after a year-long restoration, according to The 300 Committee Land Trust. Parking is at 170 Hatchville Road. From there, a one-mile ADA-accessible path with three river bridges circles the restored wetlands. It is the northernmost loop of the Greenway's Blue Section.

What sits there now used to be a commercial cranberry bog. NOAA Fisheries reported that crews broke ground in January 2025 with $1.7 million in NOAA funding. The project plan called for removing seven fish-passage barriers, restoring 4,000 feet of river channel and building a wheelchair-accessible trail and boardwalk. The bogs have deep roots in town ownership. The land trust says the town bought additional northern bogs, including the Baptiste bogs, in the 1970s.

The upper loop finished something that started downstream. Lower river restoration began in 2017, according to the Coonamessett River Trust. Its first phase, completed in May 2018, restored 10 acres and 1,700 feet of river, according to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Phase 2 was completed in 2020. NOAA puts the lower work at 2.2 miles reopened to fish passage, 4,600 feet of channel and 56 acres of wetland. It also reports that herring and eels now pass through the restored preserve. NOAA gives the scale of what is being rebuilt: the Coonamessett historically supported more than one million returning river herring, compared with about 70,000 a year at the time of its report.

That herring run is monitored in April. In November the river has room to move through its floodplain, and with the leaves down you can see a lot more of it from the trail.

The Signs Are Part of the Walk

According to CapeNews, the three interpretive signs installed last fall describe the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's past and present relationship to the river, including Indigenous uses of it. Grace Vachon, The 300 Committee's TerraCorps member, wrote them with Gladfelter under the Tribe's guidance, and a Mass Cultural Council grant helped fund them. On the tour, Jason Steiding, one of the Tribe's natural resource officers, spoke about teaching the Tribe's children about ecological restoration. "So many elements of this project relate to their culture," he said.

The Falmouth Cultural Council's calendar also lists signage in the accessible Upper Coonamessett Purple Section. Those signs describe the Wampanoag people's relationship with the land, native plants, herring and animals, in English and in the Wampanoag language. The listing says the signage received a Falmouth Cultural Council grant in 2026, and it runs from October 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. The trail itself is free and open dawn to dusk. A cultural listing that runs through next June is one more sign that this corridor now has a winter season.

Coonamessett Farm's Last Weeks

Coonamessett Farm is at 277 Hatchville Road, a short way up the same road from the trail parking. Its posted calendar sets out the end of the season:

The calendar lists October as a pumpkin, beet, leek and carrot month, with hayrides on harvest weekends. The farm's general hours page says it is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, which doesn't match the calendar's December 24 closing. A quick call before a special trip is worth it, especially for the tree-sale weeks.

Put the two calendars together and November 7 and 8 stand out. The Artisans Fair runs 10 to 3, the trail loop at 170 Hatchville Road is open from dawn, and the walk is a mile. From November 27 the same pairing works with a Christmas tree in place of the fair. After December 24, only the river is open.

The Rest of the Greenway, Section by Section

The upper loop is the newest piece of a longer corridor. The 300 Committee says more than 500 acres of permanently protected land line both sides of the Coonamessett River. The town's efforts to protect it began in 1964, and the land trust began preserving parcels in the mid-1980s. The Coonamessett Greenway Heritage Trail runs about 3 miles from Coonamessett Pond to the Lower Coonamessett River Conservation Lands, with shorter loops, a nearly one-mile wheelchair-accessible section, two boardwalks across the river, and eleven waystations with educational displays. The land trust says the cold river water supports five species of migratory fish, among them river herring, American eel and brook trout, along with otters and ospreys.

The Greenway is mapped in color-coded sections, each with its own access:

• Red Section, 100 John Parker Road. This is the Gateway to the Greenway, opened in fall 2021, with accessible parking, the universally accessible Scenic River Overlook and the Lower Loop Trail.
• Orange Section, 235 John Parker Road or 667 Sandwich Road. It covers Bartolomei Conservation Area and Andrews Farm/Andrews Grove.
• Green Section, 650 to 682 Sandwich Road. This is River Bend Conservation Area.
• Blue Section, 170 Hatchville Road. It covers the Upper Bogs and the restored loop described above.
• Purple Section, 154 Hatchville Road. This is Matt Souza Conservation Area.

The lower lands page describes the Lower River Loop as about 0.7 mile and ADA accessible, crossing the river on two accessible boardwalks, Dexter's Mill Crossing and Swift's Crossing. The same page mentions osprey hunting herring, red-tailed hawks, and native riverbank plants growing back. Taken together, the Red loop at the south end and the Blue loop at the north give the river two accessible ends. A walker can take in both on one cold afternoon by driving between John Parker Road and Hatchville Road.

Late fall overlaps with hunting season on some conservation land. The 300 Committee's hunting page says hunting is never allowed on Sundays on its lands, and the land trust recommends wearing orange or another bright color during the season.

One Watershed East, the Same Work Is at the Drawing Stage

The Coonamessett shows what the end result looks like. The Quashnet, the next river toward Waquoit, is at the start of the same process. The Waquoit Bay Reserve is hosting a community engagement meeting on Thursday, November 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Waquoit Meeting Room at Mashpee Town Hall, 16 Great Neck Road North. Town conservation staff, engineers and ecologists will present 50 percent design plans for the Upper Quashnet River Restoration Project, which would restore a retired bog system as a connected river corridor.

The meeting will also gather input on how people would like to use the site, to help design trail alignments, parking, signs, viewpoints and long-term care. Registration is strongly encouraged, and the Reserve asks attendees to look at the project's Story Map beforehand. If you've walked the Upper Coonamessett loop this fall, you'll have concrete examples to bring to that meeting, from how a boardwalk sits over restored wetland to how many cars a trailhead lot holds.

The Reserve's visitor center at 131 Waquoit Highway has one more November evening. Its Amateur Astronomy Night and Star Party runs Tuesday, November 10, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., with a sky talk and an outdoor star party, and rain postpones it.

A Late-Fall Calendar for Hatchville and Waquoit

1. Saturday, October 31. Halloween Celebration at Coonamessett Farm, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
2. Thursday, November 5. Upper Quashnet 50 percent design meeting, Mashpee Town Hall, 6 to 8 p.m.
3. Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8. Artisans Fair at Coonamessett Farm, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the Upper Coonamessett loop at 170 Hatchville Road nearby.
4. Tuesday, November 10. Astronomy night at Waquoit Bay Reserve, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
5. Friday, November 27. Christmas tree sales begin at Coonamessett Farm.
6. December 24. The farm's last day of the season, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
7. Through June 30, 2027. The Wampanoag signage listing on the Upper Coonamessett continues, and the trail stays open dawn to dusk.

The Coonamessett's restoration ran from a lower-river start in 2017 to an upper loop that opened in 2025, and that conservation work is part of what makes Hatchville a good place to own a home. If you're weighing what nearby protected land means for a property in East Falmouth or Waquoit, Ermine Lovell Real Estate has followed these villages for generations and is glad to walk through it with you. Talk with a Local Cape Expert.