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 . This roughly corresponds to D to E on Map 1A Walter, Sulu and I set out from the parking lot at the Old Town Hill Trustees property . We decided to repeat the trail that goes through the reservation as it’s a nice walk with views, and the alternative would have been walking along a narrow road with poor visibility. View from Old Town Hill We saw many signs of spring, including new green on willow trees and forsythia. Sulu got a little illegal off-leash time on the top of the hill where we could see if anyone was coming (that he might bother). Spring! We left the reservation via a handsome stile and proceeded to Newbury Lower Green .   T...

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 greater Boston area is broadly divided into North Shore and South Shore. Technically, there is also MetroWest, but unless you live right on the Mass Pike, your community is probably more North Shore or more South Shore culturally. When I first moved here I landed in Medford, and from there to Somerville, so my affiliation is to the North Shore.  I suppose it’s the inconvenience of traveling through Boston itself to go somewhere.  Of the over seventy walks I’ve completed in pursuit of the BCT, I’ve only ever had company other than Walter on one, and that was in Andover ( October 14, 2020 ), which is North Shore aligned.  Today...

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 circled P to the purple asterisk Gotta keep the riff raff out, because they're drawn to historic New England properties like flies to honey (this is the driveway to the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm). Walter and I were last here back in June , when on an unseasonably cool day we took Sulu bikejoring to Plum Island. We ended our trip at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm , with Walter being turned into a raisin by relentless mosquitoes.  This time I parked at the historic house, which is mostly shut down but still seems to be hosting school groups. Coming out the front entrance onto Route 1, I was immediately struck by the neighborhoo...

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...