St. Moritz & Green Loop (Blue Hills Reservation)

St. Moritz & Green Loop (Blue Hills Reservation)

Hike Type: oooO Loop

Distance: 4.35 miles

Elevation: 371feet

Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes moving)
Hiking Challenges: Blue Hills Winter Trace (2x), 52 Hike Challenge 2026

The Hike 

After a wonderful day at Waterville Valley yesterday, I needed a quiet, introverted day. I somehow took another sick day and decided to spent part of the day back at the Blue Hills to continue tracing the Quincy side of the park. It was a sunny day in the mid 20s and I made it to the Shea Memorial Rink parking lot a little after 10:00am. To my dismay, a Quincy Trial Court van popped up with folks doing what I assumed to be court-mandated community service by chiseling out the snow bank blocking the Skyline Trail entrance. To avoid any akward intersactions, I followed a broken out side path down alongside the tennis courts to the dam between the St. Moritz Ponds. I meandered my way to minichiello Path and then onto the Pipe Line, which had a nice trench going.

I made the decision to finish up the St. Moritz area before crossing Wampatuck Road, so I made my way down Murphy Path and then hit the Ski Jump and Obbatineway Paths on the return trip, all which needed snowshoes. I decided to keep the shoes on for the rest of the hike, even though it felt goofy walking across Wampatuck Road in them (I was just too lazy to take them off and put them back on again! The bit of the green loop that paralleled Wampatuck Road was in brutal shape, mostly made up of frozen, postholed slush.

The Pipeline on the other side of Wampatuck Road only had a cross-country ski track in them, so I had a flirting with breaking trail which was just uncomfortable. I ended up taking my puffy and fleece off for this stretch (and most of the rest of the hike). It got a little better after the Skyline junction, but it was FAR from a superhighway!

I clumsily navigated some blow downs, which was tricky in snowshoes, but it was wildly satisfying to look back at the neat trail behind me. There were occasional deer tracks in the trench and criss-crossing the trails, which was fun to see. 

If this hike taught me one thing it was that I really needed to buy snow gaiters (purchased immediately after the hike) - my socks were SOAKED. Thankfully they were not cold! The green loop once off of the Pipeline was more traveled but wildly choppy and unconsolidated, so the snowshoes continued to stay on for the remaineder of the hike. I only passed one person near the end of my travels. I took the snowshoes off to cross Wampatuck Road for the second time and bare booted it back to the car. Overall a solid hike, and I was learning to enjoy the snowshoes!

Step-by-Step

- Park at Shea Memorial Rink.

- Follow footpath from west corner of parking lot to St. Moritz Ponds' dam.

- At dam, turn left onto Skyline Trail.

- At jct., turn right onto Minichiello Path (green).

- At 4205, turn left onto Pipe Line. 

- At 4202, turn right onto Murphy Path.

- At 4220, turn sharply right onto Pipe Line.

- At 4205, turn right onto Ski Jump Path.

- At terminus, turn left onto Murphy Path.

- At jct., turn left onto Obbatinewat Path.

- At terminus, turn righ tonto Pipe Line.

- At Wampatuck Road, cross Wampatuck Road.

- Continue on Indian Camp Path (green).

- Follow green dots all the way back to the dam.

- At dam, follow path back to west corner of the parking lot.

Blue Hills Reservation Map

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