I'm hiking in Wayland now. After a quick turn through a former Nike missile site and a bit of local road walking, I spent most of today's hike in Trout Brook conservation area. The part nearest the Water Dept. is dampish and the trail isn't too wide. The boardwalks are fine, and lots of dragonflies today. After that, the trail rises to ridges with ( Read more... )

I can recommend the Emerson-Thoreau Amble and the Hapgood Wright Town Forest for hiking. I saw some inquisitive mosquitoes but none bit today. If you go any later in the year, take bug repellent just in case. In the forest, there are some steep hill sections. In the Amble, there is mud. As long as you are prepared, enjoy! Good wildlife. I could ( Read more... )

This is the first hike this season to feel like winter. The woods were mostly dry, but the chill and a few wet leaves reminded me that I should put my Yaktrax in the day pack. Today's hike was in the Spring Hill Conservation land in Acton. I walked from the Spring Hill Rd. trailhead straight on almost to the Nashoba Brook land. The theme of the ( Read more... )

There is a gap between where I left off and where the directions for this map start. The first point is labelled B, so I guess they've left room for A when that gap is finished. I drove past the trail-to-be on my way home and, where it was pretty badly overgrown in mid-October, it appears cleared though not finished ( Read more... )

chiefoperator took piggy nursing duty this morning so I could get out long enough for a segment of the Bay Circuit Trail. I picked up at Fawn Lake in Bedford, hiked the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail to Springs Road, then followed that to the junction with Great Road. There is road and sidewalk construction in that area which made following the directions a little ( Read more... )

Wanted to get some miles in this month, but running out of time and on a short leash because we're hand-feeding Brian Piggy a few times a day. Fortunately, the first section of Map 4 is only 1.4 miles. Some nice esker hiking in Indian Ridge Reservation and pretty open land at West Parish Meadow Reservation. Finding parking was tricky. Parked at a ( Read more... )

Started again at the Sharpners' Pond Road parking area for Boxford State Forest in North Andover, heading back out the road on foot, following the cues. The old RR bed was fine. After that, things got buggy and the trail was flooded at least three places before emerging back onto the road. The re-routing of the trail around the spillover from the ( Read more... )

Started at the Sharpners' Pond Road parking area for Boxford State Forest in North Andover. Hiked in to marker #8A where I stopped last time. Mosquitos were out and starting to bite, so bug spray season has officially started. The morning was mostly gray and I only saw a couple of hikers near the end of my trip and no dogs for once. There were ( Read more... )

Bald Hill Reservation, Boxford, to marker #8A in Boxford State Forest. The weather couldn't have been much better for this particular hike: sunny most of the time, too cold for mosquitos (which will almost certainly be abundant once that season starts), yet warm enough that I saw no ice on trails and the recent snow was just in very sheltered spots ( Read more... )

After the last hike, I noticed that the last bit of Map 2 and the first bit of Map 3 are the same hike, with different letters. Today I did that part, arriving at Map 2 point L/Map 3 point B. I parked at Boy Scout Park and hiked up Dana Road to where the BCT leaves Boy Scout Park, which is where I stopped last time. The driveway to the parking area ( Read more... )