The more I explore the Blue Hills, the more silly ideas I find myself getting into. Currently, the Friends of Blue Hills offer four patches: Skyline Trail 1st time, Skyline Trail 2nd time, 125-Mile Club 1st time, 125-Mile Club 2nd time. The AMC Southeastern Mass. Chapter hosts trail tracing challenges, with patches for each time you complete a map. Their rules are a little more strict than the Friends of Blue Hills. I've completed both 1st time FBH patches, and am currently working on the AMC SEC's Blue Hills Winter Trace (when spring hits I'll get back to the FBH 125-Mile 2nd time patch). But what if there were more?
The first silly idea I have that I really want to do is a "Blue Hills Diretissma" - hitting all of the named hills in one continuous hike (inspired by the White Mountains Diretissma). The route I planned out on AllTrails is 15+ miles, 2000+ feet, and goes from Burma Road in Dedham to Granite Railway Quarry in Quincy, hitting all the named hills in between. Not saying this should be a patch challenge, but would be a fun, loooooong day.
What if there were patches for summiting Great Blue Hill? A first time patch? A bronze patch after 25 summits? Silver after 50? Gold after 100? There would have to be rules, of course. A summit means trailhead to summit, so you couldn't go up and down over and over again without returning to the trailhead first. Would this apply to other hills as well? Just the big ones?
What about a Blue Hills "Grid" (like the White Mountains Grid) - hiking all the hills in every month of the year. This could be a fun long-term project. Would you have to hike them individually (i.e., if you hit Great Blue Hill and Houghton Hill in the same hike, you could only count one of them for the grid) or would peakbagging be allowed?
Still along the lines of "inspired by White Mountains challenges" - the "Every Calendar Day" challenge? Summit one of the hills on every calendar day (including Feb. 29th!)? This could be another fun long-term challenge.
Who will make these patches? Who will sponsor? So many questions!
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