Exploring Massachusetts: September 23rd 2011: Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Haynes Meadow, Sudbury

Friday, September 23, 2011

September 23rd 2011: Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Haynes Meadow, Sudbury

Today after work, I decided to finish hiking in the town of Sudbury. The first place I went to was the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Sudbury, found at the end of Weir Hill Road. Being in the evening, I decided not to hike the trails, as there apparently was not much good views, except of the meadows from the observation center, so I decided to take my pictures from there.

I then proceeded to Haynes Meadow Conservation Land. It started drizzling at this point. I parked in the dead end portion of Blueberry Hill Lane. The route I took is highlighted below in pink.

The start of the hike looked promising as I headed down to the bridge with the Wet Meadow on the left and Hop Brook on the right.

The Wet Meadow

Hop Brook

However, I could not find the trail to get me to the next viewpoint, the glacial esker, from where I was. I decided to head back out to Blueberry Hill Lane to find the other trail entrance. Not successful once again. I then walked all the way out to Peakham Road try to find the trail perpendicular to the road leading straight to the esker as indicated in the map, but once again, everything was so overgrown that I could not find it. I mistakenly ended up going down the gravel driveway thinking it was the trail, ending up at the pond instead. There is supposed to be another trail leading to the esker here. Once again, so overgrown that I could not find it.

Dejected and getting drenched in the rain, I ended up walking all the way back to Blueberry Hill Lane, where I discovered the trail to head up the esker purely by chance, except that more disappointment was all I got when there was nothing to see at the top of the esker.

The only saving grace of the night was that I had a great dinner at Ten-ichi Dynamic Kitchen, a Japanese Chinese fusion restaurant with great decor with a good friend of mine. They serve dimsum including xiao long bao, a meat dumpling filled with broth, which is one of my favorite chinese dishes, and all sorts of sushi rolls which we tried. I'm definitely coming back here again.