Moose Hill – March 12, 2023

The crew on the Summit Trail

I was thinking about doing a Tville run today to try out my new drysuit, but the group wasn’t meeting until noon, which would have made for a long day. Instead, I decided to stay close to home and do the Papa Joe hike at the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sharon, MA.

Moose Hill was established in 1916 and is Mass Audubon’s oldest wildlife sanctuary. Moose Hill has 20-miles of trails through forests, fields, and wetlands. We started on the Summit Trail, which takes you up the to the highest point on the sanctuary - 534-feet with an abandoned fire tower at the top.

View of Gillette from the Bluff Overlook

From there, we worked our way over to the Bluff Trail which includes the Allens Ledge Chimney and the Bluff Overlook with its great views of Gillette Stadium. Shaped by glaciers thousands of years ago, you can still see striations in the bedrock that were left by glaciers.

Billing's Loop was closed for maple sugaring tours, but we worked our way back to the parking lot, and we finished up with a loop around the Vernal Pool Trail. The Bay Circuit and Warner trails pass through this property as well.

Links:
My Pictures
Moose Hill Trail Map

Bay Circuit Trail

Warner Trail
Warner Trail Guidebook

F. Gilbert Hills State Forest - February 6, 2022

The crew at Lookout Rock

It was a cold and icy morning, but the Papa Joe hike was just a half-hour from my house at the F. Gilbert Hills State Forest, so I decided to join.

The F. Gilbert Hills State Forest (previously known as Foxboro State Forest) is a 1,000-acre site with 23-miles of trails in the towns of Foxborough and Wrentham. It is adjacent to the Harold B. Clark Town Forest to the north, and connects to Wrentham State Forest to the west. The park is also part of the 30-mile Warner Trail that stretches from Sharon to Diamond Hill.

Trail Hut

We headed north from the main entrance on Mill Street in Foxboro to Sunset Lake, and then west cutting through the Harold B. Clark Town Forest to High Rock and the EMS radio tower. The park is a maze of trails dotted with hundreds of glacial erratics. We stopped for a picture at one of the largest – Lookout Rock.

From there, we headed south on a section of the Warner Trail that includes the Stone Staircase - one of many structures built on the site by the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s. We took a short detour to Sunset Ledge, which has great views of the Wrentham Hills and even Diamond Hill to the southwest.

Dolmen Rock

We then passed some unique stone structures that some believe were made by the Native Americans. Dolmen Rock is a large, flat boulder sitting on three small stones on top of a large exposed ledge that that may have been used as an altar. Not far away are four equidistant rocks that align due north. They could have been dropped by the glacier, but some believe that would be too much of a coincidence.

From there we followed a maze of trails back to the cars. The hike was originally planned to be about 5-miles, but with detours it ended up being closer to 6-miles.

Links:

My Pictures

F. Gilbert Hills State Forest

F. Gilbert Hills Trail Map

Warner Trail
Warner Trail Guidebook

Mercy Woods – January 9, 2022

Trailhead on Wrentham Road

For years I wondered why cars were parked at the turn-off on Wrentham Road just before you crossed into MA. Now I know. At least some were probably hiking on the trails of what is now the Cumberland Land Trust’s Mercy Woods Preserve.

In 2018, the Sisters of Mercy sold 229-acres of provincial land to the Town of Cumberland. The Cumberland Recreation department will eventually use 18-acres for sports fields. The remaining 211-acres will remain as open space managed by the Cumberland Land Trust.

Ridge Trail

The Mercy Woods Preserve currently has 5.7-miles of trails including the Mercy Loop (2.3-miles), the Ridge Trail (2.1-miles) and the Stone Wall, Fisher, Fern, Fiske, Deer and Grape connecting trails. A short section of the Ridge Trail north of the Fern connecting trail is also part of the Warner Trail connecting Sharon, MA to Diamond Hill.

I started at the turn-off on Wrentham Road and did a 3.3-mile perimeter hike along the Ridge Trail (south) and Mercy Loop (north). It was fine, but next time I will probably do the section of the Mercy Loop east of Mount St. Rita since it doesn’t run so close to Wrentham Road. I’d also like to find the Warner Trail and the connection to Diamond Hill.

Links:

My Pictures
Cumberland Land Trust
Mercy Woods Trail Map

Trip Description from Explore Rhode Island

Warner Trail
Warner Trail Guidebook

Diamond Hill - February 20, 2021

Heading out

I was up before dawn and anxious to get outside after a long, stressful week at work. With 6’ of light powder on the ground from yesterday’s storm a hike seemed to be in order. There was no Papa Joe Hike this weekend, so I was on my own. I decided to head over to Diamond Hill.

Diamond Hill is a massive outcropping of white quartz located about a mile from my house in Cumberland on the border with Wrentham and Plainville. It’s 350-feet from the parking lot up to the top of the hill, which is actually 481-feet above sea level. It is said that on a clear day you can see the Boston skyline and Mount Wachusett from the top. I can’t say that I have ever seen either, but the views are great. Diamond Hill is also the southern terminus of the 33-mile Warner Trail that runs from Diamond Hill to Sharon MA.

Snow covered trails

Diamond Hill was named in colonial times for the sparkling flecks imbedded in the rock. In 1877 the Diamond Hill Granite Company established a quarry here, which can still be seen at the southern end of the hill. In the 1930's the Civilian Conservation Corps acquired the property and established the Diamond Hill Reservation. Eventually two ski areas would operate on 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 now owns the 373-acre Diamond Hill Park with 3.8-miles of hiking trails.

I arrived at the park just after sunrise. Temperatures were in the mid 20’s, and there was 6’ of light powder on top of a frozen base. I took my usual route through the woods to the right of the bandstand. The trail leads to the base of a huge cliff that was once an old quarry.

Top of the quarry looking north

At one time, you could climb the southern side of the quarry 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 quarry and accesses the ridgeline a little further to the north. I climbed up the southern side of the quarry anyway to get some pictures, and then worked my way back down.

I then followed the trail below the quarry up to the rocky crest overlooking Diamond Hill Road. From here, the trail runs about a mile to the north. 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.

Top of the quarry looking west

I took a break on the concrete footing of an abandoned chair lift before continuing along the ridge. There is a trail down the north side of the hill along the road, but I took the quick route down the sledding hill instead.

The loop is only a couple of miles long, but it seems like it is uphill all the way until you come to the big drop at the end.

Diamond Hill Road and the Wrentham hills to the north

Links:

My Pictures

Diamond Hill Trail Map

Diamond Hill Town Park from RI Blueways/Greenways
Warner Trail
Warner Trail Guidebook