I still have plenty of vacation time to use up. I had Friday off so I figured it would be a great day to finish visiting all of the four town points in MA. There are five "dry land" places where four towns meet, and one "water" point. Aims Coney (who goes way back to my orienteering days) suggested a paddle to the point on the Sudbury river and I figured I'd get the other two spots in the morning.
I was out the door at 5am but had trouble locating the trailhead for the Central MA rail trail in Rutland so I detoured to the Rutland State forest and the old prison camp. I got in a (dark at the start) 4.5 mile run on Prison Camp road with a couple of quick stops to check out the ruins.
After that I was off to the point where Oakham, New Braintree, North Brookfield, and Spencer meet. I couldn't park at the town line marker (narrow road) but found a drive way that looked fairly disused and I parked off to the side just in case. I figured I'd only be about 30 minutes anyway and it was still early in the morning. I jogged up to the town line and then entered the woods. There was a stonewall heading in the direction I wanted and usually walls are built on borders. The wall petered out in a wet area and I continued on. Near the lake, I picked up the wall again and then a narrow obvious trail. I wasn't 100 percent sure if I was far enough north, so I continued along the water until I saw that I was coming to the end of the lake. I returned to where I'd started which I confirmed was pretty much the right spot. No marker was visible. I headed off on the path that got wider and eventually brought me to the dirt/grass driveway I'd parked at.
Next up was a long drive through Worcester and all the way to the outskirts of Boston. Specifically the point where Boston, Milton, Canton, and Dedham meet. There was a cool trail here called Burma road, that was an old road that was saved from being turned into a highway and instead was turned into a wildlife area. I did not encounter anyone else as I ran the 2 mile long "road" of grass/dirt. I scouted out a possible trail along the river and then headed back to an open meadow that would be close to my goal. The footing was a bit rough and I had to push through some thorns to get to a little path along the river. I'd later realize that the path ran the length of the river and I could have used that. Anyway, I only had about a tenth of a mile on the path to reach the monument (new one). Then it was back over the bushwack and a final 1/2 mile run back to the car.
Later I got in a run on the MA Central rail trail in Wayland. This rail line ran from Boston to Northampton. I checked out a little section. Wow, 80 degrees in late October really hit me. I checked out the depot and even saw the old turntable.
My final adventure of the day was a canoe on the Sudbury. Aims coached me on working with him in the boat, but I only understood about half of what he was saying (and would forget most of the other half). He navigated us through this really nice section of river from Sherman's bridge to the point where the towns of Sudbury, Lincoln, Wayland, and Concord. We paddled into a spectacular late afternoon, finishing just before sunset.
