March 17th 2012: Hiking in Central Massachusetts on St. Patrick's Day

After a late night yesterday, I got up late today, and headed out for a day of hiking. Along the way to Marlborough, I decided to take a few pictures in Shrewsbury first.

First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury

Howe Memorial Library

War Memorial,
Main Street and Boylston Street

Starting with my day of hiking, I decided to head to The Grove Conservation Land in Marlborough, located at Bolton Street near Blaiswood Avenue, on the shores of Fort Meadow Reservoir. The views of the reservoir from the trailhead itself were fantastic.

Fort Meadow Reservoir

The route I took here is highlighted below in pink.

More views of the reservoir while walking my route follow.

However, I would recommend just viewing the reservoir from Bolton Street itself rather than hiking in the woods, as pretty much the same views can be had.

The next place I headed to was the Cider Knoll Conservation Land, located on Stow Road near Simpson Road. The route I took here, which was just to see the pond here, is shown below in pink.

The view of the pond was actually not too bad, especially for the short distance walked here.

Heading to the next town of Stow, I happened to pass by the Hudson Fire Department in Hudson

Hudson Fire Department

In Stow, my destination was the Delaney Wildlife Management Area, which straddles the Harvard and Stow border. I decided to visit the Stow side where the Delaney Dam is, the boat launch area being located on Harvard Road near Delaney Road. Right here, there are nice views of the Delaney Flood Control Site.

The route I then took is shown below in pink.

The pictures I took after arriving at the dam area follow.

From here, I decided to proceed into the Harvard side of the water body, and headed all the way to Finn Road, turning right to get back to Harvard Road, and heading back to the boat launch area for my car. Pictures I took in this stretch follow.

After getting back to my car, it was time to head to Harvard to do more hiking. The first place I visited was the Sprague Land, located on West Bare Hill Road near Still River Road. The views from the entrance itself were pretty good.

The route I took while hiking here is shown below in pink.

At the supposed viewpoint, I could only get partial views of Bare Hill Pond in the distance.

Hence, I would only recommend coming here for the scenery at the entrance.

While driving to my next destination, the CLAPP-SCORGIE-TUFTS-SMITH area in town, I happened by a few interesting buildings.

Harvard Historical Society

Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church

Immaculate Heart of Mary School

The CLAPP-SCORGIE-TUFTS-SMITH area is located along Still River Road between Prospect Hill Road and Turner Lane. The routes I took here is highlighted below in pink.

I initially parked on Turner Lane and was walking a little along the Tufts Trail when I decided that there would not be much to see in this section, so I decided to drive to the other parking area along Still River Road, and started off b going left onto the Clapp Trail. Folowwing it to the next fork, I decided to take the side trail to get to the viewpoint. Here, there is a pavilion from which there is a beautiful view of the surroundings.

The pavilion from the back

View from the pavilion

Walking back and down the other side of the side trail, I turned right at the junction to head south to try to get views of Bare Hill Pond, but only found a dried out portion of the pond here.

I failed to enter the loop section of the trail here, entering Willard Lane instead, so I decided to backtrack and head back to the Clapp Trail, onto which I turned right and continued to the Scorgie Trail, onto which I turned right as well to head to another fork, on which I took the right path to another view of Bare Hill Pond.

Heading back to the Scorgie Trail, I turned right and headed out to the main path, from which I turned right to get a last view of Bare Hill Pond at the shoreline.

From here, I took the main path back to my car, and then headed off to lunch at the Harley House Inn in Lunenburg. I had intended to use my Groupon for this restaurant, but as it was St. Patrick's Day, the restaurant actually had an all-day buffet, so I could not possibly spend $40 on food here when the buffet was less than half the price. The restaurant was nicely decorated for the occasion as well.

From the buffet table, there was a pot of Mulligan stew, so I decided to get some. It was ok, having a strong herby flavor, but I finished it all the same.

The rest of the dishes were served to me personally on request. The next dish on my table was an Irish Lamb Stew, which did not have much sauce, but it was extremely good.

Corned beef and cabbage was next, with beets, potatoes, carrots, turnip, horseradish sauce and mustard on the side.

It was okay, but a little too filling for me, so I ended up going straight to my dessert, trying the sherry cake with frosting on top, which was pretty good.

With tummy full, I decided that I would have to come back here again another time to use my Groupon.

The next place I went to was Mirror Lake in the Harvard portion of Fort Devens. When I arrived at the parking lot at the end of Mirror Lake Road, I realized that I had been here before in my initial tour of Harvard a few months back, although I only went to the beach area that time. This time, equipped with a map of the area, I proceeded as shown below in pink.

Walking along the paths, there were several good views of the lake shown below.

Seeing that there was no loop trail around the lake to get back to my car, I decided to stop proceeding further after going halfway, and backtracked to my car.

Next, I headed to Prospect Hill. The entrance to this place was really hard to find, being located in between private properties on Prospect Hill Road close to Depot Road. The location of it is at approximately 42 Prospect Hill Road. Upon entering the area, however, I realized that the trails were not properly maintained, and as there were only ledges here and not views, I assumed that they would all be surrounded by woods wth no views of the surroundings, so I decided to give up on exploring this area, heading to Hermann Orchard instead. The entrance to this place was also extremely hard to find, being along Ayer Road, really close to its junction with Mill Road, with the entrance being a small one-lane road going between two small hills. Once I discovered it, I decided to park along the side of Mill Road before walking into the area. The route I took is shown below in pink.

I headed all the way out to the orchard first, which was full of leafless trees, and walked around the perimeter until I reached the path into the woods, whereupon I proceeded into the woods for a short walk while it looped back onto the orchard. From here, I continued along the perimeter of the orchard to the viewpoint, where there were decent views of the surrounding from between the rows of trees.

From here, I proceeded back to the main trail, and I decided to head down the side trail to check the pond out, which actually was pretty scenic.

With that, I headed back to my car. At this time, I decided that it was time to head to my meetup dinner event at the Westford Grille in Westford. This place is pretty decent in terms of decor, and as it was St. Patrick's Day, there were only 3 people in total at the event, and we were all ethnically Chinese. As a result, half our conversation was in Mandarin. With regard to food, I ordered the seafood bisque, which was full of seafood and delicious and the grilled fillet mignon, which unfortunately was a little dry, even though I had ordered it rare. My 2 new friends ordered the grilled swordfish and the cedar plank salmon, which actually came on a piece of wood at an angle, an interesting presentation.

Seafood Bisque

Grilled Filet Mignon

Grilled Swordfish

Cedar Plank Salmon

With that, I was done for the day.