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Photo of the Week: 8-28-09

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:54:29 +0000

Hey all,

Here’s my photo of the week. This was taken on the south shore of boston during the Thayer Trail hike. Enjoy!

Dandelion Trees

Check out more of my photos.

Photo of the Week 6-19-2009

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:42:37 +0000

Here’s the photo for the week:

This was taken on a hike on the south shore of Boston. Check out more photos on my Flickr as well as other photos on my artistic gallery

Lincoln Land Reservation

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:00:28 +0000

Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT) is located in Lincoln, MA only about 25 mins from downtown Boston. It is a couple of trails that go around the Sandy Pond water reservoir. There is a biking trail and several hiking/walking trails. This location is where the great Henry David Thoreau went when he wanted a peaceful retreat from the busy Boston life.

The trails at LLCT are mostly well kept, but are also mostly poorly marked. The trails have changed from what most trail maps say due to changes in the watershed and the makeup of the land, and in a few spots we were unsure where to go. This isn’t a huge problem though since the area is not particularly large, so I would be unlikely that you would get lost. One thing to make sure to bring is bug spray. The area is mostly wetlands and in the humid summer months there tends to be a plentiful amount of mosquitos. We forgot ours and paid the price the whole hike.

The trail we went on was the one that does a 3.7m loop around the entire pond. It starts on the Black Gum Trail and then switches to several other unmarked trails as it snakes its way around the water. The one downside to this spot is that there isn’t really a great spot to look out over the pond. The trail runs relatively far away from the water and the area is heavily wooded.

The trail itself is pretty much flat for the most part with a change of elevation of about 300 ft. You can see my GPS track on my EveryTrail page. One thing to not about this is that we used the Appalachian Mountain Club book to find this spot, but the book told me that we could park at the DeCordova Museum to enter into the trail, but the museum has since changed its policies and they now charge for admission into their grounds so you can’t park there. If you continue down the road you will see a place to park on the side of the road and a trail entrance. This is the start of the Black Gum Trail.

As we started to walked along the trail we immediately noticed the silence that was present. being removed from any main roadways, made the trail a very quite and peaceful place. The sound of the forest bugs in their ecosystem is very relaxing. About a half mile into the trail we came across the first picture in this post. It was a fireplace from an old house. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was standing in what was Thoreau’s weekend getaway.

After this interesting find, we continued on our route around the pond. Every now and then the water would peek out from behind the thick woods to remind us of the course as well as to why the area was so buggy. After about a mile and a half we came across a memorial for a girl who’d died falling into the pond. As erie as it was, it was a good reminder why their was fence around the entire thing directing people away from the water. There was a clever poem on the stone that was sweet and urking at the same time. It read:

Shiver to think of her light, her warmth.
Fovever frozen in the clear cold pond.
May its glimmer give your pause.
For ice broke hearts the day she drowned.

The trail ends in the parking lot of the Decordova Museum and to get back to your car, you have to walk along the road for about one mile. While still interesting in its own right, not quite the same with cars driving by every now and then. We noticed that there is a continuation of the trail on the left side of the road that enters into a field and exits right across from the parking area, but having been bitten so much, we decided to pass. and save it for another day.

You can check out more photos of this trail on my flickr stream and you can also download and follow the GPS data on Everytrail

Middlesex Fells Reservation

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:25:34 +0000

Location: Medford, MA (15 miles north of Boston)

Difficulty: trails range from easy walking trails to moderate/hard hiking.

Bikes? Yes

Pets: Yes, most people had dogs

Middlesex Fells Reservation is located right off of Interstate 93, exit 33, just a stones throw from Boston. The main entrance is the best to use as it has the most parking and a trail map with other useful information about particular plant and insect life in the reservation. There are plenty of trails to make this more a great spot for frequent visits as well as several bike paths that include a wide array of biking abilities.

When we started out, we chose to go on the Reserve Trail (Orange), but shortly decided that we were looking for something a little harder and shortly switched to the Skyline Trail. One thing to note is that the Reserve Trail is about 5.5 miles around all three lakes, but the Skyline Trail, if you follow the entire thing, is about 7 miles and takes a detour, after going around the lakes, to the far southeast corner of the reservation that has a great look out over Boston (perfect for sunsets).

When we first pulled up we noticed that is was very busy and parking can be a bit dodgy, but it seemed ok to just pull up on the middle barrier if there wasn’t any spots. We also noticed that a lot of people had dogs, so this would be a great place for a little dog-meet-up with other owners.

