A little over a month ago, I went for a hike in the Blue Hills Reservation, south of Boston.
Initially, the group was planning to go to western Mass and hike up a big mountain, but after I complained enough about the long drive time (6+ hours round trip on the same day you hike- booo!) everyone acquiesced to something more local. We settled on this sizable state park down here:
We met in the morning on the eastern side of the reservation, with the basic plan of hiking across to the western side. We did have to think ahead and park a car on the western side beforehand, so that once we finished we could drive back to the parking lot that we had started at, rather than double our hiking time walking back the same path.
Something we learned early on was that this hike was going to take us much longer than any of us anticipated. Going in, I (and I think everyone else) figured that this six-mile hike on relatively flat ground would take us two or three hours, tops. You can imagine our surprise when we had been hiking for an hour or so and came across a map with the “you are here” marker located only a small fraction of the way along the trail. I didn’t think that the map could be right, but, lo and behold, the hike took at least double the time that I thought it would. No big deal- it just wasn’t what I expected!
The hike itself was great. Normally, we hike up mountains with a big sense of progression, lots of elevation gain, and a cool view at the top. I was expecting to be underwhelmed at this hike, which was a flat hike in a straight line in a suburban setting. However, I was very pleasantly surprised at the pacing and the views of the city that the trail provided!
There were a couple of noteworthy landmarks on the trail, both towards the end of our route. The first was the Great Blue Hill Observation Tower, a stone building made as part of a New Deal program called the CCC. The second was the Blue Hill Weather Observatory, which we could unfortunately not enter due to COVID restrictions.
The weather was extremely variable. What was originally a clear and sunny day quickly turned into a snowstorm. I think that this thinned the crowd out, with the trail getting much less busy as the day went on. Overall, it was a very enjoyable hike, and I would certainly do it again, especially given its proximity to Boston!
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