May 19, 2020 - Sudbury to Framingham

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.


What a gorgeous day for a walk in the woods! And I'm so grateful that it *was* a walk in the woods - two days with no road walking!  We parked on Brimstone Lane (not a hellscape at all) and took a short trail to where we left off yesterday.  Up Nobscot Hill we went (the high point on the BCT), and had what the BCT website calls "peekaboo views" (copy clearly written by a real estate agent). The ascent, if I may call it that, was not as steep or rocky as yesterday's climb of Tippling Rock.  The trail doubled back and mostly downhill along scantily blazed trails to Wayside Inn Road, opposite Henry's Hill, our next departure point.  The temperature was perfect, with a breeze to keep the gnats away.  The woods were dappled with sunshine and the trails were not crowded.  Some people even wore masks. Once I got a sense of the terrain and popularity of different trail segments I was able to give Sulu more freedom on the way back. He was able to get his feet wet a couple of times which helped him stay cool.  Instead of going over Nobscot Hill, we took a short cut back to the car and that trail was lined with Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants starting to bloom. We heard lots of birds, but saw few because of the tree cover. I met my first other "through hikers" (a bit grandiose term for serial day hikers). They are a mature couple who are traveling north from Ashland.  We exchanged tips - it was fun.  I am looking forward to my next woodsy foray.
The constricted trail from the parking lot


The "ascent"

Fire tower

Tree with half fungus and half moss: alive!

The ferns are getting big!
The BCT crosses multiple trail systems and land managers

Jack-in-the-pulpit

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