Just a mile from downtown Belfast, you can step onto a hiking trail marked with blue blazes that will take you through peat bogs, pine and fir forests, and then down along the Little River, a shallow, sparkling, musical, rocky-bottomed river that curls through a hardwood and spruce forest before emptying into the pristine wild mile-long shoreline of Resevoir #2. 
After passing the dam and a single road crossing, you can walk another mile, first along the river (here along the rim of the river gorge) and then along the equally beautiful and pristine Resevoir #1. Continuing along Resevoir #1, you arrive at a second dam — and the Atlantic Ocean.
During this meadering 4-mile walk along the well-marked and fastidiously maintained trail, you will enter a quiet world of woods and water. If you walk the entire 
trail, you will have one brief road crossing, and – often as not — may not encounter a single other person. I can’t help but feel incredibly fortunate that we have a place like this right near the heart of Belfast.
I’ve snowshoed and skied the trail in the winter and hiked a jogged it in the summer. I’ve also paddled Little River on the few days a year it becomes a deep fast-moving torrent, but that is another story.
If you haven’t yet walked The Little River Community Trail in Belfast, you owe it to yourself to get out there and check it out soon. It’s hunting season now, so, unless you have a closet-full of blaze orange, it’s probably best if you wait until a Sunday.
For those not yet familiar with the trail, the best access points are the Belfast Water District Parking area off Route 1 as you are heading toward Northport and the western edge of the softball field off Route 52. Both trailheads feature parking as well as information boards with maps and trail descriptions.
The trail was designed and built by members of the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition with cooperation from local landowners, the City of Belfast, various community groups, and students at the Troy Howard Middle School.