May 23, 2020 - Framingham to Marlborough

May 23, 2020

Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail. Feel free to subscribe (see the little "subscribe" oval above). The rest of the past posts can be found using the little menu on the left. If you are curious how this all started, go here.

As pandemic restrictions have eased, I have had more regular stuff to do, so it’s been a few days since my last hike. It’s Memorial Day weekend and I was apprehensive that the trails would be really crowded, but the temperature plummeted today and I was hoping it would put people off. It did! I parked at Henry’s Hill across the street from my previous turnaround point. Over the hill and down the other side we went, followed by some road walking, but not a lot, and with nice scenery although no sidewalks. Then we slipped between two private properties on a narrow SVT easement and into some of the best hiking of the BCT to date. Poison ivy has fully emerged and I had some concerns about getting it either from the dog, who romps around indiscriminately, or from the long line which trails behind him. I think I’m done with the long line for the season. I had a lot of difficulty following the trail as BCT blazes weren’t always where expected, the BCT map is not useful, I had trouble following the directions, and the BCT isn’t always marked on Alltrails. But I manage to find my way out of the SVT reservation into Callahan State Park (no dog policy on signage). One road crossing, and I was heading up the Backpacker Trail toward Beebe Pond. I was fortunate to meet a kindly stranger with two cute little dogs who gave me some guidance on how to reach the pond. I went one way and he went another, but our paths crossed again a couple of more times. Beebe Pond is a beaver pond with a big dam at one end. On the left through the trees are meadows. Past the pond, it was back in the woods for a short time and then we cut through open farm fields. The afternoon sunshine in the fields, just me and the dog, was glorious. We left the fields and back in the woods on old farm roads and hit a virtual wall - the Sudbury Reservoir that does not allow dogs (it’s a backup MWRA water supply). I did not retrace the entire route as it was getting late but did some road walking to a trail intersection to save some time. What a lovely day out! We’ll rejoin the trail on the other side of the reservoir, and save that piece for later. On the way back, Sulu flushed a pileated woodpecker quite close to me. It was so big my first impression was that it was a turkey!