53 CALLAHAN STATE PARK HIKE

KEY AT-A-GLANCE INFORMATION

LENGTH: 7.37 miles

CONFIGURATION: Double loop

DIFFICULTY: Easy to moderate

SCENERY: Woods, reforested farmland, a working farm, a kettle pond, and an earthen dam

EXPOSURE: Mostly shade

TRAFFIC: Moderate

TRAIL SURFACE: Packed earth with some rocky areas and mud in wet seasons

HIKING TIME: 2.5–3 hours

SEASON: Year-round sunrise–sunset

ACCESS: Free

MAPS: Maps are available from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Web site, www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/call.htm, and on location as supplies last.

FACILITIES: None

SPECIAL COMMENTS: The park is a favorite destination for mountain bikers, horseback riders, and cross-country skiers.

WHEELCHAIR TRAVERSABLE: No

DRIVING DISTANCE FROM BOSTON COMMON: 25 miles

Callahan State Park Hike

UTM Zone (WGS84) 19T

Easting: 296328

Northing: 4689813

Latitude: N 42° 20' 02"

Longitude: W 71° 28' 20"

Directions

From Boston, take Interstate 90 west 11.9 miles then merge onto Worcester Road via Exit 12 toward Marlboro. After 1.7 miles bear left onto the Pleasant Street Connector, which becomes Firmin Avenue. Continue 0.1 mile then turn right onto MA 30. At 0.7 miles turn left onto Pinehill Road. Turn right onto Parmenter Road which shortly becomes Edmands Road. Continue 0.1 mile and turn right to stay on Edmands Road. Parking for the Sudbury Valley Trustees and Bay Circuit Trail trailhead is at Stearns Organic Farm on the right.

IN BRIEF

This rather long hike is composed of two distinct halves. Of the two, the northern half is the more rugged and less frequented: The southern side has woods, wetlands, and tracts of meadowland—some of which are still used for agriculture.

DESCRIPTION

As interpreted by Arthur Miller in his play The Crucible, Thomas Danforth was a hard, self-interested man with little to no compassion, but to others, including his colleague Judge Samuel Sewell—who credited Danforth with “[doing] much to end the troubles under which the country groaned in 1692”—Danforth was not just admirable but a man of great merit.

Regardless, Thomas Danforth was one of America’s first self-made men. Orphaned with the rest of his five siblings at age 15, three years after arriving from England, Danforth never went to college yet rose to become a justice of the Supreme Court, president of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, and deputy governor under Simon Bradstreet. Further, by way of political savvy and hard work he expanded his father’s relatively modest land holdings to more than 15,000 acres. Initially known as Danforth’s Farm, Danforth eventually renamed his property Framingham after Framingham, England. Recognizing the futility of attempting to tend his vast holdings alone, Danforth recruited people to help by allowing them to establish homesteads and to cultivate the land rent free for a prescribed length of time. By 1699, on Danforth’s death, Framingham supported 70 families.

From the parking area at Stearns Farm, locate the trailhead by hiking northeast past greenhouses, tool sheds, and an herb garden to find a Sudbury Valley Trustees’ kiosk under trees on the edge of the farm. Entering from the north, the Bay Circuit Trail carries on its way, traveling directly south from Edmands Road along a centuries-old cart road. Follow this route past aged oaks and other hardwoods as the road parts cultivated fields and horse pasture making its way to woods.

Seepage from brooks threading through the area makes for muddy conditions as the trail leaves cleared land. The first junction comes beyond a footbridge. Here the Bay Circuit Trail swings decidedly right on a westward run, but quit this trail and bear left to continue south.

Cutting a 5-foot-wide swath through hemlocks clutching at a rocky hillside, the trail rises on an even grade above a sunken floodplain to the east. Various paths divert to the left or right from this main trail, but resist their pull and continue south to Packard Pond. At the three-way intersection ahead, bear left away from the hill. Crossing a brook via a small footbridge, the trail bears left at another split and passes a farmhouse. Unkempt orchard follows next, and beyond feral fruit trees tangled with bittersweet and brambles, the trail gains definition upon reaching a great undulating meadow tamed by regular mowing.

Follow the trail as it scales the hillside next to woods to arrive at a four-way intersection just off the park’s south entrance and parking lot. Bear right away from the earthen dam and follow Moore Road downhill into a verdant basin.

Dipping to its lowest point, this no-nonsense gravel road meets Baiting Brook then cuts a straight line past Eagle Pond and open meadow to enter woods. Immediately after a boardwalk across a muddy zone, the trail splits at a V. Bear right here and hike north beneath tree cover along the edge of the adjacent meadow on the Juniper Trail.

Beyond a bridge spanning a brook that feeds into Eagle Pond, the liberally marked Deer Run Trail bears gently left. Its dual blazes (blue and red) indicate that both hikers and equestrians are welcome.

Traveling over level ground, the trail passes through woods that, though not completely devoid of hardwoods, are by and large composed of pine—a clear indication that the landscape is reforested farmland. Now and again a strand of stone wall materializes amid the maze of standing and fallen trunks.

Shortly after encountering the Fox Hunt Trail running east to west, the Deer Run Trail briefly departs state-owned land and crosses another parcel owned by the Sudbury Valley Trustees. Here a sign informs hikers that, because of wear and tear, the trail has been temporarily rerouted.

Laid out by Eagle Scouts assisting in the restoration project, the detour through red maple wetland is clear and short. A hundred yards or so along, the new route ties in with the end of the old Deer Run Trail where a sign marks the start of the Rocky Road, a path that appears to split left and right. To shorten the hike by half, hike to the right on the true Rocky Road Trail, which travels 0.3 miles back to Stearns Farm. Otherwise, stay to the left, heading northwest on what, farther on, is identified as the Red Tail Trail.

