Hike #1398; Wapole to Boston

 

Hike #1398: 3/13-3/14/21 Wapole to Boston with Jillane Becker

This next one was another long weekend for Jillane and I. It would finally mark our connecting to Boston via the hikes. I had wanted to hike contiguous to Boston for a very long time.
There were so many things I had wanted to do, so many connections on this eastbound thing we were doing.
Just like we had headed across Pennsylvania from New Jersey together and into West Virginia, we had actually hiked much of this together as well.
I had done connections into Connecticut on my own, and she had hiked most of the Appalachian Trail from near Pawling NY west to Agony Grind and was missing other stuff between. Together, we had done everything from Cornwall Bridge CT east across Connecticut and Rhode Island to get here.

Moose Hill Farm

On the last hike, we had connected to the Bay Circuit Trail, which is another one that I'm really hot on doing entirely. We could have taken this trail from near the start and continued either north or south, but I actually wanted to finish the Warner Trail, which we had followed for two previous trips.
I was inclined to do this one because it is sort of the odd duck of all of these trails. The Bay Circuit is regarded among the best hiking trails in America, but the little connecting Warner Trail is not so much so. It's oddly blazed with little tack things, and not all that well maintained like the Bay Circuit is. 

Moose Hill Farm

I was also drawn to the idea that this trail used to go straight on through to the edge of Boston in the quarry hills to the south, but that encroaching development led to the abandonment of the northern segment of it. I decided I wanted to do that segment anyway as if it were still there.
When I researched the route we would take for this hike, I found it very doable and in fact, a pretty great looking route.
The trail was marked in 1947 from Blue Hills Reservation near the Boston border on down through a camp reservation, then to the Canton train station.

Moose Hill Farm

It continued through to where the trail currently terminates and by 1950 was extended to Diamond Hill Rhode Island.
The segment around Canton was considered to be lost to development in the 1970s.
By some standards, much of the entire trail has been "lost". The route through some of the state forests was a challenge to follow. The route through Rhode Island was extremely hard at times. I know many hikers would give up on trying to hike this oddball trail, but it was exactly the type of thing that makes me want to do it more.

We drove out on Friday night and stayed in Wapole at the Fairfield Inn and Suites. I loved that I could see the Boston skyline from the hotel we were in.

I brought along another crowler of Tiny Spice, the really great Weyerbacher special that had come out as a celebratory thing.
The last time we were out, we had left off on the Warner Trail at the intersection of Moose Hill Street and Moose Hill Parkway in the Moose Hill Reservation.
There is parking there, but not for overnight. I figured on a good trail connection route to get us there from our hotel in Wapole, and got permission to leave the car there.
We started walking directly from the hotel out to Rt 27 and turned right. This led us across Interstate 95.

Once we got across the highway, we turned right on Moose Hill Street and started heading up hill a bit.
I can't quite recall if we bushwhacked into the woods to the right to reach the first trail of the Moose Hill Farm or if we continued up to the power line. I kind of think we just bushwhacked in and hit the trail.
We made our way to the power line trail anyway, and then turned to the right to follow it to the west a bit.
When we came to the first trail to the left from the power line, we turned onto that. This led us through some woods, and then to old field areas.

Boston from the hotel

We followed around field edges through the Moose Hill Farm wide open areas and headed out toward some of the buildings to the east a bit.
There were mowed trails just about everywhere through this property, which is owned by the board of directors of the Moose Hill Sanctuary, which cojoins the property.
We continued to the south, and soon found our way to the fire tower road, which leads up to the Sharon Fire Tower where we had passed through on the Warner and Bay Circuit Trails the last time.

