Sudbury Valley Trustees is holding a grand opening for its All Persons' Trail on Sunday, October 4, from 8 to 11 a.m. at Wolbach Farm, 18 Wolbach Road. If you've parked at SVT's headquarters any time in the past year, you may have already walked part of it. The first phase opened in July 2025. What this weekend celebrates is the newer section that runs into the woods along Winter Brook. With it finished, a wheelchair, walker or stroller can go somewhere at Wolbach that used to mean roots, mud and a hill. The parts meant mainly for young children, a play area and a rebuilt storybook path, are still on the 2027 calendar.
The ribbon was cut 14 months ago
SVT broke ground on Phase 1 on April 28, 2025. On July 24, 2025, staff and officials cut a grapevine ribbon to open it. State Senator Jamie Eldridge and State Representative Carmine Gentile presented SVT Executive Director Davnet Conway with a special citation from the State Senate. Sudbury Town Manager Andy Sheehan spoke too.
That first phase stayed close to the house. In her remarks that day, Conway described it as a trail that "wends around the lawn and pollinator garden" near the office building, with stops at the new Picnic Grove and Barn-View Terrace. SVT's current trail page calls that stretch the Farm House Path Loop. It's 880 feet long and 4 feet wide, with a mix of sun and shade around the old Wolbach farmhouse, which now holds SVT's offices. Along the way you pass a pollinator garden, a rain garden, the Judy Mack Barn-view Terrace with café-style seating, extra resting benches, and a connection to SVT's Founders' Garden.
The Picnic Grove sits along that loop. It has an accessible family gathering table on a stone dust pad, plus four accessible picnic tables and a bench on an engineered wood fiber pad.
A lawn loop with gardens and picnic tables is a pleasant place to spend 20 minutes. It still kept a wheelchair out of the actual forest on a 54-acre property.
What's new is the Woodland Trail
When Phase 1 opened, SVT said the 2026 work would extend the trail into the woods along the existing George Lewis Memorial Trail. That extension is the Woodland Trail, and SVT's page now lists it as open:
- Length: 1,140 feet one way, about 0.6 miles round trip
- Width: 6 feet, half again as wide as the Farm House Path
- Route: out and back, following Winter Brook upstream to a small intermittent stream that feeds it
- Cover: entirely in the forest, under mostly hardwood trees
- Rest stops: four along its length
Both sections use stabilized stone dust, which SVT describes as eco-friendly and erosion-resistant. The typical grade is under 5%, with a few short stretches up to 8%.
That surface is what's new. Winter Brook isn't a new destination at Wolbach Farm. The George Lewis Memorial Trail's 3/4-mile main loop already follows the brook, crosses a wetland and comes back through the woods. A 1/5-mile inner loop cuts it shorter. The Woodland Trail goes into the same stretch of forest, built to a standard that works for the people the project names: anyone who uses a wheelchair, walker or stroller.
Sunday morning, hour by hour
SVT has set aside the first hour of the celebration for sensory-friendly activities. The rest of the morning includes forest bathing, birding, music, story time and light refreshments. RSVP through the All Persons' Trail page on SVT's site.
Coming from Wolbach Road, the parking lot is on the right just before the farmhouse. Accessible spaces are at the trailhead.
The pieces built for kids come in 2027
Here's where the project still stands. Each line is dated by SVT's own announcements.
- April 28, 2025: Phase 1 breaks ground.
- July 24, 2025: Phase 1 opens, including the Farm House Path, Picnic Grove and Barn-View Terrace.
- December 2025: SVT announces an $8,000 grant from Athletic Brewing Company for Phase 2.
- October 4, 2026: Grand opening, with the Woodland Trail in place.
- 2027: A nature-based play area next to the Picnic Grove.
- Fall 2027: A new, condensed Storybook Path.
Families who already use Wolbach will care most about the storybook item. The original Storybook Trail was created along the George Lewis Memorial Trail in fall 2016 by two local Girl Scouts. It has a dozen reading stations spread over a 3/4-mile wooded route that crosses a hill, and SVT warns it can be uneven and muddy. The plan is to shrink it so it fits entirely inside the All Persons' Trail. SVT puts the goal this way: "all children will be able to access the entire path and read the whole story."
That path is running behind its first timeline. In August 2025, SVT listed the condensed Storybook Path as 2026 work, alongside the woods extension. SVT's current page now shows Fall 2027. The 2025 announcement also put interpretive signage and a better connection to the historic barn across Wolbach Road on the 2027 list.
The play area is still being designed. SVT says it wants a safe, free space where children and caretakers of all abilities can enjoy nature together. It's asking for community input through a survey on the trail page. Cecil Hynds-Riddle, SVT's Director of Development, has described the play area as a free entry point to nature for young children and the people who care for them. A separate survey asks for feedback on the trail itself.
The 2026 Sudbury Weekly coverage lists supporters including The Sudbury Foundation, The Manton Foundation, John and Molly Beard, Athletic Brewing Company, The DICK'S Sporting Goods Foundation, and the SuAsCo Wild and Scenic Rivers River Stewardship Council. SVT's own Phase 1 thank-you also named the George and Marjorie Osborne Foundation and the Highland Partners Charitable Foundation.
What the rest of Wolbach Farm offers alongside it
The new trail sits within a property that already has several ways to spend a morning, each with a different surface. SVT has made the farm its headquarters since 2004, through John Wolbach's bequest. SVT's history says the Wolbachs took over a mostly dairy farm and turned it into a gentleman's farm. During the Depression, the Wolbach and Newton families planted conifers on what had been pasture.
There's also a self-guided Wolbach Farm Interpretive Trail, created in spring 2019. It uses QR codes at eight stops, including Wet Meadow, Founders' Garden, Winter Brook, Rocky Outcrop, White Oak Stand and Pollinator Garden. Several of those stops line up with features on the All Persons' Trail, including the Founders' Garden, the pollinator garden and the brook.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- Hours: SVT properties are open dawn to dusk.
- Dogs: Welcome, but as of May 2026 SVT requires leashes on all its Sudbury properties, Wolbach Farm included. The town's rule sets a six-foot maximum leash. SVT's trail policies require dogs to stay on paths and out of ponds, watercourses and wetlands, and owners must clean up after them.
- Bikes: SVT prohibits bicycling except at specifically listed properties, and Wolbach Farm isn't one of them.
- Cost: The All Persons' Trail is free and open year-round.
The leash rule matters most on the Woodland Trail. Winter Brook runs right beside it, and SVT's policies keep dogs out of watercourses.
If you're planning more fall outings in town, the Town of Sudbury has scheduled Camp Sewataro's Fall Spectacular for Sunday, October 25, from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1 Liberty Ledge. It's free for Sudbury residents. One day earlier, Duck Soup's Mill Village Fall Festival runs from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, at 365 Boston Post Road.
At Rutledge Properties, we keep track of how Sudbury's open spaces are changing, from a new stone-dust path along Winter Brook to the dates that keep shifting on the town's trail projects. If you'd like to know how places like Wolbach Farm fit into daily life in a particular part of town, ask us. Work With Us.
