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 B to D Google misled us on the way to the trailhead (I do seem to write that a lot!) but we figured it out and enjoyed a picnic lunch where we left off at Linebrook Road last time.  We enjoyed lamb sandwiches from local favorite Dave’s Fresh Pasta . We were charmed to see wild columbines lining our path. From L to R: Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea), Starflower (Lysimachia borealis), Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastum cinnamomeum), and Azure Bluet (Houstonia cerulea) Many species of birds were taunting us from the trees. Frogs calling in the marsh drew our attention and we stopped to listen more than once. We recorded the bullfrog songs at one sp...

  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 A to B Despite having been at the parking area for Prospect Hill a week ago, getting to it from home took a bit of navigation as it’s not on Google Maps.  However we triangulated from all available resources and made it to the trailhead.  I felt a sense of relief to be on a real woods trail for the first time in what seemed like months and to be able to let the dog off leash.  Once more, the BCT brought us to an obscure, lightly trafficked trail.  Although the area is posted for on-leash, there were no cars in the parking area, so I took the chance of letting Sulu off leash. The weather was delightful, around 60 de...

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 K to the purple asterisk and back again This segment was the end of the boring road walking that is the “Rowley Gap”.  One downside o the gap is that there is little parking available on Route 1A, so we parked at  Prospect Hill  in Rowley, the last stop on Map 1A, and worked our way “backwards”/ north.  Prospect Hill kiosk The day was sunny and in the mid 60s, so a lovely day for a walk. Walter, Sulu and I started on Route 133, which was crazy busy, and then had a brief respite on a connector road where we could better appreciate spring’s charms.  Spring poodle.  Needs a bath and a haircut. Route 1A here is ...

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 . Trail mileage from E to the asterisk We started at Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary because there’s parking there. This was a day were were able to include Benny in the stroller since we anticipated 100% road walking. Walter joined me again today with his binoculars and was really enjoying looking at birds. We saw lots of birds but the lighting was crap.  Here’s a partial list:     Cedar waxwing     Flicker     Redwing blackbird        Bluebird     Robin     Downy woodpecker     Bobolinks!     Turkey vulture  ...

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...