Team Gloucester Guide to Area Trails: Dogtown

Directions:
There are multiple entrances to Dogtown. Sunday runs usually leave from the Gee Ave. parking lot. From 128, get off at Grant Circle and follow 127 heading towards Goose Cove. Make a right onto Gee Ave (sign for Beeman Elementary School) and follow until you see the parking area.

Trail Maps:
A full color Dogtown trail map is available at the Artspace store in Gloucester. Another version is available from Toad Hall Bookstore in Rockport (47 Main St.) Neither map is perfect, but the general consensus is that the Artspace one is more accurate.

Why We Like It:
Dogtown is the preferred stomping grounds of many Team Gloucester runners. Every run is different and there are an infinite number of possible long run combinations; it's a great place to go 3+ hours (sometimes we even do it on purpose).

Favorite runs go out to Steel Derrick and through the Pine Woods. Trails range from carriage roads, to moderate single track, to boulder fields that are technically trails, to swaths of woods that aren't trails at all, but that Steve Whittey makes us run through anyways.

Dogtown is also fun because nearly every trail has a story, from Whittey's impalement to Rick's rusted car comment to Bob's broken foot (thus establishing, once and for all, that it's a bad idea to do intervals on the Boulder Trail. In case you were considering it.)

Rumor has it that Dogtown is easy to get lost in. This is absolutely true. If you're worried about getting lost while out there on your own, feel free to send an email and there's bound to be at least one Team Gloucester runner who'd be more than happy to go out and get lost with you.