Posted By auntie on November 7, 2016

10 miles; Westwood, Medfield, and Dover, MA

This was a group hike sponsored by the Trustees of the Reservations in Massachusetts. It was supposed to be 13 miles, but I cheated and took some shortcuts (I can read a map). It still felt as if my legs had been chewed up, spit out, and the spit remolded into something vaguely leg-shaped. There were a lot more hills than I’m used to, as usual. And as is common on these big group hikes, everyone took off like it was a race, and I ended up bringing up the rear—till I took shortcuts.

100 Hikers Set Out

We started at the Sen Ki Reservation in Westwood. Well, technically, it wasn’t all 100 hikers at once. This hike was set up with shuttles that stopped at 3 places, breaking it up into 3 approximately 4-mile hikes. You could opt to do a 4-, 8-, or 13-mile hike. Naturally I opted to do the whole thing!

Beach

This sign was at a little family beach on Noanet Pond in the Hale Reservation in Dover. This is a pretty active place; there were little camps and beaches all around the pond.

Memorial Bench

Our trail took us all around Noanet Pond. There were some very lovely views.

Granite Bird Marker

I don’t know what the significance of this granite marker is, but I thought it was interesting.

Cute Little Shack

In case you can’t read the sign, it says “Camp Grossman” and “Shalom.” This was on a smaller pond called Powisett Pond. From this section our trail entered the Powisett Farm, which is also a Trustees property, and is also an active CSA farm, and the 2nd rest stop on our hike. I didn’t get photos here, sorry, but it’s a very large, very active farm with a farm stand where you could buy veggies and eggs, and big hay fields. They even served the hikers hot butternut squash soup. It was delish!

Bricktops?

After following the mown trails through Powisett Farm, you enter a woodland. I think these might be “brick top” mushrooms, which are edible. They are also a notoriously difficult species to i.d., and there are many less-than-edible lookalikes, so I decided not to collect them. They were pretty, though.

Entering the Easement

The final 4-mile section of this hike had some road-walking through a development of very fancy houses, and then it turned onto a trail easement between two of them. Kind of weird to be walking in peoples’ back yards, and not for a short time, either. The easement went for quite a distance… maybe 1/2 mile or more.

Shortcut Sign

The hike ended at the Rocky Woods reservation in Medfield. And as I entered the reservation, this sign was the first thing I saw. Short cut? Don’t have to tell me twice—I’m there.

You can find out more about the Trustees of the Reservations and their many properties at their website: www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/.

Categories: Massachusetts, Walks and Hikes
Tags: Dover MA, MA, Medfield MA, Westwood MA