About Gardner Farm in Cisco: Few trails offer such variety than the former vegetable farm’s three miles of winding trails which begin at the edge of Hummock Pond Road and move through a grassy sandplain in the direction of Hummock Pond. To your right is a trail leading through a thick pine forest with several mature pitch pines and Lost Farm sanctuary. To your left, through a stand of pitch pine, is a boardwalk/bridge over a marshy inlet of Hummock Pond. (In the spring or after a heavy rain, the boardwalk can be under water.)
Hummock Pond is a glacial meltwater river bed that once ran roughly 75 miles south out to the edge of the continental shelf. Now closed off to the ocean and filled with slightly brackish water — the Town of Nantucket opens the pond to the ocean twice a year — the pond is home to painted and snapping turtles, one to two pairs of nesting ospreys and scores of mute swans. Bird and owl houses are tucked up against trees and brush along the wide trails.
Hikers, dog walkers, horseback riders, joggers and cross- country mountain bikers will find plenty of varied terrain at Gardner Farm to keep their workout interesting. The loop also connects to Mass Audubon trails and the Land Bank Millbrook Road property so one can visit several times a year and never take the same route twice.
Gardner Farm Map: http://www.nantucketlandbank.org/Map/Trails/02_gardnerfarm.pdf