We went up for a bit, and then soon reached the tower on top of Moose Hill itself, the highest point in the sanctuary.
The tower was built in 1966 to replace the original 1917 structure. There are footings that were likely for that next to the current tower location. The original location of the tower was on a nearby cliff called Bluff Head, but it was moved to this location.
I didn't try to go up the tower this time, since it was broad daylight and I'm sure it wasn't open at this time.
We instead just continued down the two trails the way we had last time, somewhat steeply, and came out at the intersection of Moose Hill Road and Moose Hill Parkway where we had left off last time.
I was glad to do this little bit of it that we already did before, because I hadn't really seen it in the dark that time anyway.
The trail emerges across from the road intersection, and then cuts into the woods again on the right side of Moose Hill Parkway, across from a stately white old house that is now a sort of headquarters for the sanctuary.
The two trails continued downhill slightly and followed a stream for a time that went partially underground. The sound of water was audible but we couldn't see it, which was pretty cool.
A little further down, the Bay Circuit Trail diverged to the right, and the Warner Trail went to the left. We of course continued on Warner and made our way slightly uphill some more, coaligned with something called Kettle Trail.

The trail emerged on Moose Hill Parkway and turned right briefly to the intersection with Upland Road. It then turned to the left with only a piece of metal like an arrow pointing left.

The trail continued through these woods, which followed a very old woods road that to the north becomes Everett Street.

The trail continues on the woods road and passes by an open field on the right, and a meadow with nice big trees on the left. 

Just after a power line crossing, the trail turns hard right and climbs a bit through woods. 

We made our way out of the Moose Hill Sanctuary section onto Rt 27/Norwood Street, and turned left for a bit. We walked a short bit and then turned right onto Bullard Street.
The trail then turned left onto private Mont Fern Ave. We followed it downhill and past the private home, then continued on the former continuation of the road, which comes out to Lexington Way ahead.

This section got a bit complicated. We were following it alright for a while, but according to the map, we were supposed to come out to the end of Lexington. Unfortunately, there was a new house built at the end of that and the trail was closed with signs and such. We couldn't go through that way, so we went uphill to the right on another trail that brought us through more woods.
We somehow got off of the trail and ended up down on Edge Hill Road with a nice set of wooden steps that led down to parking. I studied the maps and tried to figure out where the Warner Trail should be, but it was not getting me anywhere.

I decided that the only choice was to bushwhack a bit, and we did end up finding our way back to it.
The trail goes near a little pond in the Sharon area, and then meanders through the woods. We just sort of happened upon it off trail out there.
The trail took us past some sort of a house building, and then through a bit more woods before emerging onto Dedham Street, where there was only a tiny sign reading "Warner Trail" to signify this as the end of the trail.

This was where I had to get creative to come up with where we were going to go to connect the former trail. Some of the route I followed might have been the actual former trail route, and some of it might not have been.
Whatever the case, it got to be pretty interesting from here.
Directly across the street from the trail terminus is the cemetery known as the Sharon Memorial Park.

We walked through the cemetery all the way to the northeast side of it, where maps call it Garden of the Saviour. Once we were in that corner, we bushwhacked into the woods and started gradually descending to Wapole Street.

Some of this might actually have been the former Warner Trail, I can't be sure, but there were some pathway things in there. I didn't notice any of the old blazes.

We made our way down and came out on Wapole Street where we turned right and passed some lovely giant trees.
There was a road that came in up ahead called Warner Way, which I assume was the way the trail used to come out but no longer does.
Ahead, I noted one of the little white metal trail markers on one of the utility poles as we walked the road and then came upon the magnificent sight of the Canton Viaduct.

The Canton Viaduct, completed in 1835 for the Boston and Providence Railroad, is the first and only example of a blind arcade cavity wall span in the world. 

The unique structure employs 33,000 tons of cut granite, each with its own mason mark to identify who cut the stone.
Today, it carries Amtrak passenger, MTBA passenger, and CSX freight. It has seen continuous use since construction and now carries over 100 trains per day.

We turned right on Neponset Street through the structure, and then continued a short bit to a left turn over the Canton River on Revolution Way, into an open field with pathways all around it. This was the start of the Paul Revere Heritage Area.

Late 1800s, Canton Historical Society

On this site, gunpowder was made on site during the Revolutionary War, and the land was purchased by Paul Revere for his Copper mill in 1801.

For 101 years, Paul Revere and his descendants operated the first copper rolling mill in America.

The brick mill pictured here was constructed in 1850 by Paul Revere's son, Joseph Warren Revere. It was the second plant on site, and part of a major pre-Civil War expansion. It was here that metal was fabricated for use on the famed ship, the USS Constitution, and for Robert Fulton's steam boats.

