[BACKLOG] Quincy Quarries Area (Blue Hills Reservation)

Quincy Quarries Area (Blue Hills Reservation)

Hike Type: Spaghetti Mess
Distance: 3.82 miles
Elevation: 250 feet
Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Hiking Challenges: Blue Hills 125-Mile Challenge

The Hike

What a MESS. What an interesting, sometimes scenic, MESS. I started this hike at the parking area off of Ricciuti Drive, and headed into the famous section of the Quarries covered in graffiti/art. This area is always so fascinating to me - what used to be a hot spot for cliff jumping is now a field with rock climbers, day drinkers, casual walkers, insane hikers, and drug users. You truly see every walk of life here, and all with a great view! This whole hike was littered with random unmapped, unmarked trails... and litter... so this hike can be summed up as "I did my best."

I first walked up to the highpoint of the main quarry, and then followed the road to the trails in the back. I never saw 4229, but the trail ends at the bottom of an old granit railway which was very cool. I did my best to guess which random trail was the junction at 4229 while I skirted around the quarry, and climbed up the back one. I hiked the random trails, doing my best to recreate the shapes on the map. The trail to the fields was slightly overgrown and ended with a torn-apart mattress. The trail returning to the parking area was unclear and eroded, but we made it back in one piece and only slightly scratched up. 

Once covering that area, I crossed Ricciuti Drive and entered on the spur path headed to 4238 and simply... did my best. Sometimes the trails in this area were clear, and sometimes I was just walking through the woods and getting scratched by thorns. I hiked to where the "u" is in "Quarries Foot Path" on the map, turned back towards Ricciuti Drive, and hiked towards 4236, which was the only clear area on this whole hike. The split just south of 4236 is also clear. I was able to easily get down to 4235, and that is where clarity stopped. I scrambled down a loose granite mess, walked in a few circles, and then made my way back to 4236. The trail at 4236 that does not go towards 4235 starts off easy to follow, then climbs to another quarry area, and then becomes a guessing game. I tried forever to find a semblance of a trail that leads to the southern portion of the Quarries Foot Path, but eventually had to abandon that plan. I followed something that could have been a path and hiked Northwest along the word "foot" on the map, but ended up lost in the woods again. The rest of the hike followed this trend, and eventually it looks like I made every shape.

I hope that someday this area gets cleaned up, or at least blazed. Its such a cool area with so much history, but hiking these trails is an absolute hellscape. I had hiked some of these trails a while ago, so the map doesn't cover everything. What a time!

Map of Blue Hills Reservation

Photo Album

Originally written September of 2022.