Backpacker Magazine – September 2010

Local Hikes: Boston, MA

The best hikes near Boston.

by: Casey Lyons

Tags:
• Massachusetts
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• Destinations
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Your Guide
Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston (amcboston.org)

Your Hikes
» Sanborn-Graham-Vetter Loop, Ward Reservation Cruise over hills with views of Boston’s Prudential Center, and pass farmland, iconic 18th-century stone walls, and a rare quaking bog (trees growing out of a floating, movable raft of vegetation) on this close-to-metro circuit hike. “This is classic New England countryside,” says AMC staffer Chris Gaudette. “It’s most beautiful right after the year’s first snowfall, like something out of Walden.” Miles from city center 25; Trip ID 775330

» Piper Trail, White Mountain NF Mt. Chocorua (3,500 feet) is the first peak to rise in the southern Whites—and the closest to Beantown. The best way to see it? The 8.6-mile Piper Trail. As you ascend 2,700 vertical feet, “vegetation falls away and rocks become more slabby,” Gaudette says. “The upper portions of the summit are totally exposed rock.” Full-circle views atop the pyramid include the Sandwich Range’s 4,000-footers, and Lake Chocorua at the edge of central New Hampshire’s Lake Country. Miles from city center 123; Trip ID 775332

» Welch-Dickey Loop, White Mountain NF Entry-level terrain with expert-caliber scenery—that’s the promise of this 4.4-mile, dual-summit hike in the southwestern foothills of the Whites. Ascend under hardwood canopy, then it’s all granite ledges to the summit of 2,605-foot Welch Mountain. Minimal exposure and easy scrambling broaden the appeal. Miles from city center 124; Trip ID 775333



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