Green Hill Path, Field Path, Orchard Trail (Blue Hills Reservation)
Hike Type: Spaghetti-ish Lollipop Loop
Distance: 2.47 miles
Elevation: 118 feet
My Time: 51 minutes
Book Time: 1 hour ,17 minutes
Parking: At end of Royall Street.
Hiking Challenges: Trail Trace the Blue Hills
Hiking Challenges: Trail Trace the Blue Hills
The Hike
Monday afternoon! I had a brutally slow and sleepy drive after work (I don't know why Google insists on saying "slower than usual traffic" when the traffic is always slow), fully fueled by leftover cheerios. Skies were grey, temps in the low-60s, and I was very low on energy. Thankfully, I had a small hanging chad that I needed to get done, no matter how much I didn't want to do it. I parked at the end of Royall Street and hiked right into the woods to meet up with the western end of the Skyline Trail, which was full of spiderwebs.
On a plus, the Skyline Trail follows a wonderful stone wall before crossing a highway drain outflow surrounded by garbage... Anyway, I continued onto the abandoned interchange, past the... flooring(?) that has been decomposing for years, and made my way back into the woods at the start of Green Hill Path. To mix things up, I decided to hike Field Path counter-clockwise, yay?
Field Path has notoriously been one of, if not the most overgrown trail in the reservation. To my delight, some of the blowdowns have met a saw in the past couple of years! It actually used to be much worse. There was a good amount of unavoidable vegetation, but thankfully i made it out without ticks. The footing transitioned from leafy/stick-y to grassy, which was unpleasant in a different way. The only fun part of this trail is the little blowdown tunnel you get to hike through. The field that the trail might be named after appeared to be covered in pricker bushes now... bummer.
There were a few easy step-over blowdowns at the end, and I was free! The return on Green Hill Path was very leafy, but fine otherwise. Onto Orchard Trail, there was a LOUD flying insect near the beginning, and delightfully nothing elsewhere. This was in the best shape out of all three trails back here. I returned again on Green Hill, through the interchange, back onto the Skyline Trail, and at the same junction where I turned onto the trail, I veered right (not turn right, to be clear) onto the final trail I needed in this area - just a spur from Skyline to Royall Street. At the terminus, there was a sign pointing towards the Skyline Trail and Fowl Meadow - fun!
I could have driven over to Brookwood to get another hanging chad, but my energy was dreadfully low and all I wanted was to get my chicken from Costco and go to bed, which is EXACTLY what I did!
Step-by-Step
- Park at the end of Royall Street, enter woods on unmapped path.
- At terminus, turn left onto Skyline Trail.
- Follow pavement to Green Hill Path.
- At 6102, turn left onto Field Path.
- At 6103, turn right onto Green Hill Path.
- At 6102, turn left onto Orchard Trail.
- At 6104, turn left onto Green Hill Path.
- Follow path and pavement back to Skyline Trail.
- At terminus of the spur hiked in the beginning, follow different spur left to Royall Street.
- At terminus, turn right on Royall Street, return to car.
Photo Album
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