Didn’t Need My Snowshoes – Diamond Hill – February 13th

The RICKA crew is doing a hike today at Bowdish Lake in the Washington Management Area. Unfortunately, I have stuff to do and won’t be able to make it, but I was able to get out yesterday for a hike around the Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland. The Blackstone Valley Outfitters did a hike there last week, and sounded like fun.

Diamond Hill is basically a huge hunk of quartz about a mile long, a quarter of a mile wide and 350’ high. At one time, two ski areas occupied opposite sides of the hill – Diamond Hill State Park on the west, and Ski Valley in the east. Ski Valley has now been turned into condos, and the Town of Cumberland owns the Diamond Hill Park. Its only a mile from my house, but I hadn’t been there in years.

I arrived at the park just after sunrise – around 6:45. Temperatures were in the mid 20’s, and the snow was frozen solid. It took me a while to find the trail, but eventually I found it at the end of a row of pine trees in back of the bandstand. The trail follows a small brook behind some ball fields though woods covered in oak, birch and white pine. It was well packed, so I didn’t need my snowshoes.

The trail leads to the base of a huge cliff that was once part of an old quarry. At one time, you could climb the southern side of this cliff to access the ridge at the top of Diamond Hill. Today, a house sits at the top, so the trail cuts back along the bottom of the ledge and accesses the ridge line a little further to the north. I climbed up the southern side of the ledge anyway to get some pictures, and then worked my way back down.

I then followed the switchback trail below the ledge up to the rocky crest overlooking Diamond Hill Road. From here, the trail runs about a mile to the north along the ridge of Diamond Hill. The views from the top are great – to the west is Tower Hill, to the east is the Diamond Hill Reservoir, and the north are the hill of Wrentham, MA. I took a break on the concrete footing of an abandoned chair lift before working my way back down through the woods.

I’d estimate that the loop is a couple of miles. It took me about an hour and a half to complete. I’ll definitely be back again.

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