Posted By auntie on July 10, 2017

10.53 miles; Sudbury and Wayland, MA

Just once, ONCE, I’d like to OVERestimate the mileage on one of these sections. Although the difference between 9.8 miles and 10.53 miles isn’t as drastic as last week, it was still an underestimation. And ugh. Out of a 10.53 mile hike, 8.5 miles of this was on roads, including a very wearying 3 miles or so on busy Route 20. What parts were not on the roads were very cool, as they mostly included massive meadows. Still, ugh.

Study in Contrasts

The “meadows” part of this hike mostly included the Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge and Sedge Meadow Conservation Area. They were both very impressive. Massive, miles-long treeless meadows filled with all kinds of insects and birds, like dragonflies and swallows, and huge stands of milkweed and other wildflowers.

Pink Chicory

I saw lots more chicory on this walk, and in some spots there were occasional pink flowers mixed in with the more familiar blue ones. Some sort of genetic mutation, I guess.

Wildlife!

I even saw some wildlife. This turtle was shy of the paparazzi, however, and would not show her face.

Sudbury River

Thus concludes the non-road portions of this walk. This is a view of the Sudbury River from one of the many roads.

Great Mailbox

It wasn’t as if there were exactly NO compensations for all that road-walking. There was a sidewalk most of the way, although it was on the side that was in the sun. And there was even a Dunkin’ Donuts right along the route (that’s that little wiggle in the gps track towards the end).

uh…

Although I found this vaguely, um, unsettling.

Track (click for details)

You can read more about the Bay Circuit Trail here. As always, click on the image, above, for details about this section and to download the GPS track.

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Categories: Bay Circuit Trail, Massachusetts, Walks and Hikes
Tags: MA, Over 10 miles, Sudbury MA, Wayland MA