The Blue Hills

For our first hiking expediting, we chose the Blue Hills in eastern Massachusetts. It provided difficult terrain to challenge us, as well as a scenic landscape. Only two of us in the Operation: Washington crew were able to make it on this hike. It was myself and team leader, Mr. Baker. My girlfriend Michelle accompanied us.

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This map illustrates our route. Follow the spraypaint line. We parked in the lot by Houghtons Pond and took the Headquarters path to the South Skyline trailhead. From there, we hiked up Houghton Hill. Afterward, the terrain went up and down until the base of Great Blue Hill. At the top, we saw weather observatory and the WGBH (Great Blue Hill) TV tower. Once reaching that, we turned around and hiked over to the look-out tower. From there, we hiked down the North Skyline trail and covered three more hills, Wolcott Hill, Hemenway Hill, and Hancock Hill. Along the way, we found two geocaches. Once reaching the Reservation Headquarters, we took the Headquarters Path back to the Houghtons Pond parking lot.

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There are many steep climbs on this path. Though the hills are merely up to 635ft above sea level, the base elevations are only about 50 ft. It makes for a good training hike. This one was on the South Skyline Trail on Great Blue Hill.

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We found this on the Southern Skyline Trail on Great Blue Hill. We're not sure why "Hope" is written on it. There are so many interesting things to see out there.

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It's a blury pic but a good one. This is Chelle and I as we took a pit stop.

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This is the weather observatory at the summit of Great Blue Hill.

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"She said I think I'm goin to Boston" A view of Boston from the top of the look-out tower on Great Blue Hill. Below are other views from the tower.

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Chelle and me trecking down the trail.

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The first geocache that Mr. Baker found. It's a neat sport. This one was in an ammo box. They're well hidden and hard to find, even with the GPS. Chelle and me posed for the photo in back of the cache. Great pic.

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You may notice that team leader Mr. Baker isn't in any of these photos. Camera shy. We'll get him on the next trip, don't you worry. It was a beautiful day and a great hike. Not bad for our first expedition. I had no idea that there was so much open woodland that close to Boston. We didn't have a full team, but we will on the next trip I hope. The boys missed out on this one.