Newton - Charles River to Lost Pond (October 31)
The Newton Conservators publish a fine guide to Newton's Walking Trails, which are more numerous than you would think. Their website describes, in addition, some long traverses that link multiple Conservation Areas, such as a 6.5-mile trek from the Charles River to Newton Center that entails less than a mile of road-walking. I hiked the lower 4.5 miles of that day, stopping at Lost Pond on the north, in part because I had already hiked most of the rest, around Hammond Pond and through the Webster Conservation Area, this summer.
Starting form the Walsh Road trailhead of the Blue Heron Trail, I followed that to the spur trail that traces the east side of the neck of land across the Charles from Powells Island in Cutler Park. Retracing my steps, I hiked the Blue Heron Trail east to its junction with the spur that leads NE through the Brook Farm Historic Site in West Roxbury, with its remains of the famous Transcendentalist Utopian community of the 1840s. Crossing Baker Street, I passed through St. Joseph Cemetery, heading to its NW corner, where a faint path through the woods took me to the faint, but blazed, path that follows the east bank of Sawmill Brook north, through the SMB Conservation Area, to Vine St. A half-mile of road-walking took me to the Kennard Park Conservation Area, whose trails lead without a break to the those of the Lost Pond Area, a little south of Hammond Pond.
I lengthened what would have been a 9-mile out-and-back hike with an extra mile of detours, for variety. I was rewarded mostly with thorn bushes and briar vines on my impromptu bushwhacks, but I did get to see the reed-fringed pond a little east of the Walsh Road trailhead, which must receive few visitors.
Read MoreStarting form the Walsh Road trailhead of the Blue Heron Trail, I followed that to the spur trail that traces the east side of the neck of land across the Charles from Powells Island in Cutler Park. Retracing my steps, I hiked the Blue Heron Trail east to its junction with the spur that leads NE through the Brook Farm Historic Site in West Roxbury, with its remains of the famous Transcendentalist Utopian community of the 1840s. Crossing Baker Street, I passed through St. Joseph Cemetery, heading to its NW corner, where a faint path through the woods took me to the faint, but blazed, path that follows the east bank of Sawmill Brook north, through the SMB Conservation Area, to Vine St. A half-mile of road-walking took me to the Kennard Park Conservation Area, whose trails lead without a break to the those of the Lost Pond Area, a little south of Hammond Pond.
I lengthened what would have been a 9-mile out-and-back hike with an extra mile of detours, for variety. I was rewarded mostly with thorn bushes and briar vines on my impromptu bushwhacks, but I did get to see the reed-fringed pond a little east of the Walsh Road trailhead, which must receive few visitors.
