Brophy Park up at the corner is Grand Central Station between six-thirty and seven-thirty in the morning and eight and nine in the evening. Prime time for dog walkies. That’s our schedule too. In general I try to make each walk a little different, and that’s easy enough around here.
Exploring
Ping at Pearce Lake
Ping inspires adventure. The other day we had walked to the end of Sumner Street where it meets up with Marginal Street. What a view of downtown Boston across the Harbor. Off to the right, generally west-ish, is the ICA WaterShed, DownEast Cider House, and Aloe Natural Açai and Coffee Shop. Beyond that is Piers Park and Lewis Wharf. I had no idea of turning left was even an option.
Harborwalk
Boston from Eastie
As it turns out, part of the Boston Harborwalk is off to the left. Initiated in 1984, the walk will be, at some point, a continuous 47-mile stroll along the piers, wharfs, and parklands that encircle Boston Harbor. East Boston is essentially one end of the hike. The other end runs through Dorchester into Quincy and terminates in Milton Village. Amazing. Friends of the Harborwalk provide maps. In Eastie, the Logan Hyatt Hotel is on the promontory where the Harborwalk starts—or ends—so Ping set that as our goal. It was a long walk. Once we arrived, we sat in some shade on the patio while I sipped on an outlandishly expensive glass of extremely ordinary white wine.
Damn, things change when you move away for thirty-five years or so.
A Community of Dogs
Dog people are extremely friendly. To each other’s dogs, anyway. On one crepuscular stroll, we met Ekso and his human, Josué. Ekso is a very substantial French bulldog; Ping didn’t find him all that interesting but both sat quietly while Josué and I chatted on a bench. Josué is an interesting fellow, had recently been in Paris on a business trip, and was full of suggestions. Rather than patronize the Shaw’s Market in Central Square—a grocery store that has certainly failed to impress—I should drive to Chelsea to the Market Basket. Apparently they have excellent produce. Also did I know about Breakheart Reservation up in Saugus? Dogs were welcome, there were all kinds of trails, and even a swimming beach.
I took notes.
A Change of Plans
Fox Run Trail
My niece bailed—again—on helping me inventory Pop’s archive materials, but I was half-anticipating that. I looked at the blue sky and decided an early afternoon on a Wednesday in September was prime time for a jaunt.
Breakheart Reservation is tucked into a suburban neighborhood at the end of a sort of cul-de-sac in Saugus. Ping and I arrived by the Visitor Center where a surly woman snarled that it was open. Uh, thanks. I extracted a map from the dispenser on the wall and excused us.
Fox Run Trail seemed like the shortest route to the beach area on the Lower Pond (aka Pearce Lake). From that point it may have been shortest, but it wasn’t easiest. A rocky and eroded path took us through a piney wood, up and down steep slopes. The highest point of that path was a modest 171 feet, But it was quite the hike for me and something of a challenge for Ping’s little legs. We finally emerged onto a paved road and soon found our way to the beach.
The Lower Pond
swimming beach
It was bliss: a beach with no swimmers, no picnickers, almost no visitors except for one or two who guarded their own solitude. Ping, it seems, is not a swimmer, or even a wader. She declined to dampen her toes or lean in for a sip of water. So we sat in the shade and recouped our strength, eventually returning to the car via the shorter end of the pleasantly flat Pine Tops Road.
I left the directions to Breakheart in the GPS. There’s another parking area over on Hemlock Road and some trails that look less strenuous. The crisp air and color foliage of autumn are on the way.