This past Saturday we spent a few hours hiking the trails of Borderland State Park, in Sharon, MA. Of the places we’ve been recently I can’t say it’s my favorite–that’s probably at least partly due to the huge number of mosquitoes and horseflies–but it was a nice day in the woods and was much better than the next day’s trip shopping.
Most of the activity of the park takes place around the ponds.
However, the land was once primarily agricultural. The forest itself looks new and some fields are still mowed.
We saw a turtle…
…and a frog. Not a lot of wildlife (a few birds).
But we did see a deer. Yeah, the park’s in Sharon and deer a nuisance throughout the Boston suburbs, but it’s cooler when they’re in the woods. We startled her at about 10 yards, and she quickly bounded up a small hill and watched us from about 50 yards. This was my first opportunity to use the new 125mm Sigma lens I’d bought when I couldn’t have just gotten closer.
Finally, since it’s been damp here in Boston and it’s that time of year, we saw a lot of these fungus flowers. Good stuff!
What a nice hike that was! And such nice pictures you took!
By: Carla on July 11, 2006
at 2:49 pm
[...] Two weeks ago we went hiking with some friends in Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, about 45 minutes west of Boston and a scenic drive along Rte 2. It was supposed to be brutally hot in the city and we hoped that the mountain would be cooler and less crowded than spots in southern New Hampshire. We covered about 4.5 miles in five hours of sometimes very difficult hiking. Unlike Borderlands, it wasn’t too buggy and we enjoyed well marked trails and varied topography. We look forward to returning. [...]
By: Joshua Herzig-Marx - Mt. Wachusett State Park on July 27, 2006
at 11:28 pm