The Skyline trail starts with a quick ascent up about a 500 ft bit of rock to get the the “skyline” part of the trail. As you follow the trail it winds up and down the hills of the reservation with the occasional break in the trees providing spectacular views of the whole park. eventually after about 2 miles you reach a spot where you can go sit on one of the lakes that is part of the town water supply. It’s really peaceful place to sit as very few people take the skyline trail. Great for a small snack or just a quick rest to enjoy the weather.

As the trail winds around the back side of the reservation it crosses the bike path several times, so be sure to watch out for speeding mountain bikers. You’ll find that the trail seems to go up and down over the hills and on each down it crosses the Reserve Trail sever times, so its easy to switch to an easier path if you over estimated your fitness, or just are tired of climbing rocks. One thing to note is that, as with most trails in the northeast, there are lots of snakes, especially this time of year, but they are just regular garter snakes so there is no need to worry (my girlfriend freaked out when the first one crossed our path).

When you get to the point in the picture to the right, it is important to note that this is the best(and last) place to switch to the Reserve Trail before you head up the moderate-hard hike to the southeast cliff that overlooks Boston. There are beautiful view of Boston if you are up for the additional 2+ miles, but if you are running out of time, or just tired, it’s the best place to head back to the car (which will still be about half a mile away).

If your up for the addtional 2 miles of the hardest part of the trail, then your up for some oustanding views of boston, as well as a great spot to have lunch, sit and relax, or even take a nap. The top has a very old lookout tower that is closed to the public, but it adds a bit a scenic beauty to the whole skyline.

Finally that last part of the trail is the final descent back to the parking lot. This part is a series of ups and downs and each time you feel your making the final descent, it goes right back up. Its about 2 miles of this before you are dumped right back to the main entrance that you entered the reservation and the parking lot is just up the hill. If you make it this far, then congraduations you just made it about 7.5 miles of moderate-hard hiking and at about 370 calories/hour for about 3.5-4.5 hours i’d say its time for a nice hearty dinner!

You can check out my GPS trail as well as all the other photos from the trip on my flickr photostream.

Turkey Hill and Thayer Trail

admin — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:20:01 +0000

Today we decided to try out a new trail about 30 minutes from Quincy in Weymouth. The trail is part of the Trustees of Reservations. There are several entrances to this land, but we chose the Turkey Hill entrance due to its proximity to route 3A. We parked in the small dirt lot that was only occupied by three other cars. Erin decided to play around with the camera while I was getting the GPS and my bag ready which led to a series of random shots finishing with me ever so concentrated on configuring the my iPhone GPS to get a good signal.

As we entered the trail there we were greated by two older (60s) gentlemen leaving the trail in a very disshevled way. Neither looked as though they had been prepared to end up in the woods when they left their house that day, but somehow it seems that was what their day turned into. One of the men tripped over a succession of three differnt rocks as they made their way past us towards their car and all I could think was that whatever their purpose had been for being in the woods, I was pretty sure that mine was not the same.

The beginning of the trail was a well packed stone trail that curved its way up the side of the hill with 12ft wood boards laid out across the length of the trail to prevent erosion during the rain. The trail then ends up in a large field with several paths cut into the three to four foot grass. It is very quite and peaceful in the field and there are plenty of bird houses strew about to make for great bird watching as well as a pleasant symphony playful bird chatter. The top of the hill, through the field, is a low grass patch that has a great view of Boston, the south shore, and out into the Atlantic.

As we left the field towards the other side of the hill we encountered a few cows just hanging out getting sum lunch and enjoying the weather much the same way we were. I snapped a few pics of them and one of the cows seemed to stare at me with the same perplexity that someone eating in a restuarant would have if you took a picture of them while they were eating. The other cows didn’t seem to care much that would soon be all over the internet.

As we left our spotted friends we decended into a more woodsy part of the path that led us to another farm a little farther away that had goats. The goats didn’t seem to care at all that I wanted to get a picture of them and simply went about his business. From here on out the trail got a bit more woodsy and we found out selves moving at a very slow pace stepping of pricker bushes and getting attacked by spider strings, you know the things they leave behind as the travel from one tree to the next in the air. We eventually made our way back to the field were we had a picnic with a great view of Boston.

I highly recommend this trail for a nice leisurely hike with great views of Boston. On my scale I give it a 7 out 10. You can follow my GPS track here and my flickr stream on the right. Also my web page where I host all my art photos for sale here.