6/13/2020 Ashland to 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.

Departing the Market Basket (obtaining the shady parking space I had scoped out when last there), I had one of the most dispiriting walks of my journey. My first thought was “Well the pandemic must be over” because Saturday traffic seemed back to normal.  Market Basket is on Route 126, a bust but fairly narrow commercial road with all the modern conveniences like auto body shops and paintball.  I followed the route into Sherborn, denoted by the trail description as “Where the sidewalk ends, enter Sherborn”. I thought, well, that’s a fitting “f you” as we enter the sidewalk-less elite suburb. 

People think elm trees are all gone, but there are plenty (sawtooth  leaves on right of pole).  

 They just don't thrive, but they are incredibly prolific.

Walking down another busy narrow road past McMansion Acres, the air was fragrant with mock orange.  There was a three-second detour through some green space and then finally onto a residential street.  

Looks welcoming (not).  Three seconds through here.

My first impression was “Now I am in the land of people who think differently from me.”.  

This is a net to keep people? animals? from using a path on their property.

"Blue lives matter"

When I reached the Barber Reservation I sat down and pondered the map and guide.  

To my dismay the trail just went through the parking lot of the only public green space on our route.  Over two and a half miles of unrelieved road walking to arrive in the parking lot of a conservation area.  I turned around, marking this as the departure point for my next walk.  In my parking lot pondering, I studied AllTrails to see if I could find a shorter or more attractive return route.  AllTrails showed the Upper Charles River Trail crossing under where I walked - described as the CSX railroad bridge in the BTC trail description.  Thinking back to the Mass Central trail, I thought, great, defunct railroad.  Then an unlabeled side trail led straight to Route 126 close to the Market Basket plaza.  By the way, this combination is actually labelled "Bay Circuit Trail" on Google Maps!

There was no established entrance to the railbed, but I was feeling pretty oppositional by this point.  A house under construction abutted the bridge, and I saw that the construction workers had gone for the day.  So Sulu and I walked down their driveway (#whiteprivilege) and down the length of their rather deep lot.  As we got further from the road, the land sloped down toward the level of the tracks. I found a spot where the fence ended, there was no poison ivy, and a relatively easy access to the rail bed. The only obstacle was my least favorite plant, roundleaf greenbrier (I looked it up when I got home).  It’s an evil vine, a native liana believe it or not (liana is the “Tarzan vine”), that can climb 20 feet and has nasty thorns. I’ve encountered it in the past and it’s very hard to avoid a bite.  In this case Sulu didn’t know what to make of it, and I encouraged him to go over it, not through it.  I didn’t want him to panic, get tangled, and have me and him injured in the process.  

Stepping onto the railbed

Once we hit the railbed, Sulu finally got some off lead time and some muddy paws time.  He wanted to chase a huge snapping turtle that was sunning itself on a beaver lodge, but I explained that would be a bad idea.  

View on the right

Railroad cavaletti

The vegetation on the first part of the trail indicated that it had been a while since a train came by, but not far along I could see rail cars in the distance.  I will just repeat that I was feeling oppositional. So I put him on leash and just kept walking past tall narrow cattle cars covered in quite beautiful graffiti.  

Notice how the safety information is thoughtfully masked off

The rail line forked and soon I was walking past two lines of freight cars.  As the trailhead for the new trail neared (per AllTrails), I became concerned about crossing through two close lines of freight cars.  I found a spot where the spaces between cars lined up and went under the junction of two boxcars and over the junction of two stock cars.  To my relief, the trail entrance was so clear and obvious it was unmissable.  

Looking back on the rail cars from the trail

The un-named trail was a delightful green walk between wetlands.  On the whole trip from the railroad bridge to Route 126, I saw not one person. 

As the trail climbed up a bank between two guardrails right onto Route 126 (within line of sight of the Market Basket Plaza) there was a young couple (with masks on) preparing to enter the trail. “Nice trail” I said.  Before returning home I made a quick stop at the Dairy Queen I passed on my way out, about a quarter mile from the Market Basket. It’s the first Dairy Queen of my BCT journey and it seemed fitting to commemorate it in this way.

My favorite - a "cherry bonnet"

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