After wandering around the site, we headed north on Revere Street which some of the way had a paved path along it. We continued up to and across Sherman Street and go a short distance into the Canton High School fields.

We turned right in the field area, headed uphill a bit, then went by the high school itself before coming out to Washington Street. Across from the school, and just barely to the north, was the entrance to the Mildred Morse Allen Wildlife Sanctuary. Adjacent to this was the Museum of American Bird Art.

This was a really nice little preserve. We followed a path into the woods between stone walls and headed north parallel with the Pequit Brook. It was starting to get dark as we passed through.

The trails here led into the mowed open area field trails of the Pequitside Farm system. We continued through this as it continued to grow darker, and then we came to the historic Tilden House.

The David Tilden House, deeded to him by the Ponkapaug Tribe, may date back as far as 1709. It was added to in 1725 and is the oldest building in Canton Massachusetts.

We turned to the left on Pleasant Street, and then turned right on Washington Street past the Canton Police Department. Then, we turned to the left into the old Canton Cemetery.

We walked into the back of the cemetery and skirted the farthest of the cemetery roads.
This was a beautiful walk. Even though it was night by this time, it was really an enjoyable walk through. 
When we got to the far north side of the cemetery, there was a big rocky area that looked like it was used as excess fill dirt or something. We skirted around piles and came out to Charles Street.

We turned right and went straight across when we got to Pecunit Street through the fields of the Galvin Middle School. When we got to the rear of the school, we headed into the woods to try to find a trail connection that would take us to Ponkapoag Playground.
I remember talking to a guy out in there about where we were going, near his home. We continued through and came upon a foot bridge back there, but the woods just got too wet. There was nothing to get across the Ponkapaug Brook.

We had to turn back. There was just no good way through.
We came out of a cul de sac as I recall, probably Old Coach Road.
We made our way from there out to Washington Street and continued north.
I had originally planned to cut over a golf course and use the Bradley Estate trail system to the north of here to avoid more road walk, but at this point it was too dark and I didn't want to take more gambles. We had done really well considering I was kind of winging it through an area I'd never been before.

Along the road, we passed by a very old cemetery on the right known as the Proprietor's Lot.

It was written on the entrance "the oldest burying ground 1700", and on the other side of the entrance "here stood ye English church 1754-1796".

There were other historic sites we passed while on this section of road including the Revolutionary War Captain William McKendry House  built about 1787.

Washington Street joined with Rt 138 at an angle ahead and became busier. There was a strip mall on the left side, and we stopped at the Crowell's Market for drinks and snacks on the left. There was also an Italian place but I don't recall if we got any dinner or anything at this point.
We continued up 183/Washington Street to the north and passed the Bradley Estate on the right. The Ponkapoag YMCA outdoors center was across the street and down the road, and might be a future hike when we get up there again.

This time, we simply continued up Washington Street and soon reached the cloverleafs of the on ramp to Interstate 93, Yankee Division Highway.
We continued across these and then cut to the left behind a Shell Station to the west. We cut through parking lots and some grass in order to reach the Homewood Suites.

The next day we got up and actually were able to have a good breakfast. This place gave us a breakfast to go order form and it actually had good stuff on it like various different kinds of eggs, western omelettes, and then choice of fruit and snack and drink.

I thought it was sweet that Jillane put her name down on hers as "Mrs. Helbing", but that was the last time she ever made such a gesture again.

The trajectory for this day was the Neponset River Greenway, which would take us out toward the waterfront on the south side of Boston. I had a couple of different ways we could get there.

Across the street from the hotel was the Blue Hills Reservation, and in it was the 7.5 mile long Skyline Trail which traverses the Blue Hills from west to east. I'd like to do all of that one day, but this time we would only get on the westernmost end of it.
We exited the hotel, crossed Royall Street, and went straight into the woods to hit the blue blazed Skyline Trail, which we followed to the left.

The trail took us across Green Street, and then a little further west to its western terminus.
It seemed to just end in the middle of nowhere with some old stone rows and such.
We continued on an informal path which took us out onto long abandoned Interstate 93 exit ramp. We turned right and followed it a short distance to emerge on the abandonment of a much larger four lane highway with a very large median of woods in between.

