As soon as I finished my hike last Saturday I was already thinking ahead to next week. My plan on Saturday was to keep working on the 4000’s around the Furnace Brook area to build off my Day 3 hike around St. Moritz Pond. Then on Sunday I heard about the brush fire in the Blue Hills. It took a few days to figure out the rough area of the fire but when the news stations showed the aerial shots I noticed the array of solar panels near the fire trucks. With that in mind I checked out Google Earth and found that the solar panels were the ones near the Norman Smith EEC. With that reference point, it appeared that the fire was in the area between the Slide Notch and Sassamon Notch Paths. Yesterday my sleuthing was confirmed when the Friends of the Blue Hill shared a post identifying Saturday’s fire as the Slide Notch fire. Obviously, curiosity has gotten the better of me so this week’s plan is to hike the trails around the area of the brush fire to see how extensive the damage is. I have two plans worked up, one a 5 mile hike, the other one just shy of 8 miles. I’m pushing for the longer one, but my family may rebel and insist on the 5-miler or refuse to come. The results of this stand-off will be determined by Saturday morn.
This is the shorter of the two planned hikes. Just over 5 miles but with a good amount of elevation change. This hike adds about 2.6 miles to the hike above, but most of that is flat so it shouldn’t be that much harder.
I really regret not taking the quick side trip to complete the inner track of Eliot Loop. I’ll have to remember to include that when I cap the Challenge off with the Skyline Trail.
Part 2 of the hike – I am definitely making better time when I’m on my own.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m really trying to avoid any post-production video editing because it’s the ultimate time suck. However, as long as I’m using an old iPhone as my bodycam it seems I’m destined to capture the video in a few different parts and I really don’t want to bother stitching the files together at the end of the day. So these post are going to continue as a series of videos until I come up with a solution. I did upgrade my camera mount to an actual purpose-made mount delivered via Amazon Prime just in time for the day’s hike. It was much easier to point and align and also to check on the video occasionally without much effort. You’ll notice when the camera suddenly points straight down and then backup without explanation, that was a progress check.
After we got back to the parking lot at the Trailside Museum, Patricia and Penny had had their fill of hiking for the day. I was given advanced notice that this was likely going to be the case so I drove in my own car earlier that morning so I could get in a few extra more miles. A bid adieu (my favorite Wordle starting word BTW) to Patricia, Penny and the Au Pairs and made the quick drive to the Park & Ride just down the road. My plan was to zig-zag around Cosmos Path, K Path, and Moulton Path, the whole time making quick back and forth trips to cover all the tiny little dead-end tributaries. The plan was to hit the 6000 block of trail markers and then make the trek to the summit of Little Blue Hill. #6900 was right there waiting for me at the trailhead as I stepped off the parking lot. I promptly took a wrong turn and went a couple of hundred feet down the wrong trail before I checked my new favorite app, Maprika, and realized I was on the wrong trail.
Once I found the right trail with the help of another roving hiker I quickly found the trail split at #6877. As I made it down my first dead-end tributary I wondered why it came to such an abrupt end. After I got over the slight hill I saw how the trail bumped into the corner of someone’s driveway so I guess I had my answer there. The two dogs in the yard of the house at the end of the driveway did a great job of letting me know that this was their backyard, literally. I double-backed after I hit the driveway and came across #6830 and then bumped into my first missing marker of the day. #6680 was nowhere to be found so I busted out the index cards and Sharpie to whip up my own. I was shortly redeemed when I found #6670 right where it belonged and took care of another quick double-back to cover the little dead-end.
The day was getting warmer and the munchies hit so I dipped into the backpack to taste test some protein bars I picked up yesterday. I had literally had a dream where I was eating one of the old style Protein Plus Power Bars I hadn’t eaten in years. I was hoping to find something similar. I can happily report that the Quest Birthday Cake bars hit the spot. I also tried the French Vanilla Creme Powercrunch bars and I liked it but it was more cookie-like and didn’t give that solid meal-replacement level of satisfaction that the Quest did. I was disappointed yet again when I couldn’t find #6650 and so the index card and Sharpie were busted out yet again. Another double-back along a dead-end and I kept going down Cosmos Path. The sun was almost directly over head and it was having that gorgeous effect of the sun streaming down through the pines. I stopped for a bit and played around with the iPhone camera and keeping the sun just out of frame to try and get that look in a picture. It came out pretty good, but I keep wondering if I should try and revive one of our old digital cameras to carry along to grab pics where I have more control and a zoom lens. TBD on that one. Then it got weird, well weird in an OCD completionist kind of way. I found the actual #6650 trail marker but in a completely different spot then where it’s supposed to be.
