Yesterday, 23 hikers set off from the Lincoln border on a 9.3-mile tour of Weston with an ultimate destination of Carisbrooke Reservation in Wellesley. Most of the walk followed Weston’s Green Corridor–the leafy left side of the map where one can walk trails rather than roads from north to south–until you hit route 30. Not to get into it again, but not sure why the south side gets that “desirable” moniker when the green is all top left. Fine, let’s fight later–rumble at the chimney in Nolte at 2 pm.

The group did not always stick together but had some interesting twists and turns and hiker pick-ups and drop-offs. A miscommunication at the start left one hiker on a mission to find us–meeting the group on the crossover from Ogilvie to Jericho. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Come outside and play with WFTA sometime.

The path took the hikers from Ogilvie Town Forest, crossing Sudbury Road and into Jericho Town Forest (the largest conservation property in Weston at 547 acres) on the Bay Circuit Trail. We then crossed the rail trail, and with the help of Weston Police, stopped traffic on Route 20 briefly as we crossed into the trails behind Buckskin and Westerly. Crossing Audubon, we were into Nolte Forest and the Bungalo [sic] chimney story-telling, and then a stop at Sunset Corner for a view of Wachusett and some snacks. The group was then off down the hill through Highland Forest (second largest conservation property and technically central not desirable south or coveted north. I need a new descriptor–help me out, real estate agents everywhere).

And this is where trail walking came to a screeching halt. You cannot get from Highland Forest down to more green space at Norumbega without sidewalk time. Well, I suppose you could walk through the high school greenery but really, that’s just fluffery. Someone give WFTA a trail easement from Route 30 to Norumbega or Oak Street. Thank you. So down the sidewalk to Norumbega, across Oak Street and into WFTA’s Hubbard Forest then finally a stroll across Glen Road, through the back trail at the Bates home to Bates Woods. All walkers touched a Wellesley stone at Carisbrooke Reservation, did a tree pose and then headed back for cider donuts and snacks at the home of Nancy Bates, WFTA trustee. Many thanks to Nancy and Cindy for yummies at the end of the trip. Final trip time: 3:32 minutes moving, 20 minutes for lunch.

If you followed along, you will note that you can walk north to south in Weston crossing very few roads: let’s get mathy and count. Sudbury, Route 20, Audubon (we could have avoided this one actually), Highland, Route 30, Oak, Glen. So 7 roads, and you could do it with 6. That’s cool. Y’all can thank your predecessors in this town for saving, buying, borrowing, begging for these 2000 acres of conserved land.

Thank you to all the hikers yesterday who earned WFTA pins for the completion of the hike–yes we did lose two hikers along the way, not to injury but to other commitments. See you next year when we either do Wayland-to-Newton or try to hit every town that borders Weston or run this one south to north or do aquaduct trails. Hmmm. So many possibilities.

Get outside.