5/31/2020 - Ashland Town Forest

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.


Happy birthday Sulu! He is five today.  I guess that's grown up although he is still a rather disobedient goofball. Even though I got him with the intention of doing agility, he has led me in many new directions that I never imagined: running, canicross, bikejoring  lure coursing, and now hiking.  He's forced me to up my training game and pushed me out of my comfort zone.

Out of his comfort zone in a tree



The temperature dropped today, and it was gorgeous and sunny. I thought Sulu might like to celebrate his fifth birthday with a walk in the woods.  There are two parking lots on Winter Street (the “front door”) to Ashland Town Forest; the bigger one is the Bay Circuit Trail trailhead. 



It turned out that I did not get as far on the trail last time as I thought - the trail doubles back a few times, so I might have been close to the road as the crow flies, but not via trail.  Ashland Town Forest has a lot to recommend it - the trails are well maintained and well signed, and bicycling/bikejoring would be an option too.  

Bikeable!

The Winter St. side of the forest I visited today is a bit more hilly (nothing dramatic, just in contract to the flat walking we’ve been doing) and had a couple of water features for Sulu to cool off in.  

Getting wet

Dog owners all had their dogs on lead or put them on lead when they saw us, and some of the walkers even wore masks (and thank you for that, strangers).

Some of the trail improvements were Eagle Scout projects.  I’ve been seeing a few trailhead kiosks, etc. built by Scouts, but Ashland had more.  I felt appreciation for the young people and their advisors who built these sturdy bridges to benefit their community. 





So my trip today was a little short, and I postponed the road walking for next time.

Kindness rocks at the entrance

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