6/14/2020 - Sherborn


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.



I returned to Sherborn the next day, determined that it would be a better day. In trying to plan my path, I searched for a map of the Brush Hill reservation I was supposed to be visiting, but came up with the blog of another BCT through hiker (actually runner) who summarized his experience as “Sherborn sucked”.  Uh oh. I parked at the Barber Reservation and Sulu and I crossed the busy road and headed up a residential road.  There were horses everywhere, not singly but in twos and threes.  




I was captivated by a foal improbably rocketing around its pasture on legs that must have been one and a half times its length.  A neighbor saw me watching and told me the foal was only one week old.  And killdeer circling over an adjacent field!  Sulu’s not very sure about horses and was interested in keeping a safe distance.  





I was pleased so see that Sherborn isn’t allergic to sidewalks like some spread-out communities. Well marked, the trail led through this horsy neighborhood and delivered the promised path across private property and along the edge of a equestrian cross country course.  There was a clinic going on with a handful of high level riders and a visiting expert, plus some watchers on the sidelines.  



I stopped to watch a couple of riders make the rounds, which included jumps I’d read about in National Velvet and Dick Francis mysteries: the “in and out” and a jump where the horse lands in water on the other side.  Sulu got a bit excited and I put on his Gentle Leader nose loop to calm me down.  Then I slipped off to the side, making sure I wasn’t in the sights of a working horse, and into the woods.  Once the trails no longer looked equestrian friendly I took Sulu off lead.  



Forest primeval


Somehow I lost the path. I ended up under some high voltage lines…not on the route.  Naturally this happened while I was walking along blithely thinking “Hey, Sherborn doesn’t suck!”  Despite being lavish with signage in some locations today, other spots are stingy.  So yes, I missed a fork where the intersection wasn’t signed, but there was a mute white blaze about 20 feet in.  Grr. I had a couple of other moments of indecision, but finally arrived at my stopping place, a cell tower on Brush Hill (or maybe the town forest, or maybe both…information is hazy).  



Next time I’ll park up the trail and try to hike back to the tower. For all the conservation land they have in Sherborn, parking is scarce.  Perhaps visitors are expected to arrive on horseback.


Problems we don't have in Somerville


A nice local tradition.  Just for litter, not poop, emptied by volunteers.


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