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 . From purple circle to purple circle (finally getting the hang of annotating the maps) I was very excited for today’s walk. I planned that this will be my last walk on the southern branch of the BCT until the triumphal final march to the sea. My plan is to complete the entire trail except the last .4 mile to the shore in Duxbury. Then I will gather my friends and we will take the walk together and celebrate on the beach. Love those Duxbury BCT signs! I parked the car at a designated spot next to a Duxbury conservation area. I misread the directions and thought the trail connected via road, but the parking spot is located at a spur trail that ...

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 . From one purple asterisk to another We parked by the side of the road in a dubious spot just over the Duxbury line, a stone’s throw from the boundary sign. The BCT directions mention a spot with room for three cars by the side of the road, but there’s no corresponding P on the map.   We began by walking “upstream” towards where we turned around last time. I immediately donned my headphones and fired up my audiobook .  Is it pink enough for you? MaryLou’s coffee shop on the corner is definitely a landmark with the big pink cup. I stopped in there with the car on the way home and it was a flashback to the 80s when we first discovered haze...

  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 . From the parking lot at S past the purple asterisk and off the map We returned to Tubb’s Meadow to begin the final march to the sea. The BCT forks here, with one branch going north through Pembroke and Duxbury, and the other branch going south through Pembroke, Kingston and Duxbury.  A back of the envelope calculation suggested that the northern branch might be shorter, so that’s what I chose.  Both branches have about the same ratio of road walking to woods walking. The trip began with road walking. I immediately fired up my audiobook . It was a beautiful day for a walk, sunny and about 40 degrees. We went past the ice arena and...

  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 . From S on the right to the P at Pembroke Town Forest and back again We started at Tubb's Meadow conservation area which looks to be a favorite spot for dog walkers. There is a dumpster for poop bags and a poop bag dispenser. Also no signage at all about leashes, so Sulu got to run free. I would definitely recommend this site for dog walkers.  There are lots of trails and it’s off leash friendly. The unnamed pond at Tubb's Meadow The trail was pretty easy traveling. There was ice but was mostly slushy and a little mucky where it’s melting. The temperature was remarkably warm today (I think it hit 50 F during the walk) and sunny, so ...

  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 . On the left, the planned route from N back to the road, then on past the Pembroke Town Forest.  On the right, what we really did. Back in the day when I had a job (in the rapidly receding past), I shared an office with Naomi. We had our little jokes as co-workers do and one long running one was using the NATO Phonetic Alphabet for profane acronyms. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is the one used by the military for clear spelling over the air, e.g. “Alpha Bravo”. We’d take a “dirty word” and use the “military spelling”. A favorite example was calling someone a “Delta Bravo”.  I still revert to those epithets today. Another favorite wa...

  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 . From H to M So much preparation for today’s trip! Yesterday, I went to REI and bought some gaiters to keep the snow out of my low boots. I made paw wax for Sulu to protect his feet in case there’s salt on the roads. I’m a bit disappointed in the paw wax: it’s too soft and I need to melt it down and add more beeswax. Today was my first snowy day walk. Walter and I have dueling weather apps and mine predicted the snow would stop and not accumulate. I might be wrong. I dressed Sulu in his lightweight shell jacket to keep the snow from getting him wet - he’s normally comfortable at this temperature (hovering around freezing), but he gets c...