[BACKLOG] Fox Hill, CCC Camp, Headquarters Path (Blue Hills Reservation)

Fox Hill, CCC Camp, Headquarters Path

Hike Type: Spaghetti
Distance: 8.3 miles
Elevation: 810 feet
Time: 3 hours, 3 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Blue Hills 125-Mile Challenge; 52 Hike Challenge

The Hike

This was a long one that felt like it took much longer than it did due to the speghetti-ness of this trail network, but as always there were fun surprises all around! I parked across the street from the Blue Hills Reservoir where there is a short, unmapped access trail that connects to the Pine Tree Brook Path. Right away I was greeted by my favorite sounds - frogs! It has finally been warm enough for the frogs to thaw and let out their silly calls again. A lot of this hike was hitting side trails, so I'm not going to include every twist and turn for my own sanity.

At 4084 I turned to go up Fox Hill. There was a footpath a little before the intersection that looked like it could be correct, but I tired to stick to the map and follow a less-defined path. I think the first path was the more correct one, but we survived! I really like the quietness and sneaky beauty of Fox Hill. Great partial views of Boston heading north on 4096, where a lot of the small trees had old insect galls on them which was really cool. 

From the bottom of Fox Hill, I followed the greet dot trail to Sawcut Notch Path. The random trail right before 4042 was interested. Wide path that terminated seemingly in the middle of nowhere. There were some open woods up the hill from the termination, but I chose not to explore simply becuase I had a lot more trail to cover. I really enjyoed the trails around the CCC Camp - lots of cool history!

I began to work my way towards the Headquarters Path at Chickatawbut Road while hitting lots of trails in between. My favorite part was passing this group of two hikers - one of which was clearly dragging their friend along for the ridd. We said hello and I passed them. About 5 minutes later, I was back on a different trail but I could hear the non-hiker friend screaming at her friend during one of the steeper climbs and I couldn't help but chuckle becuase I have definitely been there many, many times before. 

The Headquarters Path was my least favorite section of the hike, especially past 4012. The path was either thorny, overgrown, or flooded, and usually all three. Regardless, we made it and got to do it all again on the return! I missed the small spur path at 4012 to the neighborhood that I'll need to hit during my future "clean up day." Officially started my journey back to the car at 4030 - Pasture Run - and found a really neat section of trail between 4053 and 4072. At 4052 there is also a trail marker for the Great Dome Trail, which hasn't been listed on any maps since the 1980 printing - super cool! On Facebook I was told those stone trail markers were likely installed in the mid 80's which makes sense. 

Overall a nice long hike (minus that darn Headquarters Path... but we survived nonetheless)!

Photo Album

Posted April 8th at 7:15am.