I spent all day today either in, or travelling to and from the Blue Hills Reservation (links 1, 2). Located (sort of) near the end of the Red Line, it’s the largest piece of land available for people to walk through in the area. I got there by going to the Ashmont end of the Red Line, then going the extra bit to Mattapan on the ‘Trolley’. This is a bus right now, since there’s a ton of construction and leaves from right outside the T stop. Then a smaller bus took me down to the Trailside Museum. A fair way to travel, but less than $5 and probably took an hour. The last bus, the one from Mattapan to the Museum, doesn’t seem to be particularly regular, so using it in the morning and the more reliable stuff at the Braintree end seems to be a good option.
Arriving at the Museum, I purchased a map for $2 and started walking. I joined the Skyline trail at the top of Great Blue Hill, and walked to the end. The trail passes through all sorts of different forest, mostly with lots of rock. The was lots of wildlife, the highlight for me being a deer running past me. I only happened to see it, since it was surprisingly quiet. Others included a snake, various birds, and a hard to photo snake. It is becoming clear that a little mono/tri-pod would be a good complement to my new zoom lens.
Along the way there were numerous views of Boston’s skyline (hence the name I guess…). Boston is incredibly green seen side on. The trail has some steepish bits, but is pretty friendly, as were the people I saw along the way. There have been various fires over the years (presumably more often at Burnt Hill), so there isn’t much undergrowth in some places. This made is easier to see the millions of chipmunks!
At the other end of the trail I walked all the way to Quincy Jones T stop. There is a 238 bus that goes past the end of the trail, but only every hour on the weekends. It was a pretty long day, probably more to do with Daves ‘T’ party last night, so I rewarded myself with burgers with habanero cheese for dinner, thus replacing any calories burnt during the day. The photos are here.
