Continuing on where I left off
yesterday in Dedham, I headed to the
Wilson Mountain Reservation. There is no online map available, so I'll use a picture I took of the map at the entrance to the area. The route I took is highlighted in brown below.
From the parking area located at around 390 Common Street, I went up the only trail, heading to the left when I found the first fork, thinking it would lead me straight up the mountain, but when it didn't I realized I had gone up the wrong side of the of the trail, on the Meadow Path. Backtracking, I headed up the right trail this time, and when I found the next fork, I followed the blue and red marks up the mountain. At the top, however, the trail seemed to curve by the mountain top instead of going up it. I decided to head off trail to explore, but could not find any views here. However, as I headed down the red trail, dejected, I came upon a nice view of the Boston skyline, although not as good as in Weston or Waltham. I climbed up the big rock here, and took a few pictures.
From here, I headed down the Wilson Mountain Path to checkpoint 23, then 22, then all the way back to my car.
I saw that there was a water tower on the map as well, so I decided to go check it out by driving my car to the end of Westfield Street, where there is an entrance into the woods here. I failed to find the water tower on the first pass, walking down the wrong trail, the Long Path, all the way back to the Swamp Trail. Realizing my mistake upon seeing the blue markings on the trees, I backtracked and found the correct Water Tower Path, but when I finally found the tower itself, it wasn't very impressive to say the least.
With that, I was done with Dedham and on to the town of Needham. The first place I went to was the
Charles River Peninsula, located on Fisher Street close to South Street, the bridge to Dover on which was closed for construction today. This place is a big open field which is on the shoreline of the
Charles River. The path I took in this place is shown below in pink.
While walking around the area, there were several good views of the river and the field, shown below. During this time, my camera's memory card also started to malfunction, and it was snowing a little heavier than it had been all winter so far, but luckily there was still no accumulation.
With my camera malfunctioning, I had to head into Dedham to go to the
Best Buy store there to get a new memory card. Thankfully, my camera started to function normally again after replacing the card, so I could proceed further with my day. I decided to head back into Needham for lunch at
Sweet Basil, a small Italian restaurant in the town center area of Needham. The starter was a little unique, with bread and a sort of pesto paste spread being served. I decided to have the lentil stew with cucumber yogurt for appetizers, which was pretty good and filling, and then I could not finish the equally delicious ziti tossed with roasted chicken and broccoli in a romano cream sauce. Unfortunately, the place only accepts cash or cheque.
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| Pesto Paste Spread |
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| Inside Sweet Basil |
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| My table |
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| Lentil Stew with Cucumber Yogurt |
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| Chicken Broccoli Ziti |
After my filling lunch, I decided to walk around the town center a little to take pictures of the buildings around here.
Statues at
Needham Town Common,
Highland Avenue and
Great Plain Avenue
After finishing the town center area, I headed to the
Ridge Hill area, located along Charles River Street close to Whitman Road, and after parking at the end of the road leading into the area, the path I took is highlighted below in black.
I headed up the North Trail to try to get to the Drumlin Trail, but the whole of the Drumlin Trail was so overgrown that I gave up and tried to head down the North Trail to find the other end of the Drumlin Trail, but once again it was overgrown. It was here that I decided to give up on the Ridge Hill Reservation completely.
I headed to the
Needham Town Forest. I first visited the Horsford Pond area on Marked Tree Road near Central Avenue.
Next, I headed to the High Rock area by parking my car at High Rock Street after its junction with Robinwood Avenue. The route I took is highlighted below in pink.
I had originally wanted to use the path right next to Robinwood Avenue, but I ended up parking my car at the High Rock Pond Entrance instead. Heading past High Rock Pond, I found an unmarked trail leading straight up the rock face, on top of which there was a great view of the surroundings.
Finally, I headed to the Farley Pond area on South Street close to Farley Pond Lane. The route I took here is shown below.
The pond itself was not very impressive though.
I then visited several other places in town before heading to the
Needham Reservoir behind the
Needham Department of Public Works.
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Rosemary Lake,
Rosemary Street near Tillotson Road |
At the Needham Reservoir, the route I took around the reservoir after parking behind the Department of Public Works is shown below in black.
Pictures from various vantage points around the reservoir follow.
Cutler Park on Kendrick Street near 3rd Avenue was the last place I hiked at today. The sun was already setting by this time, but I chanced it
like I did at
Oak Hill in Littleton. The path I took, which was basically going around Kendrick Pond, is shown below in pink.
Pictures of the pond from various vantage points follow, with the sun rapidly setting as I walked around the pond.
Finally done with sightseeing for the day, I headed for Indian cuisine at
Masala Art. This is a pretty fancy restaurant, and I enjoyed my dinner of Cauliflower Soup and Lamb Tawa Gosht thoroughly.
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| Chickpea and cumin chips starter |
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| Inside Masala Art |
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| Cauliflower Soup |
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| Lamb Tawa Gosht |
With that, I headed home for the day.
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