Bay Circuit Diary

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 s tarted 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 ...

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 went from E to F Rocky Narrows is a lovely well-signed Trustees of Reservations property backing up to the Charles River .   There are two access points, one on either side of an active rail line which walkers are not supposed to cross.   We parked at the Forest Street parking area, where the sign informed us that although dogs are normally allowed off leash there, pandemic rules require on leash.   That’s the first Trustees property I’ve been to where that’s the case - spoiler alert: many of the locals did not get the memo, about the leashes or the masks. The BCT trail guide recommends bringing the map from the Trustees si...

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 . There was a brief break in the heat wave that coincided with my availability and Sulu and I took advantage of it to go back to Sherborn to the storied Ring of Fire segment of the BCT. This might be the most geologically interesting part of the whole BCT and certainly to date. Of course I would not know geological interest unless either I was actually walking through a geode or if the feature were pointed out to me.  It’s taken me almost a month to get this post done! I had a vision that, by perusing some accessible, well-illustrated websites I’d be able to summarize Sherborn’s role in the geological history of the Boston area. It ...

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 . One of the charms of the BCT is its ubiquity.  If you enter or leave the Boston area by any route, you are crossing the BCT.  Sulu and I were attending a class in New Hampshire and the promised rain held off, so we made a stop in Andover to hike a new part of trail.   OK, not an AVIS reservation, but abutting one We parked at one AVIS reservation and walked to another, Deer Jump Reservation .   Park here for the trail - the above was BCT busywork Unfortunately I forgot the bug spray.  I was motivated to let Sulu off leash so I’d have two hands to wave away the bugs. I knew I’d be walking along the Merrimack Rive...

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 have a break in the hot weather, ushered in by thunderstorms. There are still rainstorms roving around, but unexpectedly there was a clear patch of weather, especially in the Sherborn area.  So I jumped in the car with Sulu and headed for the trail.  Once arriving at the designated parking location, I spent about five minutes in the car figuring out where the trail started, using Google Maps, AllTrails, the BCT written description and map, and the compass app on my phone.  It was time well spent and saved me time flailing around the elementary school campus where I parked.  The breakthrough was finding the service road, ...