Gilbert Hills Runs On A Different Calendar Once Archery Season Opens
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
Archery deer season opened in Massachusetts on Monday, October 5, and runs through Saturday, November 28. From then until the end of the year, Foxborough's largest stretch of woods works on more than one schedule. F. Gilbert Hills State Forest covers about 1,036 acres across Foxborough and Wrentham. The Department of Conservation and Recreation's own plan for the forest lists hunting alongside hiking, horseback riding, orienteering, cross-country skiing and dirt-bike riding. Hunters and dirt-bike riders each follow their own calendar. This fall, both calendars turn over on the same weekend, and it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
The forest itself stays open the whole time. Knowing whose season it is on a given morning makes a trip from the Mill Street lot easier to plan.
DCR's management plan for the forest says deer hunting "takes place in accordance with applicable regulations." The same section says there is "no stocking of fish or game species" in the forest. That means the hunting here is mainly deer hunting. Statewide, pheasant season opens Saturday, October 17 and runs through December 31. MassWildlife stocks pheasant on other public lands, but DCR's plan doesn't describe any stocking at Gilbert Hills.
Deer hunting hours run from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. Those are also the hours when most people walk dogs before or after work.
The second group is dirt-bike riders. According to DCR's plan, motorcycles are limited to a designated off-highway vehicle trail of about eight miles. Their riding season runs "from May 1 through the last Sunday in November." DCR's current statewide OHV page gives a looser window, "between May and November." It names the King Philip Trail Riders and the Pilgrim Sands Trail Riders as club partners that help keep southeastern Massachusetts OHV trails up. The town's ATV and OHV user information page also still lists King Philip Trail Riders as a local riding group.
The third group is everyone else, and their schedule doesn't change. Per the plan, pedestrians may use every trail year-round. Mountain bikes are allowed year-round on designated trails and on the OHV trails. Everyone on the OHV trails, including walkers and cyclists, travels one way, and trail markings show the direction. DCR's trip guide suggests three loops from the State Forest Headquarters lot at 45 Mill Street: a 1.6-mile Healthy Heart Loop, a 5-mile Mountain Bike Loop and a 6.1-mile Equestrian Loop.
Southeast MA NEMBA, the regional mountain bike chapter, says it builds and maintains trails at F. Gilbert Hills. Its calendar lists a recurring Tuesday-morning group ride billed as "Chill Foxyboro Vibes." The next one is Tuesday, October 13, 9:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., meeting at 68 Mill Street. The listing gives that address but doesn't say the ride goes into the forest.
In 2026 the state's hunting dates and DCR's dirt-bike dates change on these days:
So the forest goes through two separate changes in two days. On Saturday, archery season and dirt-bike season are both still running. On Sunday the dirt bikes ride for the last time this year, and no hunting is allowed. By Monday the OHV trail is closed to motorcycles and shotgun season has started. In December the forest has no motor noise, but it does have firearms hunting six days a week.
DCR's plan and the agency's current page, which says only "between May and November," don't describe the dirt-bike season in the same terms. Riders who care about the exact closing date should check with DCR or the clubs before that weekend.
Sundays stay out of hunting season all the way through December, since the Sunday ban covers deer and pheasant alike. For the next eleven weeks, Sunday is the only day of the week when no hunting is allowed in the forest.
During shotgun and primitive firearms seasons, Massachusetts requires deer hunters to wear 500 square inches of blaze orange on the chest, back and head. Walkers don't have the same legal requirement. MassWildlife's guidance is still direct: "all outdoor users who are in the woods during hunting seasons should wear blaze orange clothing as a precaution. Pets should also wear an orange vest or bandana for visibility." DCR's trip guide for Gilbert Hills makes the same point more briefly: "Be aware of hunting seasons. Wear blaze orange when appropriate."
The same guide sets the leash rule: "Always keep your dog leashed, 10-foot maximum."
State rules also tell you where hunting stops. DCR's page on hunting in state parks and forests bars hunting within 500 feet of designated picnic areas, campsites, residences, service buildings and parking lots, among other areas. The page also asks visitors to contact each forest about any special rules. At Gilbert Hills, the Headquarters area at Mill Street has the parking lot, a small picnic area uphill of the Operations Garage and the service buildings, all in one place.
The forest also connects to town land. DCR's plan says it borders the Harold B. Clark Town Forest and the Cocasset Brook Greenbelt, and to the south it meets the Cocasset River Recreation Area and Wolf Meadow Conservation Area. Those town properties run under their own rules, so where one property ends and the next begins makes a difference this time of year.
High Rock, the forest's high point at 416 feet, is where the Civilian Conservation Corps did its most visible work. DCR's plan says the CCC built a fire tower and a water hole there for spotting and fighting fires, along with a picnic area with fire pits and a trail with stone steps. Those 1934–1935 steps "remain in use today as part of the Warner Trail."
The sources tell the tower's story two ways. DCR's plan says the tower came down in the 1950s, that "pieces of its footings remain," and that about 6.94 acres near the summit were traded to AT&T in the mid-1960s. On its building history page, the Southeast Massachusetts Regional 911 District says the 60-foot Aermotor tower went up in 1934 and that "in 1951 AT&T purchased the land and moved the tower" to the site of today's Dover fire tower. The district quotes a period account of the CCC finishing the tower, with a "glass-enclosed observation room" to be staffed April to October by a fire watcher. According to DCR's plan, the footings are still on the summit, near the land that went to AT&T.
That AT&T site has a history of its own. The Long Lines archive, a collection documenting AT&T's long-distance network, describes High Rock as a semi-hardened AT&T facility that carried major microwave routes into Boston. The 911 district's page also notes that the road up from Route 1 was once known for views of Boston. It says today's High Rock Road, from Route 1 to Granite Street, was once part of the Bristol and Providence toll road.
High Rock has also served as an event site. The New England Orienteering Club ran a meet there on Sunday, November 2, 2025, from 10 a.m. to noon. The club's published schedule runs through December 20, 2026 and doesn't include a High Rock meet this year. A Sunday date fits the calendar described above, since hunting is prohibited that day.
At Talib Hussain Realty Group, we follow how Foxborough's open land works season by season, from the Mill Street lot to the town forests along its edges. If you have questions about the land around a property, or about how a place like Gilbert Hills shapes the area around it, let's connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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