September 16, 2020 - Medfield: Shattuck Reservation

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 pandemic isn’t over, but many businesses and activities have returned to some form of normal. I’m back to two to three dog classes a week, and it’s getting harder to make time to hike the BCT with Sulu.

Fortunately, I used better planning this time and chose a strategic parking space at the Shattuck Reservation. My plan was to do road walking toward Medfield Center in one direction, then woods walking to the road crossing where I stopped last time I was in the area.

It was a gorgeous day - I could hear the buzzing of cicadas in the early fall sunshine.The lower temperatures made the road walking less onerous.  We started along a sort of dry marsh (the drought has really affected the wetlands) and crossed the Stop River, a tributary to the Charles, and then on to suburbia. 

Because I was on a residential street, the cell signal was better and I was able to use the plant ID app to identify Oriental Lady’s Thumb (another semi-invasive alien in the knotweed family).  I am trying not to overdo use of the app and actually learn to recognize a few plants at at time.

Oriental Lady's Thumb

Seen along the marsh

Great Blue Heron on the Stop River

Alongside the marsh.  I suppose a car went in here.  
Think of all the people buried under wooden markers who we will never know about. 

A profusion of marsh plants in a ditch.  The triangular leaf is Green Arrow Arum,
a plant that is moving north from its native southern range. 

The trail skirted the Medfield Rhodendrons Reservation, but I couldn’t see a single rhododendron from the road.  On the way back to the car, on the opposite side of the road, I smelled the wild grapes before I saw them - it smelled just like the Welsh’s grape juice of my childhood.

On the return to the car, I gave Sulu a water break at the Stop River where his front legs became encrusted with thick black river bottom mud.

Oriental Lady's Thumb's more water loving cousin, Water Smartweed

While he paddled about I coiled up some loose fishing line left behind by a careless angler.  That stuff is really dangerous to wildlife.  Fortunately, as a responsible dog owner, I always carry a poop bag so I am ready to dispose of small items at a moment’s notice.

Back at the car, I dropped off the headphones and the poop and entered the Shattuck Reservations.  There were no other cars in the parking area and I hoped this property would be much more lightly trafficked than the Noon Hill Reservation. I decided to be a scofflaw (OK, semi-responsible dog owner) and let Sulu off leash. The woods composition began as pine woods, then transitioned to mixed hard and softwoods.  On a brief foray off the trail I interruped three snakes sunning - a snake viewing record for me.  Only two of them cooperated for the camera.

Garter snake or ribbon snake? The other two are off-camera.

I saw more masks than I expected to see. There was a mutual mask-lift with the one fellow on the trail I encountered. There were a few walkers on the road also with masks, and bicyclists without masks but who respectfully changed sides of the road when they saw me lift my mask.

The trail was well marked except for one key intersection where the Trustees map (printed before departure) was invaluable. 

The Charles River.  The bank was steep and Sulu didn't feel comfortable going down.

The turnaround point at Causeway Street.

The return trip was a little shorter because the I took the return side of the loop which didn’t wind alongside the Charles River the way the outbound BCT did. We passed through a beech forest that was pretty cool.

My hopes that the Shattuck reservation would be less busy than the Noon Hill Reservation because it’s farther from easy parking were borne out. We only saw one hiker and zero dogs on the trail.

A great day for fungus! Top right is an Amanita, the red ones are Russulaceae.

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