This was the abandoned and never completed Interstate 95 connection at Fowl Meadow, Massachusetts.

Originally, 95 was to continue from Canton into Boston, which would have taken it through the expansive Neponset River wetlands at Fowl Meadow.

This section of highway was constructed about 1967.
A citizen lawsuit thwarted the plan because it would have transferred preserved land to public works, which could not be done without authorization from state legislature.

95 was eventually routed around Boston to the west.
Today, trails and a few old woods roads pass through the otherwise unspoiled expanse.

I knew that this would be the cooler of the routes into Boston, and we could easily use to to connect in with the Neponset River Greenway, and so on we went.
We walked to the end of the highway and straight into the woods. Some of the pavement continued just a little bit further, and then gave way to a simple unpaved road route. A trail eventually turned left from this at ninety degrees.

We skirted some really pretty wetland out in Fowl Meadow, and eventualy came out on the Burma Road Trail to the west where we turned to the right.

There were a few people out walking this long abandoned road, but it was overall very pleasant.

There was a lot of beaver activity out in this area, and pretty wetland views around the Nepsonsit River all around. A few people came walking by while we were out there, but we didn't engage with them. 

The trail eventually emerged on Brush Hill Road to the north. It was marked with a stone marker that had "Fowl Meadow" inscribed on it. I was shocked to see this as well as one that read Skyline Trail when we first got in the woods. No expenses spared on the cost of noting these trails.

We turned left through the grass onto Neponset Valley Parkway and crossed over a handsome triple stone arch bridge over the Neponset River. 

This was Paul's Bridge in Milton Massachusetts, built in 1849.

The original crossing at the site was Hubbard's Bridge, built before 1759. It was renamed Paul's Bridge after 1807 reconstructed for Samuel Paul who was the landowner on the Readville (now part of Boston) side.
The 1849 rebuild was unmortared, and was rebuilt and widened again between 1932 and 1935.
The bridge was almost lost when Interstate 95 was to be built through in 1967, but community effort saved it and adjacent Fowl Meadow.

We continued over the bridge, and then turned to the right along Truman Parkway heading north.
Here, the Neponset River Greenway skirted the left side of the road.

After a bit, there was a Walgreens and Stop and Shop and such. Jillane wanted to stop for food and drinks and such, so we took a break out there. It was getting a bit colder by this point. I waited outside while she was in the store.

We had some views of the river, and there were spots to access the waterfront. We went into Francis Martini Memorial Park, and we saw trains going by parallel with us on a commuter line I believe, which is the former New York and New England Railroad, once the "Air Line" that we had walked in the past across Connecticut and central Massachusetts.

After a bit, it started snowing pretty good. We definitely weren't expecting that, because it had been much warmer before. I had started the day hiking in shorts, and was starting to get pretty cold.

We spotted on a hill where the predecessor to Truman Parkway used to likely come up from closer to the tracks, 

When the weather started getting particularly bad, we could see there was an old abandoned mill complex directly across the tracks. We decided to duck into a little cove and saw about getting some cover. 

There was a skid steer loader parked in there, and I leaned into it to try to fix my contact lens that was popping. There was also a trailer parked just off and to the left. I went into my pack and got my pants out, and stood on the steps of the trailer to put them on.

Just then, some lady comes up with her phone open recording us and being really rude telling us to get out of there. I explained to her that I was obviously putting pants on and using the steps because I was cold, but she interrupted and didn't want to hear any of it.

This was crazy because usually I'd be trying to get into anything I could, but this time I was just using the steps of this thing in order to not have my feet on the snowy ground while I got changed, and this crazy woman was there shouting at us. I honestly hoped that she called the police in this case, because there was nothing personally incriminating in this video, and it was obvious what I was doing, but she was just one of these people who has to have something to say about everything and is on the phone to complain with someone whenever the opportunity arose.

Jillane walked ahead of me here, and I followed soon behind, having put my pants on with the lunatic woman watching. As we walked down the street, she followed maybe 75 ft behind us and was talking on the phone, I assume reporting us to the police. I wasn't at all worried about it at all, and kind of hopeful for the opportunity to say something to them.

