Lynn Woods

Anna and I didn't do a whole lot this holiday weekend... we stayed local, nerding out via War of the Ring, and drinking Planter's Punch to remind us of Jamaica, instead of watching fireworks. However, we did get some exercise and spend time in the sun(!!!) by going for a hike in Lynn Woods with another couple on Sunday. I didn't GPS it(left my Garmin at work) or take any pictures (didn't want to disrupt the flow of the hike), but I can give a short take: it's pretty nice! Only about 10 miles from Boston, it's easy to get to for us... though it's off of hellish Route 1, which I hate and fear almost as much as 93 South, which is saying something. For such a nice park, it was also not particularly crowded on the first nice sunny Sunday afternoon in weeks... though it's clearly a popular destination for dog owners.

You can get a trail map(PDF) from Friends of Lynn Woods, which you will definitely need. We're were trying to follow directions from a hiking book that were fairly vague, and if the other couple hadn't brought a map, we would have gotten pretty lost... not disasterously so... it's not that big of a park, but it's still annoying to not know which way to go. However, even with a map, the park is a little hard to navigate. It has a system of marking intersections of trails, but not every intersection is marked... or at least not obviously so. In addition, their blazing system seemed a little... haphazard. I think it might take a trip or two to really get your bearings, but it seems that if you lived nearby you could walk there pretty often and, because of the number of trails, not get bored.

It doesn't have a lot of elevation or steep inclines, but you do get some views of Boston if you hit Mount Moriah and Steel Tower, and you can trek close to the various ponds. While there are flat old roads that go throughout the woods (the most heavily traveled areas) you can pretty much avoid these and stick to rougher paths to get a nice secluded hike.

One thing I still don't get is what's the deal with Lynn having a Walden Pond? If the real one is in Concord, isn't putting one in Lynn just being mean to tourists?

Photo by flickr user d4vidbruce used under a Creative Commons license