Six well-behaved dogs and their humans took a hike at Penny Lake Preserve in Boothbay Harbor on Feb. 27.

The walk, called “Tails on the Trails,” was planned by Boothbay Region Land Trust's Tracey Hall.

Hall said she plans the monthly walks for dogs and their owners year-round, at different locations, depending on the time of year and weather.

“We've been doing Tails on the Trails for over a year now,” Hall said. “We started in January of 2014, and on my first hike we had one dog, other than mine. We've built since then.”

Hall said that over the summer the hike got busier, with eight dogs and people participating in August. “It got a little crazy having that many dogs running around.”

Penny Lake Preserve is a popular dog-walking location, where a lot of people take their dogs at all times of the day and year. Hall schedules the group walk at area land trust preserves on the last Friday of each month, unless that falls on a holiday.

Hall said she loves the Penny Lake Preserve.

“Not only is it an example of a different variety of habitats in a small area, but it has a field, a forest and a wetland, all close together, and you see a lot of wildlife here,” Hall said. “The other thing that's great about this is that it is a good representation of different ways to protect land.”

Hall went on to say that in order to protect the preserve, some of it was purchased through funding from the state and from money raised from donors. The other way it is protected is through easements. Some of the land is private, but owners have given permission to walk across it.

“And somebody donated some of the land here,” she said.

There were several wild animal tracks in the snow spotted by the hikers on Feb. 27, and possibly the prints of a house cat or two from nearby homes.

The one-hour hike on Feb. 27 was attended by Diane Gilman, who works at the Land Trust, and her dog Jackson, from Woolwich; Ellen Kearns and her dog Jarhead, also from Woolwich; Amanda Russell and Andy Abello and their dog, Maude, from Edgecomb; Ida and Gary Clarke and their dog, Addie, from Cushing, and Elliot the dog tagged along with them. Hall had her dog, Cedar, who is a regular at the hikes, with her.

It was a toss-up as to who enjoyed themselves more — the dogs or their humans — on the sunny, relatively warm day in the peaceful natural setting. For the dog owners it was a restful respite from their daily toils of a long, cold, snowy winter, and for the dogs it was a chance to run and play with like-minded canines.

The next Tails on the Trails will be at 10 a.m. on March 27 at the Gregory Preserve on Sawyer’s Island.

“It's a nice walk along the river there,” Hall said.

Other upcoming events scheduled by the Land Trust can be found on the Boothbay Region Land Trust's online calendar at www.bbrlt.org, and in the Boothbay Register's event calendar, Goings On, in the paper on the first page of the second section.

Tracey Hall can be reached at thall@bbrlt.org or 207-633-4818.