Toes in the Water (or mud)

 Rocky Narrows - January 2, 2022

BCT Map 9 Start at Point E, End at Point E Loop (Partially on BCT)

BCT Distance 2.54M

Remaining Distance: 227.46

Percent Complete: 1.1%

Our first hike of the new year was not exactly intentionally part of the Bay Circuit system.  We had just started toying with the idea and had done no pre-planning for when/how to begin.   However, we are also members of the Trustees of Reservations and have been (very slowly) working through their catalog of excellent parks and properties and had yet to do one in Sherborn called Rocky Meadows.  (Typical of New England, many of the parks have "rock" or "rocky" somewhere in the name.)   It just so happened that part of the trail system in Rocky Meadows was on the BCT.  Bonus!  We could test out the idea, get a feel for the process/parking and how the map system worked, and still do a loop hike like the ones we have been used to for the last couple of years.

Part of Erin and I's concern as parents is always how to sell the boys on an idea that involves work.  For two years we had been working on getting them mobile and out there and building a love of adventuring in the woods for distances between 2 and 4 miles.  Looking at the BCT, the trails are only part woods and the shorter sections we can make between official parking lots were going to be more like 5 miles.  They would be lines instead of loops.  But... its got a definite end goal, albeit far in the future.  And maybe a pin if we finish?  And C would for sure be close to the youngest to complete it.. maybe..  Pros and cons, pluses and minuses. 

In any event, it was a foggy, semi-rainy Sunday morning, not too cold and with no snow on the ground.  The parking lots ended up being only 4-5 cars and the mild weather meant people were out and about.  Luckily we got a spot without too much difficulty and had a nice conversation with some folks wrapping up a hike in the mist who commented that the boys looked ready to go in their boots and backpacks.  They also warned us that the lower sections were pretty muddy, which we expected.

The trail started out in an open field dotted with trees and followed a wagon road around into the canopy.  Mud was definitely an issue and made for slower going.

For a little while, we wound in and out of the trees and through fields that were part of the first land acquisition of the Trustees in a deal negotiated in 1897 by renowned landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead.   More distantly both the Wampanoag and the Puritan colonists worked to control the land here, as the Charles river runs through the property in a granite canyon, which made it strategically important as a gateway to the interior sections of this part of Massachusetts especially during King Phillips war from 1675-76. 

The trail runs up out of the field and up a steep hillside of bare granite and moss covered tree roots.  In the misty-rain with fog rising up from below it felt quiet and a bit surreal.

The boys always enjoy scrambling up rocks so this was faster than the muddy lowlands sections.

Once on the top, we found the first of several lookouts along the trail gazing down onto the Charles river, many feet below.  

We continued along, taking a jog off the main trail but still following the BCT to the river itself, in a neat little pull-out spot for kayaks and canoes that the Trustees had set up as a group camping spot.  It was hard not to imagine ourselves pulling a boat up and pitching a tent some day, even though we were not likely the type of group they were thinking of.  There are no facilities of any kind, and no way to get a car in so it would be truly roughing it.

From there, we ascend again to the second of the overlooks on the trail, known as King Phillip's Overlook.  It was pretty easy to see why he might have wanted to command this vista.  We stopped for a lunch and coffee/hot cocoa break on the cliff and watched enthusiasts at the grass runway airport across the river fly model helicopters in tight loops.  

Lunch concluded, we decided to extend our hike and left the BCT, crossing the railway into a less well traveled section of the park to do a quick loop and then back again for another short BCT section until we diverted back to the parking lot

All-in-all, it was an excellent first hike of the year, and an excellent first foray into the BCT.  Now, on to the planning and prep for the next section.