Mill Pond Recreation Area

Mill Pond Recreation Area is a subset of the West Newbury Open Space, located off Route 113 eastbound just past the Page School. The Mill Pond Recreation area is loaded with open space trails populated with dogs and horses, and skating in the winter on the pond. The West Newbury Open Space website claims that there are trail maps available, however, there were none.
This open space wasn’t badly maintained. They have volunteers who work here from time to time. Some of the trails did have feces and manure directly on the foot trails and small bags of feces along the sides of the trails, as well as in the wading area. I am not sure why the pet owners did not pick up their pets bags and why they were left behind polluting. The trails were covered in Poison Ivy, which made it difficult and most often impossible to walk on the trails. I have been told the upper parking lot is the place to go during the summer, as the trails are not covered in Poison Ivy. Also, by the Fall, the Poison Ivy should die off. Dogs were off leash in areas where they should have been leashed.
We came here on a Saturday with our two well-​behaved and well-​trained Labrador retrievers, leashed at all times. Upon parking near the Rec building, we began to walk toward the trails when a small dog came running up to us, clearly unleashed and no owner to be found. Eventually the owner appeared on the dock recalling his dog.
We walked through and around the feces and horse manure on the trail stopping at the wading area. Had no interest to let the dogs jump in because of the feces on the ground. Continued up and to the right past the wading area only to see a dog owner with his dog in the water. To avoid any incidents, we turned back and tried walking up one trail. However had to turn back because the trail was covered with Poison Ivy or Poison Ivy very close to the trail making it very difficult to walk past the Poison Ivy. We eventually turned back off these three trails and began to walk back to the parking area. Then, a very large dog came charging up from behind us, off leash. Our dogs reacted by barking and the dog came at us in an attempt to jump up on us. Not knowing what the dog’s intentions were, we quickly turned away from it but it kept attacking. The owner was in the distance recalling his dog but failed to capture the attention of his disturbed dog. We eventually were able to get away from this horrible dog and tell the owner he should have his dog on a leash if it behaves like that.
In summary, the visit was not very pleasant; perhaps it will be better in the Fall. Expect dog owners to allow their dogs to approach you without an invitation, so potentially attack you without warning. Expect feces and horse manure on and around the trails. Expect Poison Ivy on or near the trails. Do not go in with sneakers and shorts.
Beautiful scenery but not a safe place unfortunately.