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Middlesex Fells Reservation

Location: Medford, MA (15 miles north of Boston)

Difficulty: trails range from easy walking trails to moderate/hard hiking.

Bikes? Yes

Pets: Yes, most people had dogs

Middlesex Fells Reservation is located right off of Interstate 93, exit 33, just a stones throw from Boston.  The main entrance is the best to use as it has the most parking and a trail map with other useful information about particular plant and insect life in the reservation.  There are plenty of trails to make this more a great spot for frequent visits as well as several bike paths that include a wide array of biking abilities. 

When we started out, we chose to go on the Reserve Trail (Orange), but shortly decided that we were looking for something a little harder and shortly switched to the Skyline Trail.  One thing to note is that the Reserve Trail is about 5.5 miles around all three lakes, but the Skyline Trail, if you follow the entire thing, is about 7 miles and takes a detour, after going around the lakes, to the far southeast corner of the reservation that has a great look out over Boston (perfect for sunsets). 

When we first pulled up we noticed that is was very busy and parking can be a bit dodgy, but it seemed ok to just pull up on the middle barrier if there wasn’t any spots.  We also noticed that a lot of people had dogs, so this would be a great place for a little dog-meet-up with other owners.

The Skyline trail starts with a quick ascent up about a 500 ft bit of rock to get the the “skyline” part of the trail. As you follow the trail it winds up and down the hills of the reservation with the occasional break in the trees providing spectacular views of the whole park.  eventually after about 2 miles you reach a spot where you can go sit on one of the lakes that is part of the town water supply.  It’s really peaceful place to sit as very few people take the skyline trail.  Great for a small snack or just a quick rest to enjoy the weather.

As the trail winds around the back side of the reservation it crosses the bike path several times, so be sure to watch out for speeding mountain bikers.  You’ll find that the trail seems to go up and down over the hills and on each down it crosses the Reserve Trail sever times, so its easy to switch to an easier path if you over estimated your fitness, or just are tired of climbing rocks.  One thing to note is that, as with most trails in the northeast, there are lots of snakes, especially this time of year, but they are just regular garter snakes so there is no need to worry (my girlfriend freaked out when the first one crossed our path).

When you get to the point in the picture to the right, it is important to note that this is the best(and last) place to switch to the Reserve Trail before you head up the moderate-hard hike to the southeast cliff that overlooks Boston.  There are beautiful view of Boston if you are up for the additional 2+ miles, but if you are running out of time, or just tired, it’s the best place to head back to the car (which will still be about half a mile away). 

If your up for the addtional 2 miles of the hardest part of the trail, then your up for some oustanding views of boston, as well as a great spot to have lunch, sit and relax, or even take a nap.  The top has a very old lookout tower that is closed to the public, but it adds a bit a scenic beauty to the whole skyline. 

Finally that last part of the trail is the final descent back to the parking lot.  This part is a series of ups and downs and each time you feel your making the final descent, it goes right back up.  Its about 2 miles of this before you are dumped right back to the main entrance that you entered the reservation and the parking lot is just up the hill.  If you make it this far, then congraduations you just made it about 7.5 miles of moderate-hard hiking and at about 370 calories/hour for about 3.5-4.5 hours i’d say its time for a nice hearty dinner!

You can check out my GPS trail as well as all the other photos from the trip on my flickr photostream.

Turkey Hill and Thayer Trail

Today we decided to try out a new trail about 30 minutes from Quincy in Weymouth.  The trail is part of the Trustees of Reservations.  There are several entrances to this land, but we chose the Turkey Hill entrance due to its proximity to route 3A.  We parked in the small dirt lot that was only occupied by three other cars.  Erin decided to play around with the camera while I was getting the GPS and my bag ready which led to a series of random shots finishing with me ever so concentrated on configuring the my iPhone GPS to get a good signal.

As we entered the trail there we were greated by two older (60s) gentlemen leaving the trail in a very disshevled way.  Neither looked as though they had been prepared to end up in the woods when they left their house that day, but somehow it seems that was what their day turned into.  One of the men tripped over a succession of three differnt rocks as they made their way past us towards their car and all I could think was that whatever their purpose had been for being in the woods, I was pretty sure that mine was not the same.

The beginning of the trail was a well packed stone trail that curved its way up the side of the hill with 12ft wood boards laid out across the length of the trail to prevent erosion during the rain.  The trail then ends up in a large field with several paths cut into the three to four foot grass.  It is very quite and peaceful in the field and there are plenty of bird houses strew about to make for great bird watching as well as a pleasant symphony playful bird chatter.  The top of the hill, through the field, is a low grass patch that has a great view of Boston, the south shore, and out into the Atlantic.

As we left the field towards the other side of the hill we encountered a few cows just hanging out getting sum lunch and enjoying the weather much the same way we were.  I snapped a few pics of them and one of the cows seemed to stare at me with the same perplexity that someone eating in a restuarant would have if you took a picture of them while they were eating.  The other cows didn’t seem to care much that would soon be all over the internet.

As we left our spotted friends we decended into a more woodsy part of the path that led us to another farm a little farther away that had goats.  The goats didn’t seem to care at  all that I wanted to get a picture of them and simply went about his business.  From here on out the trail got a bit more woodsy and we found out selves moving at a very slow pace stepping of pricker bushes and getting attacked by spider strings, you know the things they leave behind as the travel from one tree to the next in the air.  We eventually made our way back to the field were we had a picnic with a great view of Boston.

I highly recommend this trail for a nice leisurely hike with great views of Boston.  On my scale I give it a 7 out 10.  You can follow my GPS track here and my flickr stream on the right.  Also my web page where I host all my art photos for sale here.

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