Wellesley MA trails?

[Dugan]

I am not shy to admit that I am thoroughly a country mouse. I love hearing coyotes sing at night and seeing moose tracks along my morning runs. I tease RnR about his urban east-of-495 heritage. As much as he was nervous about walking after dark to the tune of coyotes out here, I am nervous about finding trail networks east of 495, given that it must all be practically swallowed up by Boston.

With that said, if one were to live in the Wellesley MA area, where might one find trail networks? Preferably without too much driving (within 15 minutes), with trails friendly to creating routes of several miles, and areas that are relatively safe for someone running alone (sorry, Boo!)?

 

[DougPaul]

You might consider the Mt Misery/Fairhaven Bay area. (Just W of Walden Pond.) Some portions allow dogs. (MapSource gives a 19 minute drive time.) I've done several ~8mi hikes in this area and have seen runners.

Lots of info on the web--http://sudburytrails.info is a good source of trail info.

The above area is contiguous with the Walden Pond area (no dogs).

Doug

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

With that said, if one were to live in the Wellesley MA area, where might one find trail networks?

The generic answer to all such questions is "Ask Google"

Searching for wellesley ma conservation commission led, after a couple of clicks, to WELLESLEY TRAILS COMMITTEE. Repeat for neighboring towns.

This area is very rich in conservation land, you should find many options.

 

[una_dogger]

Get out! You and Ron have to move here so you and I can go to Cat Rock
Park with the doggies EVERY DAY after work!!!
(Weston)

 

[Amicus]

The Wellesley Trails Committee page linked by Mohamed Ellozy contains a further link to a page that describes the Charles River Link. This excellent trail, dedicated in 2009, runs for 16 miles from the Bay Circuit Trail in Medfield to Newton Lower Falls. From the latter end, it quickly enters Wellesley, and runs for seven miles over the Wellesley Hills toward the Charles. Its "founder" is a gentleman who has long been a leader of the Wellesley Trails Committee, and it includes some of the best hiking in Wellesley. While it is mainly in the woods, it does touch on civilization at a few points, including the campus of Babson College, where you can inspect what was for a number of years the world's biggest globe:

When I traversed the Link a few months after it "opened," I took a few more pictures that may give you some idea of it.

There are more good trails than you might expect in the neighboring towns of Newton, Weston, Dover, Sherborn and Lincoln, as well, with both on-line and paper resources to help you find them. Newton, for instance, publishes an excellent trail guide, which provides even more information than its informative trails website, while the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust publishes a big, full-color map showing all the many trails in that Town, which you can buy in the Walden Pond Res. bookstore in Concord, among other places.

 

[Dugan]

This is tentative, and would only be a temporary part-time move, but one that I can't consider if I couldn't find somewhere to get outside and away from pavement sometimes.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[mc.lynch]

Here are some more good choices that are very near Wellesley and have some parking. I’ve run all of them at some point in the past few years and found them all to be very safe. If you end up in the area and want someone to run with, let me know.
- Wellesley College trails around Lake Waban
- Hunnewell Town Forest in Natick
- Lyon Park and connected parks in Auburndale
- Cold Spring Park in Newton
- Noanet Woodlands in Dover
- High Rock Town Forest in Needham
- Rocky Woods Reservation in Medfield
- Weston Reservoir Trails

Also Blue Hills Reservation in Milton is only slightly farther than your 15 minute criteria and has many many miles of trails, many of them suitable for running.

 

[Dugan]

It's good to know there are some options considered safe. In researching the area, I found concerns about whether it was safe to run alone on some trails and recommendations to avoid solo runs on others. A whole different set of concerns than the close-to-home trails we frequent where we rarely see anyone at all!

Thanks for the offers of company too! I'll keep that in mind if I do end up out in the big city.

 

[Hikes with Hannah]

I'd definitely add Rocky Narrows in my hometown of Sherborn to the list - I used to walk and run there all the time, sometimes with a dog and sometimes by myself, and never had any issues. Parking is a bit limited, but it's also about a half mile from Farm Pond through some short trails separate from Rocky Narrows - great swimming from dogs as long as you stay from the real beach

http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/rocky-narrows.html

 

[nartreb]

There are lots of parks, but many of them are too small if you want to run more than a couple of miles without doing loops. If you don't mind a few road segments, you can string together decent mileage along the Blue Heron Trail on the banks of the Charles River - it's a paved bike path that runs from the Esplanade in Boston to ... actually I don't know how far it goes, but it passes through places like Norumbega Park and Cutler Park (though the Wellesley-Newton border is mostly one big gap).
Another good linear option (unpaved, which I prefer) is the aqueduct that runs across Echo Bridge in Hemlock Gorge: once you cross 128, the footpath is continuous through Wellesley; the only confusing part is where it curves around the Babson campus.

Those are flat, though. For hill running, head to the Blue Hills, Prospect Hill in Waltham, or take a longer trip to the Middlesex Fells.

Having lived in actual cities, I don't think twice about running alone in suburbs like Wellesley. Besides, any mugger has to catch up to me first

 

[Stan]

The Audubon Sanctuary on rt. 16 in Natick has a lot of nice trails. The Trustees of Reservations has trails in nearby conservation reserves, too. There are some peaceful paddles nearby, too, if you are into that ... the Charles, Sudbury and Assebet Rivers for example.