By Samantha Drumm
Hometown Weekly Staff
With spring finally at our door, we’re excited to greet the warm weather by spending some extra time outside exercising.
The Hometown Weekly is excited to kick off spring with a new series exploring local hikes and walking paths and sharing them with our community.
This week, we visited one of Medfield’s beloved reservations: Rocky Woods.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the miles of trails meandering through Medfield’s woodlands, you may be surprised to learn of the land’s history.
According to the Trustees of the Reservation, Massachusetts’ largest non-profit conservation and preservation organization, the Rocky Woods was initially used for timber as Medfield budded in the 18th century. In the early 19th-century, the network of logging trails was used to haul away granite slabs quarried from a hillside west of Chickering Pond. The granite was reportedly used from 1825 to 1826 to build the Dedham Courthouse.
In the late 1920s, Dr. Joel Goldthwait began buying woodlots in Rocky Woods. He created riding and walking trails through some 300 acres of woodland, which he donated in 1942 to establish the Reservation.
The reservation, which now boasts six and a half miles of trails winding through 491 acres of varied terrain, Rocky Woods is a year-round destination for outdoor lovers and a prized habitat for songbirds, bullfrogs, beavers, and painted turtles. On our brief walk, we saw a Bufflehead—North America's smallest diving duck with distinct black and white coloring and a striking white patch on the back of its head.
Visitors can hike the three-quarter-mile loop around Chickering Pond–the largest of the reservation’s five man-made ponds, which offers catch-and-release fishing. The Chickering Pond Trail, which feels like a more nature-laden way of taking a walk around the block, is a great walk in a pinch if you’re trying to squeeze in an after-work hike before the sun sets, or are looking for a family outing.
The Trustees' site offers that if you’re looking for a longer trek, you can take the Mine Hill Loop, which circles 420-foot-high Mine Hill Ridge.
Another option, which we took on our hike, is walking the Chickering Pond Trail in tandem with the Tower Trail–aptly named for the fire tower that once stood at the trail’s summit.
According to AllTrails–a handy app that allows users to track their hikes and look up local trails–the Tower Trail offers a good workout, with roughly 170 feet of elevation. The full walk from the car park is nearly 200 feet of elevation, offering a mile and a half hike that typically takes under an hour. Despite the short time commitment this hike demands, we still found ourselves huffing and heaving as we made our way up.
From the top of the trail, hikers can enjoy expansive views stretching 10 miles, and even spot Gillette Stadium over the treetops. The summit of Cedar Hill, located 435 feet above sea level, is also a prime spot for walkers to watch the sunset.
From here, walkers can amble along a trail to a former quarry site or explore five ponds that dot this woody landscape.
For those familiar with these aforementioned trails, walkers can alternatively explore Echo Pond for a diversion from these other popular paths. Here, walkers can trudge across the bridge, and in the spring, see an expanse of lily-pads and algae covering the pond as frogs flit in and out of the water.
If you’re really looking to ramble on, AllTrails also offers a Rocky Woods “Mega Trail,” stretching for nearly five miles and climbing 500 feet.
The breadth of hikes meandering through the woodlands is what makes Rocky Woods so special–you can stop by for a 45-minute meander, or spend 5 hours hiking your heart out.
But hiking is just the tip of the iceberg at Rocky Woods.
The space offers picnic tables on the water, a covered terrace, campsites, volleyball courts, and horseshoes.
Mountain biking is permitted on designated trails when the trails are dry, boating is allowed with on-site rentals (offerings include canoes or kayaks), catch-and release fishing is allowed (likewise with the option for onsight rental), ice-skating is permitted when posted, seasonal bow-hunting is allowed with authorization from the Trustees, and, of course, your four-legged friends are allowed to roam free off leash on dog-designated trails.
Members of the Trustees of the Reservation can reap the benefits of supporting local conservation land with discounted rental rates and cheap access to the 120 Trustees conservation sites (including hikes, historic homes, and more) throughout Massachusetts. At Rocky Woods, parking is free for members or just $6 (well worth the time you can spend exploring here) for non-members.
The spot, open year-round from sunrise to sunset, has endless and evolving offerings throughout the year.
In the winter, the paths were home to wooden reindeer made by Medfield’s Boy Scouts. This week, the framed storybook pages that dot booths along the path geared towards younger hikers were from a Saint Patrick’s picture book, but in the height of winter, it was Jan Brett’s beloved story, The Mitten.
Located at 38 Hartford Street in Medfield, Rocky Woods is a space that keeps on giving. If you haven’t celebrated spring with the season's inaugural hike, Rocky Woods is one of many wonderful reservations in our area to start spending more time outside.
If you are an avid hiker and a fan of the Hometown Weekly, we’d love to hear from you! Send your favorite local spots to samantha@hometownweekly.net, and we can feature them in future Where to Walk pieces.
