Mercy Pond Loop Trail

We stumbled upon this trail one day while walking the Fore River Pathway Trail. This trail is also one of Portland Trails’ network of trails and can be connected to the Fore River Parkway Trail by crossing the street.
We crossed the street at the stop light by Mercy and discovered a little slice of wildlife heaven. This loop is a short walk, but what makes it interesting is that there is such a great little ecosystem. The pond is located between the employee lots and the hospital. The loop takes you around the marsh that they were not able to fill in when they built the hospital here.
The path is paved and probably only ¼– ½ mile total. There is some fencing around the pond/​marsh. We have seen ducks, geese, woodchucks, lesser blue herons nesting, turtles, red-​winged blackbirds and many other birds I can not identify.
While this path is not long, it is pleasant and a nice distraction from all that is going on around you. I imagine for families or friends who have someone at the hospital, it is a nice way to get out and get air… or even a nice place for employees to take a quick walk on a break.
As a side note, they have high bush blueberries planted along the backside of the loop by the train tracks and each blueberry season I have gone over and picked tons of berries!