Once I got over my consternation I was rewarded with #6700 and #6850 being present and accounted for and properly located. Yet another dead-end double-back at #6850 brought me across the street from the giant glass and steel office building we saw from the summit of Great Blue Hill. It was a straight shoot up the K Path right past #6800 and back to #6670. I was putting on the gas as it was getting late (and I was getting tired) so not so many pictures here except for one very cool weathered exposed stump.
I was regretting my decision to tackle Little Blue at the end of the hike as I was getting pretty beat but I pushed through and am glad I did. I had heard from the same hiker who got me on the right path at the beginning that there was a stone bench along the way to the summit and sure enough it was right there. But it was more than just a stone bench, it was memorial to Augustus Hemenway. His wife, Harriet Hemenway was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. I of course did not know any of this during the hike, but the internet is a great thing. I stopped to take a load off and enjoy the view. Thanks for the break Auggie!
I found #6880 without issue, but the side path that leads to the summit is not very well marked or laid out, so I busted out Maprika again to guide me along. The summit was soaked in sun and the summit rock had a tiny little tree poking right out of the middle. Happy to have finally made the peak I was relieved, but for only a brief moment, when I realized I had to loop back up and around to complete all the trails. So stopping for just a few more trail marker selfies, #6896 and #6891, and some pics of interesting tree hollows that in the parallel universe of Hyrule were perfect hiding places for Koroks; I made it back to the car exhausted but happy.
Today’s hike happened in two parts. Part 1 started around 10am at the Trailside Museum with Patricia, Penny, and four Au Pairs from Patricia’s LCC group with Cultural Care Au Pair. The plan was to hike the most popular trail in the reservation, the Red Dot loop from the museum to the top of Great Blue Hill and then back down. It was the chilliest morning I had encountered so far in this challenge so I started out with my fleece zipped up and even wearing a knit beanie. Penny continues to insist on being a part of all my Trail Marker selfies and was hamming it up by giving a report on each floof (dog) we encountered directly into my makeshift bodycam. It took a while to get started as parking was crowded and we were waiting for a few latecomers. With all present and accounted for, we started up the Red Dot trail.
I warmed up really quick with the climb up the steeper incline and I had ditched my fleece and hat in about 15 minutes. I was also panting and wheezing like the overweight 48-year-old man that I am, but that’s part of the reason I’m on this whole adventure in the first place. When we got to the summit of Great Blue, you couldn’t ask for better conditions. It was cool but sunny and the sky was an amazing rich blue with patches of fluffy white clouds taken right form a pre-school drawing. Did the climb up the Eliot Tower and soaked in the views. It’s easy to see why this is the most popular trail in the reservation. I tried to get some fun panoramic shots, but none of them really came out that great.
I had been explaining the 125 Mile Club and the TTBH Challenge to the Au Pairs on the way up the hill so they were nice enough to oblige me with a few extra minutes of hiking around the Eliot Loop to take in the Weather Observatory. There we encountered our one major disappointment for the day. We knew the Weather Observatory was closed for some major renovations, but we were delighted to see they had setup a makeshift gift shop out of a storage shed and some tables near the tower. Penny excitedly cornered the matron of the gift shop to ask if they still had the Annie B’s caramel candies, and they were immediately devastated to learn that they no longer sold them and didn’t plan on carrying them again. We were told they were looking for a more local option to replace them (Annie B’s is based out of Minnesota). I tried to console the child with some lollisticks but they were clearly bummed. We soldiered on and got some nice pictures at a small overlook at the west side of Eliot Loop. The time was nearly 12pm (the scheduled end of the Au Pair outing) so we started to make our way to the Racoon Hollow Path and Abigail Adams Trail.
Patricia is gathering her Au Pair group for a hike up the popular red-dot trail to the summit of Great Blue Hill on Saturday. She’s an LCC for Cultural Care Au Pair so she organizes monthly activities for the group of Au Pairs that she looks after. (If anyone is curious about the Au Pair program, let me know and Patricia can tell you all about it). I’m going to join them for the hike and then after they are done, I’m going to keep going and hike the trails around Little Blue Hill on the other side of Washington Street. Patricia and Penny may or may not join me for this part. We shall see. I split the planned hike into two parts in All Trails accordingly.
The video streams for the first two days of my hiking were bad. Really really bad. I’m not striving for National Geographic levels of adventure video here, but the camera (an old iPhone 6s Plus) should at least be pointed in the right direction. I ditched my original phone mount which was frugally and hastily crafted from a Ziploc bag and some gaff tape. I proceeded to come up with a more complex but hacked solution using an old phone car mount, some plastic carved from the back of an old phone case, and more gaff tape. An extra elastic strap from a bike mount for my phone was co-opted to secure the phone in the mount. I now had the ability to actually point my camera in roughly the right direction AND orient the phone in landscape mode like a proper video. What I did not have was the ability to easily check the screen of the phone while hiking. This resulted in the video getting stopped somehow and me not noticing for about an hour so I lost some footage of our walk along the Neponset River. The video gets resumed later in the hike but then again I accidentally stop the video but this time I noticed right away so I was able to restart it and continue.
