Bay Circuit Diary

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 . Bikejoring day with Walter! Our schedule was constrained by his activities on one end and mine on another, but I got to introduce Walter to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail .   When it’s complete it will run from Framingham to Lowell.   It comprises most of the BCT on Map 5B. So we did a short segment from Acton to the Chelmsford line.   Sulu was a bikejoring trouper. I can’t wait until his new harness comes! Nature highlight: a small woodpecker flew right across our path.   Mask count: very low. Previous Post                                  ...

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 . So orderly today! Yesterday I went from C to D, today I went from B to C. B is the first waypoint after Walden Pond. Walden Pond being such a popular destination (culture *and* recreation in one conveniently located spot!) the parking frequently maxes out on summer days and the towns around it are very strict about casual parking around the park.  “No Walden Pond Parking” signs are common in Concord, for example.   Point B signage Point B is located less than half a mile from the Walden Pond entrance and even though there are conservation areas adjacent to Walden, they don’t have parking because of Walden parking concerns. ...

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 . Jack-in-the-Pulpit emerges Map 7! Things on the map get a little weird after  Walden Pond .  There’s a trail to the west, through  Mount Misery , Lincoln’s flagship conservation area. There’s a trail to the east, through  Drumlin Farm , Audubon’s flagship farm, and there’s a bike route along Route 126, which I observed today is partly but not completely paralleled by a bike trail. So today I thought I would try bikejoring with Sulu from point C on the map (a trail bridge over the commuter rail - cool!) through Mount Misery.  Lincoln is another town, normally off leash friendly, but now on leash due to the pandemic. So bikejoring i...

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 . I was saving today’s destination, Concord’s Hapgood Wright Town Forest , for a weekday because it’s mobbed on weekends during the pandemic. Concord has banned off leash dogs recently during the pandemic, although I didn’t see anyone paying attention.  However the trails were busy enough that Sulu got very little off-lead time and was mostly on the long line (I have a 30 foot long biothane long line for occasions just such as these). I parked on the edge of a giant mud puddle in the last available non-resident space. For this section of the trail, the BCT is concurrent with the Emerson Thoreau Amble .  This is said to be the trail by which the two...

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 . Walter likes to bike, not hike, so I like to include him when the BCT follows a rail trail.  Today we  visited the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail   that runs from Bedford Depot Park where the Minuteman Trail ends up for about three miles to the Billerica town line (I am learning so much - who knew that Bedford abutted Billerica?).  I limit Sulu to five miles of bikejoring per day, so that meant 2.5 miles out and back for us,  so we did not complete the trail.  Also, the BCT does not run the entire length of the rail trail, so I figured we’d just do the rail trail and I’d sort out the details later.  We parked by Fawn Lake (site ...

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 . There are these bits of the trail that I need to connect up.  Today I did a completely on-lead part of the trail through the North Bridge section of the Minuteman National Historic Park and through Concord Center to the start of the Emerson Thoreau Amble .  I put the wrong directions into the GPS, I parked in a stupid place, I misread the trail instructions, and apparently there is no coronavirus in the suburbs as virtually no one was wearing masks.  However, Concord Center is really very charming and this is the first time I have been through it on foot, so I saw some good stuff. Right behind the houses on the main street This hous...

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 . Today was a non-hiking journey - a leash walk from Concord Center over the Old North Bridge and through Colonial suburbs to the point on Barretts Mill Road I left off the previous day. The homes really are charming and their spring flowers were on full display.  However sidewalks are in short supply and I was a bit footsore toward the end. Previous Post                                                                            ...