Posts

October 18, 2021 - Boxford

Image
Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail .  To get new posts in your inbox, please 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 . The weather was much colder today (58 degrees). Walter, Sulu and I started our walk in Boxford center where we left off last time. The cafe with the bathroom is closed on Monday, but because it’s a multi-purpose building (cafe, post office, bank), I was able to walk into the restaurant space, move the trash can barrier aside and sidle by to use the rest room. Holyoke French House, 1760 These posts mark historic sites around Boxford We admired the charming houses in the Boxford historic district. After not too much road walking, we came to Boy Scout Park .   Future travelers note, there are porta-potties at the Boy Scout Park, plus trash can...

October 14: Georgetown-Rowley State Forest to Boxford

Image
Benny was put to sleep on October 3rd, so although this was not our first BCT walk without Benny, but it was the first BCT walk without the possibility of Benny, either waiting in the car or at home for us.  From the star to letter K We easily found the parking lot in Georgetown Rowley State Forest at Pingree Farm Road where we turned around last time. Our friend Cindy joined us today, as she did the previous October. We found the trail well blazed. We were last here last in the area 2 1/2 weeks prior, but now there are more dead leaves and fewer mushrooms. We didn’t see a lot of great fall colors on our walk, just lots of yellows and browns, I guess that’s because of the kind of trees that grow here.  Sulu was able to refresh himself in a few muddy ponds. I forgot his treats, but he checked in for pets multiple times. Fortunately we didn’t see any people or dogs so I didn’t have to call him away from temptation.  After a lovely trip on a woods road, we emerged into s...

September 27: Georgetown-Rowley State Forest

Image
Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail .  To get new posts in your inbox, please 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 . From the purple asterisk to G Through Internet sleight of hand (I dropped a pin on Google Maps and saved it) we have actually found where we left off in Rowley on 5/31! On arrival, Walter checked the weather and learned that rain was predicted to begin imminently. Without rain clothes, we decided to wait it out and listen to our audiobook ( The Ionian Mission , book 7 in the Aubrey-Maturin series). When the rain abated we took off on the trail: a series of eskers overlooking ponds. Route 95 sounded really loudly in the distance. We came down off the esker via some lovely landscape timber steps and across an elegant boardwalk across the pond. ...

September 20, 2021 - Lowell

Image
  Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail .  To get new posts in your inbox, please 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 . From before M to the asterisk Urban navigation on the BCT is challenging because the trail is not well differentiated from the sidewalks and the parks.  There’s no official trail parking so I secured a random street spot. Added to that, I was trying to follow the trail “backwards” (south to north) which is always more difficult. Once more it was me, Sulu, and Benny in the stroller. After finding the trail, it turned out that the paved trail along the Merrimack River   was blocked off for some kind of construction.  This is a bit neglected but lovely stretch of trail.  The trail starts where the Concord River comes i...

August 2, 2021 - Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, Chelmsford

Image
  Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail .  To get new posts in your inbox, please 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 . From E to D, and a ways toward F Back on the trail again for the second attempt at the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in Chelmsford. Don't ask where the past few months have gone! In classic style we started out by walking in the wrong direction, but fortunately only .1 mile. Also characteristically I ended up going north instead of south but as we parked at an intermediate point, either direction was fine. The trail is a dedicated rail trail, so paved, with fences on both sides and about a yard of green space between parking lots in the backs of businesses here in Chelmsford. It was marginally too hot for Sulu. My weather app showed the air...

May 28, 2021 - Ipswich to Rowley: Willowdale State Forest and beyond

Image
Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail .  To get new posts in your inbox, please 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 . From D to the purple asterisk Our trip started at Route 1 in Ipswich, where there was a convenient roadside parking spot. We survived the very scary road crossing. The weather was unseasonably cold today (about 60). The trip divided itself into four sections in my mind. First we traveled a woodland trail through mixed trees featuring wild lily of the valley on the forest floor. I enjoyed seeing my favorite, princess pine. Although the directions in the trail guide are intimidating, the trail was well blazed. Spring comes late to the wood, and the main sign was lots of tiny woodland wildflowers (shout-out to the app Pictur...

May 24, 2021 - Tewksbury

Image
Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail .  To get new posts in your inbox, please 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 . From K to the asterisk and back again Due to limited time, I chose a somewhat random segment of the Bay Circuit Trail that had the shortest travel time from home.   The weather was warm, in the high 60s but felt warmer. Last June, Sulu and I began a convenient segment from Map 4 in Andover. The segment we chose today didn't connect exactly with that part, but had convenient parking.  We started at the Tewksbury water pumping station . There wasn’t parking outside the gate as the directions promised so we parked in front of the building, crossing our fingers that the car would still be there and the gate would be open on our return. Sul...