A trail turned away from the road a bit in the Neponset Esplanade Park, and we turned in there along the river more closely, which has a little launch area.

We came out on the Blue Hills Parkway and turned left, and the crazy lady was there, and turned and looked back at us. She was back on the phone again audibly speaking, probably more on her disdain about people walking there.

By this point, we were almost to where we would be away from the roads anyway. We crossed Blue Hills Parkway and crossed Neponset River on it, then turned right onto a wooden plank walkway section of the Neponset River Trail to the east, near the sign saying we were entering Boston.

This section skirted the roundabout track of the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, an old style trolley branch that operates in Boston.

The trail continued along the edge of the yard, then climbed to a high bridge over the track level.

The Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line exclusively uses 4 historic PCC Streetcars (Presidents' Conference Committee). Few PCC cars remain in operation in the world today. Those used on this line were constructed in 1945-46. Once green, they are now painted a cream orange to more accurately match original colors.

The PCCs have been in regular Boston service since their construction, and used on the Mattapan line since 1955.
The trail descended along the ramp from above the tracks and then to the left side of the Neponset River to continue following it downstream.

After a little bit, the trail turned to the right to cross the river on the Harvest River Bridge, which was an interesting bowstring arch pedestrian span. 

We continued along with the river on the left, and the trolley line on the right, which was really cool because we got to see the orange vintage trolley cars going by multiple times as we walked on.

We crossed Central Avenue, and there was an old spur bridge formerly for rail use cross the river in this area to businesses on the other side. Artwork was along the walls between the tracks and the trail, one of them giving the life cycle of the frog.
We went under Adams Street closely hugging the edge of the trolley tracks, and passed the old Baker Chocolate factory.

The trail was just another former track bed on the line we were walking. 
We crossed the river for the last time, with lots of high concrete walls around covered in art. We skirted the Cedar Grove Cemetery, and then crossed Granite Avenue.

We then crossed the site of the first incorporated railroad in America, the Granite Railway Corporation, from 1826. I had heard about this site for many years, but had never been to it, so this was another pretty substantial one. The Baltimore and Ohio tries to make this claim, but apparently this was first.

The sun was starting to set, and we were getting into Boston proper. We were still on the Neponset River, where it makes its way into the Boston Harbor, We started seeing signs for the Harbor Walk, which is over 42 miles of walkway along the harbors of Boston. I had hoped that we would get a room near the waterfront for the night, and then continue on from there into the main part of the city.

We continued along the waterfront and passed under the bridge of Neponset Ave followed by a railroad bridge. 

We came to Joseph Finnegan Park, and then headed out to Water Street. The trail wasn't so contiguous from here, but we could easily find where we needed to be going.
We continued out to Conley Street, and then more trail turned to the right from that along a little inlet, and then along a beach called Tenean Beach.
At the end of this beach area, we came back out to Conley Street and passed under Rt 3. We turned right and continued on Tenean Street and then came to the Ramada Hotel where I figured we would stay.

We got to the place and were denied access. Of all things, this hotel was closed to all but the homeless. There were police and rehabilitation people around, and the entire lobby was loaded with tons of people.
It struck me as pretty crazy that in the middle of the pandemic and when people were going nuts about these things, all of these people were corralled into one location and hanging out in a common area with no social distancing possible.
There was another hotel a couple of blocks away, but Jillane was not at all interested in staying anywhere in this area or continuing the next day, so we got an uber to the middle of the city and stayed in a high rise place with a great view, and just ended the hike.

I'll eventually have to get back up there and properly connect to the main big downtown, but were at least well into the city of Boston. 

I suppose it was just as well that we didn't continue trying to walk the next day, because we did try to take a short walk around near where we stayed, and it was horribly cold. I definitely was not prepared for the temperatures we ended up with that day. My ears were freezing, and having to wear a mask everywhere made my glasses fog up terribly. Jillane wanted to go to a lot of book stores, but it just wasn't really enjoyable to me because I couldn't really see.

On the next trip out there hopefully we'll be able to take on the Freedom Trail around Boston, which was a route I did when I was a boy scout back in 1996.
It was still a great milestone, and to think there are so many open opportunities from where we left off to explore is really a great feeling.