even have to walk: there is a parking lot on the summit of the man-made Hiking Close to Home hill. Access is from the VFW Highway By Gil Woolley (Route 1) in West Roxbury along Gardner Street north (on the right for One of a series of occasional articles on less-known, short hikes in eastern westbound traffic) at a traffic light Massachusetts. More than a half of our chapter members live within located about a hundred yards beyond Route 495; these brief pieces are addressed primarily to them. Members the first entrance to the Home Depot living further north, west and south have a variety of well-known state parking lot. The Spring Blossom restau- rant is on the corner and there is a parks close by. People living within 495 often drive a considerable large blue sign for the Millennium distance to hike, even though there may be interesting, but little-used, Park. Gardner Street crosses a bridge trails on their doorsteps. over the MBTA line to Needham and enters the park. At the first junction efore the recent government bear left. A few yards further is anoth- Blue Heron Trail at er junction; bear left to the Canoe Charles River B reorganization, the plan was to provide a paved trail along the Charles Launch. The right turn is to the sum- Total Distance: Less than 3 miles River all the way from Boston to mit parking lot (P2 on the map) and to Newton and back; Brook Farm Medfield. This walk is one of the many the view. about the same. Unless it’s segments that have not yet been con- Leave your car at the Canoe Launch been raining, special shoes not nected. It is marked by triangular metal parking lot (P1), the most convenient necessary. plates bearing the stylized image of a lot for starting the hike. Continue on Hiking Time: 1½ hours blue heron. foot for about half of a mile, keeping The most obvious and convenient to the paved trail alongside the Sawmill starting point for this short, but pleas- Brook, and you will come to a foot- ant, trail is the Millennium Park. The bridge over the brook. Crossing the Nahanton Street bridge you will find an easy trail (you Charles park, which sits on the top of the now River closed and capped city of Boston land- could ride most of this trail on a bike). fill, is itself well worth a visit for the Less than half a mile in is a fork extensive views over the middle Charles with a sign post. The trail to the right Wells Ave wetlands and, on a clear day, of the leads to Brook Farm and the Gethse- city in the distance. And you don’t mane Cemetery (access is from Baker Street, West Roxbury); the left fork

Legend leads to Newton. In Newton, the first

Boundaries street access is from the Saw Mill Brook Sawmill Brook Creek Parkway Parkway, but you can continue Roads Solomon To Mt Ida College Schechter Trails through the woods to Wells Avenue. School N ¡ ¡ Marsh Access is through the children’s play- 1 Site of Margaret Fuller Cottage ground of the Solomon Schechter ¡ ¡ 2 The Print Shop ¡ 3 Site of the Hive ¡ School. A narrow and rough trail con- ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ tinues to Nahanton Street just before ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ NEWTON the bridge over the Charles River. ¡ Pulpit Rock ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ The trail to the site of Brook Farm ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ 1 Information ¡ ¡ ¡ Booth is an interesting side trip. The site, Canoe ¡ Sawmil ¡ Launch l B ¡ which is a national historic landmark, P1 ro ¡ o ¡ 2 k P ¡ 3 ¡ Gethsemane Cemetery was home to the most famous Tran- ¡ Parking for trail walking P2 ¡ ¡ P scendentalist experiment in commu- ¡ ¡ ¡ Brook ¡ ¡ ¡ Farm ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ nal living from 1842 until 1846, when ¡ ¡ Charles River Millennium Park ¡ ¡ ¡ it was abandoned after a disastrous ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ fire. An information office on the site ¡ ¡ ¡ Sawmill Brook¡ is open until 4:00 PM daily. P Please send any ideas for this series Baker Street to the Sierran editor: editor@sierra MBTA West Roxbury High School St. Joseph’s Cemetery clubmass.org, or to Gil Woolley: gwoolley ❖ Gardner Street @sierraclubmass.org.

Home Depot VFW Parkway

Route 1 Gil Woolley is a member of the Massa- Spring Blossom chusetts Chapter Executive Committee Restaurant MBTA and chair of the Conservation Committee.

SPRING 2004 Massachusetts Sierran 11