I had procrastinated making my Day 7 hiking plan all week long so it wasn’t until late Friday night that I laid out a convoluted 7-miler that would cover all the trails in the 4000 block between Fox Hill and Randolph Avenue with a quick detour across Chickatawbut to cover the circle path around Blue Hills Reservoir. I was going to wake up early to fit this in for two reasons. One: we had tickets for “Downton Abbey – A New Era” for 3:20pm at South Bay and didn’t want to be late; and Two: temps were going to be in the mid-80’s so the earlier I got started the less I would be melting in the afternoon heat. Unfortunately, I slept through my alarm clock by a whole two hours so when I finally got out of bed I knew I’d have to cut things short. I had no idea how so I figured I would just improvise along the way. On the plus side, the morning was much cooler and cloudier than forecast, so even with my late start, I didn’t have to face the brunt of the day’s heat. There had been some rain showers over night and that lead to a coastal fog that cooled things down. However, it also came with a huge blast of humid air that I knew would bring out the skeeters, muck up the trails, and cause me to sweat a river.
Suspecting another roadside gravel parking lot I took the teenagers car, a 2014 Kia Soul in Solar Yellow – impossible to lose in a parking lot, to avoid bottoming out my precious Golf R. I parked at the lot near the intersection of Chickatawbut and Randolph which turned out to be nicely paved, so the car swap wasn’t necessary. Regardless I’ll think I’ll keep using the Kia for these morning hikes. Before heading out, I thoroughly sprayed myself in some Deep Woods Off! and am so glad I did. As suspected, the rain and the humidity brought out the bugs in force. As I hiked I could feel them bumping into me non-stop like an invading army of blood suckers. But the bug spray worked like a charm and the bugs would retreat away from me right after I felt their attempted landing. The trails were moist and wet and there were some substantial mud patches, but nothing that was impossible to traverse.
I knew I had to cut things short but I hadn’t figured out quite yet what to cut. I started out on my original path which was to head North-East on the Headquarters Path, which became a Pipe Line trail, until I hit the section of Sawcut Notch Path on the South side of Little Dome that I had covered last week. I retraced my steps from last week until I hit #4086 and then it was decision time. I figured I’d cut out the eastern portion of my hike, so instead of covering everything west of Fox Hill, I’d just zig zag around a bit without straying too far from the parking lot and just head back when time was getting short. I turned onto an unnamed trail between #4082 and #4049. I did a prompt U-turn and covered Pine Tree Brook Path half way through and then turned onto a side trail that curved around to the parking lot for Chickatawbut Tower. I then turned up Pasture Run and did another U-turn on Headquarters Path to come back down Cedar Rock Path. Then I hoofed it down Chickatawbut Road until I got to the driveway for the Norman Smith EEC. I did a re-read of the Official Rules of the TTBH and noted that Rule 6-G says that while the driveway isn’t part of the trek, the unpaved connector path from the driveway to the water tank is. So I covered that section, which I’m glad I did as I found a magnificent hawk feather just laying on the path. It was getting hotter and later and buggier, so I took a sharp right and made it back to my car with plenty of time to make the movie.
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