Blue Hills - Woodland End2End, April 23, 2016

AMC SEM Post-Hike Trip Report

TRIP DATE: 04-23-2016   

                                          

TRIP LOCATION:         Blue Hills – Woodland End2End  

MEETING TIME:         8 am  

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS (INCLUDING LEADERS):         21

TOTAL HIKING TIME (IN HOURS):    6 hrs 20 mins

LENGTH IN MILES:     12.3 miles

TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN (IN FEET): 100 feet

DIFFICULTY:            B                       (A=very strenuous; B=strenuous; C=average; D=easy)

LEADER NAME(S):      Paul Brookes, Cathy MacCurtain

CO-LEADER NAME(S):            Pat Acorn

TRAILHEAD PARKING LOCATION & DESCRIPTION: Fowl Meadow Parking (intersection of Brush Hill Rd and Neponset Valley Parkway)

CAR SPOTTING REQUIRED?:        Yes                 TIME REQUIRED TO SPOT CARS:  30 mins

WAS TRIP WITHIN WHITE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST?         No

BRIEFLY DESCRIBE SPECIFIC TRAILS HIKED AND TRAIL CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED:

This was the first year of what I am planning as a new annual tradition in SEM, the Woodland End-To-End.   The hike skirts around all the summits and sticks to the wooded lowlands.  It was held the week before the Skyline End2End and was perfect distance training for some that were preparing for next weeks’ Skyline End2End (which is shorter but hilly).

Skunk Cabbage was everywhere in the wetlands but much of the understory was still in winter hibernation.  Being a woodland hike I like a good spring understory so next year I will run this hike a few weeks later when there is more going on.

The group met at Shea Ice Rink and loaded their gear and themselves into as few cars as possible where we car-pooled over to the small parking pull off at the Northernmost end of Fowl Meadow in Canton.  Since there is not much parking space here we kept most of our cars at the larger capacity Shea Parking and hiked back to our cars.