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 . Thank you Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts for supporting rail trails! I had less time today and more concerns about heat. I thought I might piece together two parts of the BCT by  bikejoring : the Reformatory Branch Trail and the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail .  Hot poodle illustrating how narrow is narrow gauge Hot poodle pretending to ride the rails Because I didn’t micromanage Google Maps, I ended up parking in an odd (possibly not legal) place, but with direct access to the Reformatory Branch Trail, only a short distance from where I meant to go.  It was definitely not Google’s fault that I started out going in the wrong direction on the trail (because it “fel...

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 returned to Sherborn the next day, determined that it would be a better day. In trying to plan my path, I searched for a map of the Brush Hill reservation I was supposed to be visiting, but came up with the blog of another BCT through hiker (actually runner) who summarized his experience as “Sherborn sucked”.  Uh oh. I parked at the Barber Reservation and Sulu and I crossed the busy road and headed up a residential road.  There were horses everywhere, not singly but in twos and threes.   I was captivated by a foal improbably rocketing around its pasture on legs that must have been one and a half times its length.  A neighbor saw me watching and tol...

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 (sawtoot...

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 . Sulu was at the groomer’s today, but the weather was cool and conducive to getting outside, so I decided to do the no-dogs-allowed Walden Pond loop that would complete Map 7 .   I   (so weird not saying we) parked at the visitor’s center and used the free electric car charger as we did before.   Since it’s officially the Season, we had to pay the $8 parking fee.   A boring walk up the road led me to the trailhead, closer to busy Route 2 than I remembered.  It’s the continuation of the Emerson Thoreau Amble (see May 3 and May 5 ).  Walking up the well-blazed trail, I encountered Thoreau’s bean field , wh...