Hiking This Weekend

We went to a couple of parks this weekend and hiked some really light trails.  The first one we went to was Hammond Pond Reservation.  It was nice and had some cool rock formations.  They allow climbing and repelling off of these formations.  They only get about 20ft high from what I witnessed.  The pond is gorgeous and is full of lily pads.  We didn’t see any frogs but there were a bunch of large tadpoles and one baby turtle or maybe it was just a breed of turtle that doesn’t get very big.  The entrance for this trail is the entrance to the mall, so it never really felt that we were in the middle of nowhere and we could hear traffic and the T the whole time.  The park is split by a busy road and I am not sure if the trails go on over the road as I didn’t want to cross with the kids.   We did have a nice picnic lunch on top of one of the rock formations.  Tuna, watermelon and crackers and sausage. 
The second place we went was Elm Bank Reservation.  This park borders the Charles River on three sides as the river does a dogleg right there.  This is also a soccer park and has a public garden.  We had problems just finding the trail.  We weren’t the only ones as we pointed someone with a trail book to where we had come out as we were leaving.  Nothing was marked here.  It was frustrating as the lack luster website had said that there were trails.  We didn’t even know if we were on the right side of the park.  Not sure if we did the whole trail or not.  It was pretty, but we probably won’t be going back.  It took less than half an hour for us to walk the actual trail.  The garden was okay, but didn’t really impress.  Its best feature was some of the oddly shaped trees.    There was a giant chair and Ally asked if it was made for Shaq.  As Shaq is coming to the Celtics, it is funny that a 6yo girl knows who he is. 

As far of trails up here in MA.  We have noticed vague trail markings when we have found them at all.  Unless you go to second party website, you are not likely to get a map or know how long the trail is.  That is unfortunate and not what I had grown used to.  So far the best trail we have found is near our Church in Wellesley.  It has Wetlands, open fields, woods, and climbs.  The trail markings are vague but not too hard to figure out and Wellesley has a map you can print out.  It is called the Boulder Trail.