With a busy Easter Weekend planned, I knew I was going to have to wake up early Saturday morning if I was going to get some hiking time in. I managed to drag my butt out of bed a little after 7am. I am not an early morning person, so for me this is quite the accomplishment. Wesley reconsidered his prior nights commitment to join me and chose to sleep in despite the enticement of a Dunkin’ run. So it was a solo hike for me today. I think this actually helped though. Without a junior hiker slowing me down, I was able to get almost 5 miles of hiking in. I was much more successful this weekend in my quest to selfie with all the trail markers. Managed to find four of them (#4220, #4223, #4234, #4235). I brought along notecards and a Sharpie and rather than accept defeat, I just DIY’d my own signage at intersections with missing tags.

The hike itself was great. I’m really enjoying exploring the new trails. The kids had always enjoyed climbing around the rocks at the Quarry, but there are a whole bunch of other interesting rock walls, piles, and stairs worth exploring South of Ricciuti Drive that we never saw before. Early in the hike I came upon a pretty steep rock wall. I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t take the time to scramble up there to check the view so of course I took the quick detour. As I neared the top I heard the whoosh of a large pair of wings taking flight and saw an eagle or hawk (not an ornithologist) flying out over the new expansive view. Soon, one eagle became two, then three, then six. After marveling at them and the view for a bit I gingerly moved on as I suspected I was near a nest and didn’t feel like getting swooped upon by the flock.

Eventually I bumped into Furnace Brook Parkway and followed the road until I could pickup the trail again near St. Moritz Ponds. Then I spent about an hour zig-zagging up and down and back and forth to make sure I covered all the marked trails. Some of these were huge road sized paths and others were barely there footpaths that I would have walked right past if they weren’t marked on the map. Ran into several floofs in this area (most off-leash, but I try not to judge). Bumped into a DCR crew clearing out some over grown brush near the Shea Memorial Rink entrance and signage. While standing there looking slightly clueless and scanning for marker #4234, one of the crew asked if I needed help. I was all set, but I politely asked if they knew if there was anyone who I could let know about the missing trail markers. He said I should reach out to Tom Bender at their headquarters near the State Troopers barracks. These trails were mostly flat and easy walking with one exception of a cross trail with a very steep incline but otherwise nothing really taxing. I had to be back home by 11am to shower and head out to a movie with family and friends so I headed North following the path along the west side of the pond. Just above a firepit area someone had made a very sweet memorial for a loved one complete with solar light to keep it lit at night. Don’t know who you are WRB, but clearly CAB loved you very much and misses you. I kept going until I hit Furnace Brook Parkway and followed it farther up to Bunker Hill Lane which dead-ended right into #4235. On the road I bumped into a wonderful man whose name I did not catch walking his dog Bella. He told me how Bella had come to him from his brother who had to move into a senior home which didn’t allow the pets so he took him on. He said he planned on walking Bella in the woods as long as he could handle the stairs. I didn’t quite know what he was talking about, but I let it go. Sure enough, a little farther up the trail is a granite staircase laid into the hill amongst the stones. Time was running short but I wanted to wrap up this section of the map so I chose to chase down what was on the map as a dead end trail that ran West from #4236 figuring I’d just double-back. The trail ran right through some wide open fields surrounded by a lot of rock walls and piles. Once I hit the end, I spied a part of the rocky hill that didn’t look too bad so it was easy enough to just cut through to the main trail that runs parallel to Ricciuti Drive. Made it back to my car while noting the now full parking lot and enjoyed the rest of my Dunks iced coffee on the way home.

So Day 1 of this adventure went pretty well. Wesley wasn’t feeling well so Patricia stayed home with him while Penny and I hit the trails. We started with a quick side trip to the Trailside Museum to pick up some trail maps. I checked in with the Ranger at the desk to see if they had any advice on how to tackle all the trails in one season. She had the great advice of focusing on the trails along the outskirts of the park early in the season because a lot of them get overgrown by the time Summer is in full swing. She specifically pointed out the Fowl Meadow area as one that gets overgrown quickly. She also let me know about the Friends of Blue Hills and their 125 Mile patch. We also checked out the new Otter enclosure and a very sleepy Otter getting some sun time. Jumped back into the car and headed to Quincy Quarry which we’ve hiked a whole bunch of times. The place was packed with climbers and a crew had even setup a tightrope walk across the quarry. We also encountered our first missing trail marker. Number 4229 was no where to be found. In fact the trails weren’t very easy to find either. I just started using All Trails to track our progress and if you click through and look at the map you can see how we did quite a bit of wandering and double backing in an attempt to hike the actual trails. Things went smoother when we crossed the road to go along some of hiking trails we’ve never been to before. We actually found trail marker 4236, but 4238 was also disappointingly missing. I think I’m gonna grab a small white board so we can make up our own marker signs when we can’t find them on the trail. Penny was happy that we relocated the remnants of the car wreckage they remembered from a hike years ago. We also ran into the My Pillow Guy / Conspiracy Theorist / Underqualified Presidential Advisor / Mike Lindell… well at least his cardboard cutout, which was kinda weird. Then Penny came across a stump throne and started striking some royalty style poses. The ruling class mentality must have gone to their head because they were getting pooped out after just over the 2 mile mark so we wrapped up the loop we were on and headed back to the car. They are gonna need to work on their stamina if they plan on keeping up with me all summer.