July 3rd 2011: Eastern Second Circle

I started out at around 8 this morning, with my destination town being Clinton. Driving along Boylston Street in in Clinton, I saw several beautiful views of Wachusett Reservoir, shown below.

My actual destination was the Wachusett Dam which holds up the reservoir, and is located at the junction of Boylston Street with River Road. There are a few unmarked parking spots here, although I just decided to pull off on the side of the road when I spotted the dam. The top of the dam is no longer open to the public to walk across, but the views from there are pretty amazing as you will see below.

Walking down to the base of the dam was a pretty steep journey, but well worth the effort to see the fountain at the bottom.

Back on the road into downtown Clinton, before Boylston Street becomes Chestnut Street, I crossed a bridge with yet another beautiful view of the lake downstream of the dam.

Another water body in Clinton was South Meadow Pond, found along South Meadow Road near its intersection with Sprague Road.

Central Park in downtown Clinton is a beautiful place to have a picnic, with fountains and surrounded by many historical buildings.

Clinton Historical Society

Town Hall,
242 Church Street

Nypro Clinton

First Baptist and First Congregational
Churches

Museum of Russian Icons

War Memorial

The Foster House,
271 Church Street

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church,
132 School Street

St. John the Evangelist Church

Finally done with Clinton, I went to Berlin and was unable to find anything nice to capture there. I then remembered that I always passed by a particular unused bridge in Northborough that I always thought was nice but never took pictures of, so I went off in search of it, and fortunately happened to pass by it on the way to the town center. There happened to be a heron hunting for lunch in the Assabet River Reservoir beside Hudson Street over which the Wachusett Aqueduct Bridge spans, so I took some pictures of it too.

Wachusett Aqueduct

I also saw the war memorials on Pierce Street and Hudson Street.

Moving on, my trips through Hudson and Marlborough were pretty uneventful, and things got interesting only when I entered Southborough. Sudbury Reservoir was where I spotted my first swans, and I had some great scenes along Cordaville Road as well. Pictures follow.

Wildlife at Sudbury Reservoir

Views from Cordaville Road

The town common on Common Street and Main Street was pretty scenic as well, with the cannons, war monuments and historical buildings, although not quite as impressive as Clinton in my opinion.

War monuments at the town common

St. Mark's Episcopal Church

The last place I visited for the day was Hopkinton State Park in Hopkinton, which is mostly in Ashland. My advice is that you come early to this place, because it gets full of people very quickly because of the beach within the park, and by the time I arrived in the afternoon, they had closed off most of the roads. I had to park near the main entrance and walk the rest of the way. The route I took along the roads is shown below highlighted in pink.

 

I walked all the way to the swimming pond, which had a pretty good view of the dam from afar. There were a lot of families having barbecues and kids enjoying themselves on the beach and in the pond. I climbed up the dam to see the other side the Hopkinton Reservoir, and did not regret the effort. Pictures follow.

Views of the beach and the swimming pond from below

Views from atop the dam

Views of Hopkinton Reservoir

With all the walking I had to do at Hopkinton State Park, I decided to call it a day at 3 pm. Oh well, till Independence Day then.

July 2nd 2011: Venturing out into the Second Circle

I decided to take a break from traveling last week because I was studying for my online course which I just completed, so it was back to sightseeing this weekend. Since my last post, I realized that I was not done with Worcester yet. I decided to first visit the Bancroft Tower in Salibury Park early this morning. It sits atop a hill, and looks like a medieval castle, although from some viewpoints it seems to be in 2D. Some views follow.

The other place I was to visit in Worcester was the Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. However, as the visitor center would only open later in the day, I decided to head into Auburn first. Goddard Park on Auburn Street and Southbridge Street was first on my list. This park is dedicated to Robert H. Goddard, the inventor of the first liquid fueled rocket, a replica of which is at the park, together with a small scale model of a modern space shuttle rocket. This small park is by the Auburn Pond, which was really beautiful. Pictures follow.

First liquid-fueled rocket

Modern Rocket

Ducks at Auburn Pond

I visited a few other places today in Auburn, including the town offices at 104 Central Street, Eddy Pond on Central Street near the town offices, Dark Brook Reservoir along Leicester Street and Bryn Mawr Avenue, St. Joseph's Church,  and finally Crystal Caves Family Entertainment Center, which has a nice mini-golf section. I just did not think that mini-golf meant that the area would be mini as well.

Monument at Auburn Town Center

Eddy Pond

Dark Brook Reservoir

Crystal Caves Mini-Golf

St. Joseph's Church

It was back to Worcester after my Auburn visit, to visit the Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. It was $4 to enter for a non-resident. Isn't Shrewsbury close enough to be consider me as a resident too?? Guess not. This was my first trail since trekking in Hassanamesit Woods in Grafton. The route I took is highlighted in pink below.

Starting from the Conservation Center on Massasoit Road, I took the Sagatabscot Ridge Trail, then turned left onto Frog Pond Trail. As the name of the trail suggests, there was a little pond to the left of the trail, and I managed to catch sight of a few frogs out of the water.

From the Frog Pond Trail, I proceeded right along the Sprague Trail until the intersection with Holdredge Trail, upon which I turned right, and continued left onto Lady Slipper Trail when I came to it. At the next fork in the road, I took the right path, the Troiano Brookside Trail. Here, while walking along Broad Meadow Brook, was where I saw the most wildlife. Pictures follow.

Muskrat in the water

Heron

Walking to the end of the trail, I entered onto Hampton Street. Reluctant to go back the way I came with all the bugs coming after me, I found my way to Massasoit Road and walked the long way back to my car. All in all, I enjoyed my hike this time, mainly due to the wildlife I saw at the brook. While back out in civilization, I also spotted this interesting sight and captured a robin perched atop a mailbox with an interesting sign.

The next town I visited was Leicester. Although I visited several ponds, most of them were not very impressive, although I decided to take this picture of Waite Pond along Mannville Street.

The town of Paxton was next on my list for the day. Moore State Park is located here. The route I took is shown below in pink.

I started my trek here from the parking lot on Sawmill Road near the main entrance to the park at the road's intersection with West Street (Route 31). The Blackhill Road Trail leads through the woods to the Enchanta Trail on the right, which in turn goes back to Sawmill Road. Here the scene was quite beautiful with small falls and bridges at Eames Pond and Gristmill Pond.

Getting back into the woods by entering the Azalea Path, I saw an old sawmill, and there actually is an area with a solitary bench with a great view of the falls flowing through the sawmill. Judging from all the engravings on the trees surrounding the area, it is clearly a great place for a romantic evening. 

The old sawmill

The Azalea Path ultimately leads back to the Blackhill Road Trail, and that was it for Moore State Park and Paxton. 

The next few hours was spent in a fruitless search for interesting sights in Holden and Sterling. I finally found Sholan Park along Hall Avenue in Sterling. This is also the site of the Town Beach, which lies on East Waushacum Pond.

I decided to end my day after this, partly because I had not done any more research on other towns. Besides, there is still 2 more days to the Independence Day weekend, so there is still more to come.