November 12th 2021: 2 Hikes in the Rain in Hopkinton

Today, I decided to go on two hikes in Hopkinton, even though it was raining. The first hike was to find Tomlin Pond, the route which I took from 35 North Street being shown below in pink.

Poorly maintained trails, and naturally I got lost, going back over the same paths and thrashing to try to find the right paths, emerging at an old pumping station at 53 Fruit Street,

but somehow I managed to eventually get to Tomlin Pond itself, which though different from the surrounding wetlands, was really not worth the trouble.

In order to get out of the area, I headed into the nearby private property on Victory Lane, and dropped my phone and camera in my rush to get out of the area, not realizing till shortly after. In my fear of having dropped it in the hiking area, I rushed back into the wilderness, but after not being able to find it in the leaves, by a stroke of luck, my phone torchlight was on, and I saw the glint in the grass, and shortly after I stumbled over my camera as well. That was a little scary to lose both items on the same day. 

With that, I walked all the way back along the road to my car, which was parked in the woods right next to a house. As I pulled out, the owner looked at me in a surprised manner. Glad he did not chase after me. 

From here, I decided to head to nearby Whitehall State Park to find a water body here, where the path I took from 160 Pond Street (another illegal parking stint) is shown below in pink.

  Nice views of Whitehall Reservoir from the trail, 

and my objective for the day was not bad too.

From here, I headed to Marlborough for a quick lunch at Kinzen, a new ramen place at 197 Boston Post Road West in the town of Marlborough.

I decided to get the Tonkotsu Ramen (pork broth, chashu pork (marinated braised pork belly), menma (Japanese bamboo), wood ear mushroom, scallion and black garlic oil),

which was really flavorful, especially the melt in your mouth pork belly. Definitely coming back again.