Traveling across a drumlin’s gritty slope, the trail descends, swings west on a hairpin turn, then converges with the Bay Circuit Trail entering from the east. Continuing straight, the Red Tail Trail passes private property on upland to the west as it crosses level ground to reach a gate at Edmand’s Road.

From this understated entrance–exit equipped with little but a sign asserting the park’s rules and regulations, stride across the two lanes of pavement to a weed-filled field lying at the foot of a farmhouse. Look for the white blazes of the Bay Circuit Trail and a small sign bearing the silhouette of a backpacker, and follow the lightly etched trail as it curves west to the foot of Gibbs Mountain.

Where marauding bittersweet backs away from the hill and its front of granite, a state park sign lends a smidgen of comfort to the austere start of Backpacker Trail. Taking the mountain straight on, the trail ascends steeply at first then eases as it winds northeast on a horizontal plane, allowing hikers to take in the setting and its natural history.

St. John’s wort, mushrooms of the amanita family, and sassafras thrive on the sidelines in the spotty sunlight, each translating energy and nutrients into distinct and powerful chains of DNA. St. John’s wort heals, the destroying angel (Amanita virosa) kills—and sassafras makes a lovely tea.

Whereas the scent of cows wafts on the air in parts of the park’s more pastoral south side, the air of this—the distinctly wilder north side—carries not-so-subtle hints of carnivore musk: a blend of skunk, fisher, opossum, fox, and coyote, with a dash of bobcat.

Making its way downhill, the trail passes first a path to the left and then one to the right; note these but stay on course with the Bay Circuit Trail, which, at the second junction, bears left to round the mountain’s northern face. At the next intersection, which is poorly marked, the Bay Circuit Trail bears right to descend farther off the mountain. The seemingly more pronounced trail continues straight. Choose either route—they meet again farther on. To continue the hike as mapped, leave Bay Circuit Trail temporarily and bear left to travel south.

Just beyond a path cascading down a slope to the left, the trail arrives at a field. Climb along the narrow, lightly trodden route as it circumnavigates this grassland, first climbing to its high point then easing off to its western wooded border. At first glance this peaceful spot seems bereft of any living soul, which is quite to the liking of the bobolinks, bluebirds, goldfinches, and turkeys in residence.

When the path loops back north meeting the Bay Circuit Trail at a T, bear left, continuing westward. At the foot of a gravelly banking, the trail meets Beebe Pond, a picturesque glacial kettle hole neatly hidden among maples. Cross a causeway lined with hemlocks to reach a junction on the northwest side of the pond. Here, both the Bay Circuit Trail’s white blazes and the park’s blue markers lead uphill to the left.

Leveling off in a pine stand above the pond, the trail splits through one stone wall then tracks another out of the woods to a meadow. Hike left with confidence, despite a near-total absence of markers, and travel west along the meadow’s fringe. When the sunny grassland meets woods once more, follow as the trail leads down a gentle grade and corrects its course at a hairpin turn.

Spilling into a stone-wall avenue, the trail soon meets with the stark path of a power line. Jogging left here for no more than a moment, the route then exits to the north through another stone wall at the next immediate right. Until this junction, Bear Paw Trail (blue) and the Bay Circuit Trail travel as one, but here they part ways. Forgo the path bearing abruptly left; its destination is the distant Duxbury shore. Instead follow the path heading north, marked with a blue bear claw.

Easing down a slope riddled with stones and roots, the trail soon comes to an end at an unpaved service road. Continue across on a diagonal aiming westward to pick up Acorn Trail. Don’t look for a sign of any kind, for there is none—not for several hundred yards whereupon the trail is identified with a simple marker bearing a blue acorn.

Etching a thin line between a rugged rocky slope and wetland as it heads north briefly on its eastward course, the trail passes under boughs of white pine, oaks, maples, and hickories. The ample dog-ear leaves of sassafras saplings stir on the slightest breeze. Luxuriant ferns lace the air with the scent of baking oatmeal bread—or so says the nose of a hungry hiker.

Turning uphill to skirt swamp, Acorn Trail collides with Backpacker Trail. Bear right at this precarious junction and retreat downhill and across a stream. After some loopy turns, the trail straightens and travels south beside a stone wall. Tacking to the east, Backpacker Trail then passes through a lumber tract. The hardwoods were harvested long ago and replaced by fast-growing pines.

After threading through an abandoned homestead marked by fragments of stone walls and a cellar hole, the trail climbs the slope of an oblong drumlin lying crossways to the border of Framingham and Marlboro. Encountering an old north–south cart road on this hill of packed sand and gravel, Backpacker Trail accompanies it south briefly then departs east. Several undulations later it arrives at another junction at the base of Gibbs Mountain.

Having completed a loop, hike left to backtrack over Gibbs Mountain and Edmands Road to the park’s south side. Follow Red-Tailed Trail to the first junction and bear left onto Wren Trail (which serves as a section of the Bay Circuit Trail). Running east across a hillside, the trail passes several ghostly birches standing like beacons among the warm gray trunks of hardwoods.

Two more junctions break the rhythm, but stay on course with the Bay Circuit Trail to head east. At the second junction, where the route is splintered by the Pipeline Trail, hike uphill several feet to find the way marked by a white triangle. The last stretch is sketchy but short. At the final junction, bear left and follow white blazes back to Stearns Farm.

NEARBY ATTRACTIONS

Those making a weekend of it might like to visit the nearby Danforth Museum of Art. The museum is located at 123 Union Avenue in Framingham and is open Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday, noon to 5 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (508) 620-0050.