by Owen Wadlington

Wen is a GWRLT intern this semester from the University of New England. 

In a blog post I wrote earlier this month, I had the opportunity to speak with Leanne Cusimano about the Beach Plum Pursuit scavenger hunt. We sat down and talked about how her experience looking for glass floats, dewberries, and pinecones had led her to wanting to organize her own glass sculpt hunt, and this past weekend that dream came to fruition during Great Works Regional Land Trust’s (GWRLT) first Beach Plum Pursuit event.

The event began on Friday morning, October 24th, kicking off the sculpt hunt bright and early across three different trails in Ogunquit. Beach Plum Farm, the Old Boston Preserve, and Payeur Preserve were all trails where would-be treasure seekers such as myself could potentially find one of the hidden sculptures along the path.

I wasn’t able to start my own search for the glass plums until late in the afternoon that Friday. A long day of classes had kept me busy, but I knew that as soon as I was done I was going to hit the trails hard in search of the titular elusive fruit. My fiancé, just as eager as I was to find one of the treasures for ourselves, joined me that afternoon to better our chances of finding a plum hidden amongst the autumn leaves and tree roots.

Our first stop was Payeur Preserve, one beautiful mile of trail in 35 acres of preserved land right next to the Ogunquit dog park. It was already 5:30pm by the time we arrived, and the sun was starting to set. We knew that we had a limited amount of time to try and find one of the plums before the trail closed, so we got looking.

I took the right, they took the left. We used our feet to sweep aside piles of leaves, and peeked behind every tree stump that we came across hoping we might find a sculpt nestled against the roots. As we walked through the forest with the sun setting of the trail, we could smell rain on the air. Sure enough the rain started coming down gently, but the dense families of red oaks and white pines overhead kept us dry enough to continue our search.

We came up empty that night, and returned home plumless. Although we didn’t leave the trail with a sculpt that evening, we left with reinvigorated ambition to find a glass plum.

Saturday was a new day, and we were up bright and early to resume our hunt. We returned to Payeur Preserve at 8am sharp to make another attempt. The trail was far more populated than it had been the evening before. We must’ve passed at least twenty people throughout our morning hike after the fresh rain; the leaves still damp beneath our boots and smelling like wet dirt and pine while he walked. Once more we couldn’t find anything for ourselves, though another treasure-seeker had found one of the plums hidden underneath a single leaf against a tree stump just before we arrived.

For the rest of our walk through Payeur preserve, we scoured every tree stump that we could find, flipping leaves hoping that we’d find gold and silver beneath them.

For the second time, we came up short.

Though Payeur preserve ironically hadn’t been fruitful in finding the glass fruits for us, there were still two other trails to search. First, we made our way to Beach Plum Farm, the preserve that started it all. Not only headquarters for GWRLT, but also a beautiful scenic plot of farmland with a trail that leads out to the Atlantic Ocean. We got there at just about 9am. As we arrived, we met a married couple who had come from out of town for their 33^rd anniversary, and they had decided to take part in the Beach Plum Pursuit as part of their celebration.

As luck would have it, the two of them found a plum hidden amongst the leaves. We got to hear their story of how it’d made their day so much more special to be able to find the treasure, and it reminded me of how important events like these can be for bringing people together and creating lasting memories, emphasizing the significance of organizations like GWRLT. We also got to briefly speak with Leanne Cusimano, who was thrilled by how many participants had arrived to search for the plums.

As for our own search, we weren’t quite so fortuitous as to find a sculpt of our own. We searched Beach Plum Farm two more times that day, with the knowledge that hiders incognito were placing plums across the trails throughout the day. The following day, Sunday, we searched Old Boston Preserve, Payeur, and Beach Plum each one final time and still were unable to find a plum.

Ultimately, however, we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just about the plum. It would have been great to be able to find one, certainly, but just being able to participate in the scavenger hunt was a treasure in of itself. It got us outside, got us walking beautiful walking paths to appreciate natural New England, and got us talking about how happy everyone we encountered seemed to be while taking part in the event.

The Beach Plum Pursuit is just one of many events that GWRLT organizes throughout the year, each and every one seeking to bring together New England communities to create memories that will last a lifetime, and protect beautiful tracts of land like Beach Plum Farm, Old Boston, and Payeur.