well. In fact, two of the largest reservations—the Blue Hills and Middlesex Fells Reservations—are so close you can still hear traffic on the highways when you first set out for a hike. Interestingly, those are also two of the more challenging hikes in this book. And both trails are called the Skyline Trail. Be prepared when you try them both. They will test your mettle.
The best part of writing these guidebooks is the pure process of exploration. I have also done Best Tent Camping: New England and Best Hikes of the Appalachian Trail: New England for Menasha Ridge Press, and each project has been a spiritual and emotional windfall. I can be somewhat of a creature of habit. I’ll go to the same places over and over again. In writing this book and the others, my list of favorite places has grown by orders of magnitude. And for that I am grateful.
—Lafe Low
60 HIKES BY CATEGORY
More Hikes by Category
A 5.6-mile hike through Winnekenni Park, takes you on an old carriage trail through the woods, beside a lake, and to the grounds of a restored stone castle.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Boston! Whether you’re new to hiking or a seasoned hiker, take a few minutes to read the following introduction. We’ll explain how this book is organized and how to get the best use of it.
About This Book
From the air, if you’re coming into or leaving Logan International Airport, you can see the large amount of densely wooded green space around the Boston area—the Emerald Necklace, as envisioned by Fredrick Law Olmsted. So it was not a challenge to find 60 hikes within 60 miles of Boston Common. The challenge was narrowing down the list to the 60 best and striking a balance between the long, lung-pounding hikes, such as the two Skyline Trails (in Middlesex Fells and Blue Hills Reservation), and the shorter, more pastoral walks through the woods. Every hike presented here has something special to offer. Whether you live right in the thick of Boston or in the burbs, you won’t have to drive far. Here’s what the geographic sections encompass.
WITHIN BOSTON
These hikes are, as the name implies, near downtown Boston. You can also reach these riding the T, which makes accessing them even easier.
SEASIDE HIKES
There are many hikes along the circuitous coastline of Massachusetts. These hikes are all located on the shore of the mainland or even along the shores of some of the islands just off the coast.
NORTH OF BOSTON
These hikes are to the north and east of Boston, including several as far up as Cape Ann and even one just over the border in New Hampshire.
SOUTH OF BOSTON
This area includes the South Shore and many hikes near the coast of Buzzards Bay.
WEST OF BOSTON
This section features some of the more remote-feeling hikes, even though they are still well within easy driving distance. The area west of Boston is the most widespread and includes many hikes just within or outside the course of I-495.
Each of these areas includes many hikes that are fairly easy, or that could be shortened to make them even easier, so they’re great for families with young kids. You’ll also find hikes that are a bit more moderate and will get your legs moving. Most of these treks can be made even longer or shorter depending on your preference. While each follows a prescribed path, equip yourself with a map and feel free to explore on your own. Most of these hikes happen within a network of trails that intersect and overlap and beg for further exploration.
How to Use This Guidebook
OVERVIEW MAP AND LEGEND
Use the overview map to assess the exact locations of each hike’s primary trailhead. Each hike’s number appears on the overview map and in the table of contents. As you flip through the book, a hike’s full profile is easy to locate by watching for the hike number at the top of each page. The book is organized by region, as indicated in the table of contents. A map legend that details the symbols found on the trail maps appears.
REGIONAL MAPS
The book is divided into regions, and prefacing each regional section is a regional map. These provide more detail than the overview map, bringing you closer to the hikes.
TRAIL MAPS
A detailed map of each hike’s route appears with its profile. On each of these maps, symbols indicate the trailhead, the complete route, significant features, facilities, and topographic landmarks such as creeks, overlooks, and peaks.
To produce the highly accurate maps in this book, the author used a handheld GPS unit to gather data while hiking each route, and then sent that data to the publisher’s expert cartographers. However, your GPS is not a substitute for sound, sensible navigation that takes into account the conditions you observe while hiking.
Further, despite the high quality of the maps in this guidebook, the publisher and author strongly recommend you always carry an additional map, such as the ones noted in each entry’s listing for “Maps.”
ELEVATION PROFILES
For trails with significant elevation changes, the hike description will include this profile graph. Entries for fairly flat routes will not display an elevation profile.
For hike descriptions where the elevation profile is included, this diagram represents the rises and falls of the trail as viewed from the side, over the complete distance (in miles) of that trail. On the diagram’s vertical axis, or height scale, the number of feet indicated between each tick mark lets you visualize the climb. To avoid making flat hikes look steep and steep hikes appear flat, varying height scales provide an accurate image of each hike’s climbing challenge. For example, one hike’s scale might rise to more than 1,000 feet, such as Mount Wachusett, while another follows relatively flat riverbanks.
THE HIKE PROFILE
Each profile contains a brief overview of the trail, a description of the route from start to finish, key at-a-glance information (such as the trail’s distance and configuration and contacts for local information), GPS trailhead coordinates, and directions for driving to the trailhead area. Each profile also includes a map (see “Trail Maps”) and elevation profile (if the elevation gain is 100 feet or more). Many hike profiles also include notes
