August 17, 2020 - Sherborn to Medfield

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.

We arrived uneventfully at the previously scoped parking spot and started out with some sucky road walking on the sidewalk-free and busy route 27. After a third of a mile the shoulder widened and the trip became less harrowing.

Right after the Medfield line we crossed the Charles River and then ducked into the Medfield State Forest with a quick stop at the river for Sulu.

Medfield State Forest (at least the part I was in) consisted of scrubby woodlands punctuated by open dry fields of Queen Anne’s Lace.  

The trail began parallel to the river with big tangles of that invasive vine I can’t stand. 

Roundleaf greenbrier. Previously encountered 6/13.

Now that I know what to look for I’m seeing more American chestnut trees.

The trail makes kind of a broad U shape before returning to Route 27 but I appreciate their effort to get me off the busy road,  and to give Sulu some off leash time. 

Alas, I lost the trail at an unsigned intersection. Again the official trail guide provides very little guidance, the signs provide very little guidance and I’m relying on multiple phone apps and actually clinging to the Trustees map from last time.  We emerged from the trail into a small parking area where the BCT signage indicated that I actually took the wrong route, but since I went further and came out in the same place I’m going to count it anyway.

After just a short while more on Route 27 then we turned into the Hospital Farm Historic District of Medfield. I had no idea what it was but looked forward to finding out more. Wikipedia lists some movies that were made there as well.

Unfortunately we had another routing problem soon after. The directions on the trail guide were using mile markers and I thought myself very clever checking my app for distance however the information is incorrect and I climbed a hill that I need not have climbed. I doubled back and found the trail, described as a “dirt road” but more of a grass track. 

"Dirt road"?

The Medfield State Hospital site is pretty heavily trafficked compared to the places I normally go.  Within the space of five minutes I passed three groups of walkers on a pretty narrow trail, with no masks of course.

Late summer flowers

I decided it was a good time to call it quits after over 3 miles in one direction and turned around to make my way home.  

On the way back, I was curious about the hospital cemetery that had a sign on the road.  At first I thought it was the field beside the sign. 

I followed a dirt road to the actual cemetery.  

I'm glad the Scouts came through and added names to the plain number markers.

We took a quick detour to the bank of the Charles River again so Sulu could have a quick dip. It is a tranquil spot with a sandy shallow entrance - perfect for my little non-swimming water enthusiast. He got completely soaked and came out beiger than he went in - apparently the “dirty water” phenomenon extends this far upstream.

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