Today, I decided to start by finishing up Wayland. One interesting thing I saw was a fake witch being hauled into a chiropractic's office on by two fake firemen on Old Sudbury Road.
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War memorial outside Wayland Town Hall,
41 Cochituate Road |
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| Scene outside Chiropractic's office |
The next town on the list was Natick. My first place of visit was
Lake Cochituate. I viewed it from many points in Natick.
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View from Camp Mary Bunker,
End of Megonko Road |
The next place I visited was
Pegan Cove Park, which is also on the shores of Lake Cochituate. The parking can be found on Washington Avenue between Bellevue Road and Hunters Hill Court. The rough path I took is highlighted below in pink.
The paths were unmarked, so naturally I got lost quite a few times walking here. My first picture was of the commuter rail.
From here, I headed back to find the shore, where I got little disoriented. A few people, including a group of teenagers and and a photographer helped me get back on track.
I finally managed to find the bridge across Pegan Brook.
From here, I just stuck close to the shoreline, and I took some pictures along the way.
Along the way, I happened to spot a garter snake slithering away from me, and when it stopped to hide in the grass, I was able to capture a few pictures of it.
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| Snake tail |
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| Snake head with flash |
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| Snake head without flash |
I finally managed to emerge out to Lake Street after trespassing on private property, where the nice owner guided me to the road. From here, I headed to Lagrange Street and then back to Washington Avenue, where I walked back to my car.
After this, I drove around to see a few interesting buildings and places in town before heading to the town center.
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Memorial Beach on Dug Pond,
Windsor Avenue and West Street |
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Henry Wilson Memorial Building,
Mill Street and West Central Street |
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Old Sacred Heart Parish,
19 Eliot Street |
The historic center, with the town common on the corner of South Main Street and East Central Street, was a really beautiful place, especially the stretch of East Central Street with all its historical buildings. Pictures follow.
Historic Natick
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| Natick Town Common |
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War Memorials,
South Avenue and North Main Street |
The next place I went to was the South Natick Dam on the
Charles River at the corner of Mill Lane and Eliot Street, which is right next to the
Bacon Free Library. Pictures follow.
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| Bacon Free Library |
After a good burger lunch at the
Met Bar and Grill in the
Natick Mall, I headed to the
Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary. The route I took is shown below, highlighted in pink.
From the parking lot I followed the Marsh Trail. At this point, I did not know how to read my map. I intended to find the walkway across the wetlands, and thought I had found it while being on the All-Persons Trail. The views I got there were not very impressive.
When I ended up back at the start, I thought it weird that the walkway was so short, so I decided to explore a little more, this time heading to the Indian Brook Trail, then left on the Glacial Hill Trail, then left again on the Swimming Frog Trail to complete the loop. Here, I finally found the walkway in question, and the views here were nice.
With that, I was done with Natick. On to Sherborn. The town center was first, with a few buildings of interest there, though not as nice as in Natick.
The next place I went to was the
Peace Abbey. Here, there is a statue of
Emily the Sacred Cow and Mahatma Gandhi, among other monuments.
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| Emily the Sacred Cow |
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| Mahatma Gandhi |
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| War Memorial |
One more interesting monument I found was a toy soldier statue outside
Sherborn Inn.
I went hiking next at
Rocky Narrows, the parking area being around 100 Forest Street, close to its junction with Lake Street and East Goulding Street. The route I took is highlighted below.
From the parkinglot, I chose to head to the right path first going to checkpoints 8-12 in that order. Although every few trees along the road were marked with red paint, the checkpoints were actually more useful in telling me where I was in this big area, as I took a long time just to get to Checkpoint 9. At checkpoint 12, there was an unmarked trail heading all the way up the hill, so I decided to head up it and was pleasantly rewarded with a view of the railway below.
From here, I headed back down to the main trail, knowing I was on the right path when I found checkpoint 14. From here, I turned right to head to the King Phillips Overlook. Here is a rocky outcrop with great views of the surroundings.
From here, I headed back the oother way to Checkpoint 15, and on all the way to checkpoint 17. Here, I went to the Rocky Narrows Overlook, where there wasn't really much to see, except like at
Leominster State Forest in Westminster, I was always one misstep away from falling down to my right in this stretch of the trail. Unfortunately, after passing through this treacherous area, I got lost, but somehow I managed to emerge at checkpoint 21 sometime later. From here, I was able to head all the way back to my car.
The last place I visited today was the Leland Mill Pond. This nondescript place was a little hard to find, being on Mill Street between Hollis Street and Nason Hill Road. When I finally found it, it was nearly dark, but I still managed to capture nice pictures of the pond itself and the nearby dam.
With that, I was done for the day.
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