The first video from the day covers the Burma Road Trail from start to finish with Patricia and Wesley joining me and it goes on to cover us backtracking until we find where the trail splits and heads North-West as it traces along the Neponset River. Shortly after we take the turn, the video cuts out.
The second video picks up about an hour later. So it missed some really nice footage from our hike along the Neponset and my first crossing of the Swamp Trail. it also missed when Patricia and Wesley split off to head home while continued on to finish my planned hike for the day. I stopped for some water and a granola bar and that’s when I noticed the video was stopped. I restarted when I was somewhere along the Green Hill Path and it recorded the rest of my hike, but with one more start/stop that split the video into two chunks along the way. At least I got some nice shots of me leap-frogging through back through the Swamp Trail and it also recorded a brief encounter with a first time hike where I shared my map to help him get oriented.
Went for my longest hike so far and covered almost 8 miles (or 7.5 depending on which app you trust). Started out at the Burma Trail Parking lot with Patricia and Wesley. No chance of getting lost on this one, straight as an arrow path from there until you bump into I-93 as it goes through Canton. Today was a great day for Intersection Markers. Not only did we find all the ones listed on the map, we found a bonus marker that is NOT on the printed map. We turned around when we hit the highway and veered West and followed the trail along the Neponset River.
The weather was very cooperative for the day. We were very thankful that there hadn’t been much rain the past few days as I expected severe amounts of muddy trails given the path goes right through a marsh, but everything was dry and easily passable. Some signs of wildlife throughout this part of the trail. Came acorss one part where it looked like a coyote shedded their entire winter coat in one spot. Saw a few ducks, heard tons of different bird songs (might have to start throwing my bird book and some binoculars in my pack), and signs of spring were everywhere. Found some seedlings taking root in a hollow of a still living tree. After following the Neponset River, we turned right at the Fowl Meadow Path and that when we came across #6009 with is NOT on the map. There was a stub of a trail that headed South from that marker on the map, but it went much farther into the woods than that. We turned around and double-backed after hitting a clearing with the remants of a shelter. When we got back to the #6005 marker, Wesley was getting tired and felt a little off, so Patricia offered to head back to the car with him and drive him home while I finished off my planned hike into the swamp and the rest of the trails in this area.
With Wesley and Patricia headed North on Burma Road, I continued on my own and quickly discovered that the Swamp Trail was aptly named. The path ran through the middle of the swamp and is mere inches above the water level and in some spots, below it. However, once I made it through, I was rewarded with some beautiful hiking paths through some pine groves. Also enjoyed a continued bounty of Intersection Markers; #6106, #6105, #6104, #6103, #6102, and #6101 were all right were they belonged and were easy to spot. Lets hear it for small victories. Came across some truly amazing sights. Saw a huge pine tree that had fallen over but took a huge chunk of it’s root structure and entangled earth with it. The creek near the toppled tree marked the end of the offical BH trail according to the map. Rather than double-back and re-trace some steps, I chose to beat a path through some unblazed woods to cut through the back of one tributary to pickup the trail at the terminus of another nearby tributary. Continued South along the Green Hill Path, veered left to the Orchard Trail, and kept going until I came to the trail head at #6101. Did a U-turn to head North with the intent of picking up the Field Path, looping it, and then re-tracing back to complete the trail and this is where things got a little weird. The path on the official BH map does NOT match up with the AllTrails paths and for good reason. After checking Maprika, and Google Maps to make sure I was in the right spot, there was absolutely no path where the BH map said their should be one. I ventured in a bit thinking I’d run into it, but that proved quite pointless as the brush soon blocked me completely. So I waded out of the underbrush, continued North and when I got to marker #6103 I did find the Northern start of the Field Path. So I followed it and sure enough, it tracked along where the All Trails map showed a path and reconnected at marker #6101. With all markers hit, I started my way back to the parking lot. Along the way I saw this amazing natural bowl in the middle of a pine grove that 8-year-old me would have loved as their own personal hideaway from the world. At one point I noticed the trail became very soft and quiet and looked down to see the whole trail was covered in ant hills, but oddly, did not see any actual ants. Also saw a huge field of thorns which was probably the savior of all local bunnies who were high-tailing it away from a hungry coyote. Finally made it back to the parking lot where my sweet wife promptly picked my tired ass up and drove me home.
The ranger at the Trailside Museum advised me to walk the trails along the outskirts of the Blue Hills early in the season because they get overgrown and harder to follow by summer. So this weekend I’m going to tackle the very long, but very flat area around Fowl Meadow. I mapped out the track and it’s going to be my longest hike so far, 7.5 miles, but with very little elevation change it shouldn’t be too bad.
