July 8th 2012: Hiking the Skyline Trail at the Blue Hills

I had to get up early today to help my chef friend film a cooking audition video at his home in Malden, where he made a Tuna Tart. The hard part was, we could only do the recording once through, as he did not have enough ingredients for another tart, but I have to say that we both did a really good job, although I felt I was a little fake in my talking at times during the video. The tart looked really tasty, but as the tuna was not really fresh, my friend decided to dump it instead of eating it.

From here, I had to rush to the Blue Hills Reservation Visitor Center in Milton, where I was trying to spot cars there for the purpose of the hike I was going to do today. Unfortunately, 2 out of 3 of my friends who were supposed to park their cars here ended up being late and I had to send them to the starting point at the Shea Skating Rink in Quincy instead. Thankfully, at least one of my friends did come in the end, and after parking her car at the Houghton's Pond parking lot, I drove her to the starting point as well.

Everybody else were already waiting by the time we got there, and after handing out the copies of the map that I had, we were off on the first stretch of the hike, which went from here to the visitor center in Milton.

The path we took here, a 5+ mile trek along the Skyline Trail, is shown below in pink.

There were several great views from the top of the various hills we passed by along the way, the first being Rattlesnake Hill, where there is a small water body here.

Other peaks with good views of the Boston skyline included Wampatuck Hill, Nahanton Hill and Buck Hill, although after a while of seeing the same views, it actually got a little boring at times. I had wanted to bring them to the Norman Smith Education Center, but this time the gate was chained up. Guess someone knew what I was up to yesterday. Oh well, guess I could not show them the best views here. The views we did get to see follow.

Blue Hills Reservoir in the Distance

Boston skyline in the distance

We were a little hurried in our hike because we had a 4 hour time limit to reach the end, and every time we checked where we were along the way, it seemed that we were always behind where we thought we were at that time. However, it was quite a surprise when we finally reached the end at the visitor center, and we were actually half an hour early. We were all pretty exhausted though, and somewhat wary about continuing the next part of the Skyline Trail to the top of Great Blue Hill.

Thankfully, the people who we were supposed to meet there for the next part of the hike did not show up at all, so we all made a decision to call it a day for hiking, heading to N&H Saigon Sub in Randolph for a bit of food instead. As we had not enough cars to go around, some of us had to do multiple trips between the start and end point to pick people up. As a result, my friend and I were the first ones at the restaurant, so we decided to get smoothies. She got a mango smoothie while I decided to go for something more exotic: a durian smoothie. All the smoothies were actually made with real fruit, right in front of us, so they were actually healthy, and really good of course.

Durian Smoothie

The rest of the group finally came soon after, and upon recommendation from the owner, excited to see so many people arrive, I got the Pork Banh Mi Sandwich, which was actually the first and the best Banh Mi sandwich I have ever had.

As the owner was really happy that we were very inquisitive about how he got into the restaurant business, and that we enjoyed his food a lot, he actually allowed us to sample some of his herbal tea, which was actually too sweet for my liking, but still refreshing all the same.

After an enjoyable lunch, everybody decided to call it a day. Sunset was still several hours away, so I actually decided to continue the rest of the Skyline Trail, much to the chagrin and amazement of the other people who had hiked with me the entire day. When I finally got back to the visitor center in Milton, I had such a hard time looking for parking, as everyone had decided to enjoy a day at the beach at Houghton's Pond.

I soon resumed the second part of the hike, with the trail I took being shown below in pink.

I decided to take the lower path first, but there was nothing much to see until I reached the Eliot Tower, where there was a nice stone bridge going across to the tower in question, where the views from the top of it were definitely much better than what we had on the hike.

The Bridge

Eliot Tower

Going up the stairs

Views from the tower

From here, I decided to go of to the left to visit the weather observatory, where there were fantastic views as well.

The Observatory

Meteorological Records Etched in Stone

Weather Tower

Views from the observatory

Finally going back past Eliot Tower and continuing my trek back to the visitor center, I finally had nice views from atop Hancock Hill. Pictures I took here follow.

When I finally got back to my car, I was actually pretty tired by then, but as it was still daylight, I still wanted to do a little more sightseeing before using one of my Livingsocial deals. My final destination for the day was Curry College. Even though this is a private college, the guard at the gate let me through when I told her I was just looking around. I decided to drive around to visit all the buildings, although by the end of it I felt that there were not many interesting buildings around. The pictures I took here follow.

South Campus Residence Hall

Student Center

College Emblem

Levin Library

State House

Finally done with my sightseeing for the day, I had a tough time deciding where to go for dinner. I finally settled on Jin's Asian Cuisine in Wellesley. This place is pretty nice in terms of decor, and the food I had was really good as well.

I got the Golden Nugget Roll, consisting of Shrimp tempura and flying fish roe topped with baked squid, crab stick, scallops and scallions with spicy mayonnaise. The presentation of the roll was pretty interesting, and tasty as well. My main dish was a Chinese one, the Curry Boneless Duck which came as a surprise to me, as it was served in a flaming paper wok atop of an interestingly designed burner.

Golden Nugget Roll

Curry Boneless Duck

My fantastic dinner capped an excellent day of hiking with friends. I look forward to the next event.