Ritzhikes

Where: Mt. Wachusett, Princeton MA When: August 12, 2026 With: Solo Another "I need some trail time" hike, which I combined with my "hike all the trails on Wachusett" (red lining) quest. I parked at the Visitor Center and headed north to the Donbrowo Trail, which ran up to the ski slope base area, where I made my way along the base area buildings and parking lot to the head of the Balance Rock Trail. At that point I found my trip tracking on OSM+ wasn't working (I'd neglected to upload map info when I got my new phone). I switched to Gaia, just to be sure I was on the right trail, then didn't use it for the rest of the hike. In fairly short order I looked up to see Balance Rock on the trail just ahead. I got up to it and turned on to the Old Indian Trail. Up until that point I'd been walking on new trails (for me), but now I was on paths I'd traveled before. My first hike, coming up on the Bolton Pond Trail , had followed the Old Indian Trail to ...

Where: Mt. Wachusett When: March 11, 2026 With: Solo Another "I need to get on a trail" hike. I'd missed an opportunity to go north to NH yesterday, so a short ride & hike at Wachusett was in order. I've been eyeing this hike for a week or so, and had the Westside trailhead parking already set up in my phone's navigation. I tossed my snowshoes into the car and off I went. The parking area was muddy, but plowed, and a truck was already there. I eyed the trail, trying to decide if it was worthwhile bringing the snowshoes. Then I noticed someone coming down the trail (the truck's owner). I asked him and he said there were some sections of deeper snow up above, so I kept the snowshoes lashed to my pack and started the climb. The trail was dirt and ice to start, and the Hillsound spikes I was wearing were helpful. There was a short, steep, rocky climb right away, followed by a more level section with a good amount of snow. It had the remnants of a snowshoe mono...

Where: Mt. Wachusett When: 14 August, 2024 With: Pete Johnson I'd mentioned the trails at Mt. Wachusett to my neighbor, Pete, and he was interested in checking them out. We met up while walking our dogs one morning and, having perfect weather and open schedules, decided to go. My new Subaru Crosstrek needed break-in miles, so I offered to drive. We took the Harrington Trail for our hike. Mid-day and mid-week, so there weren't a lot of folks joining us. We checked out the viewpoint near the top, then proceeded to the summit. There was a bit of haze, so Boston and the peaks in the distance (Monadnock) weren't visible. A group of special needs students were enjoying the view from the towers when we arrived, but soon departed, and we had the peak mostly to ourselves. For the return trip, we followed the Mountain House, Jack Frost, High Meadow, and Echo Lake trails to get to the base, then walked the road back to the car.

Where: Mt. Wachusett state reservation When: 3/22/2024 With: Wilma There was a recent post on one of the Views From The Top hiker forums about Mt. Wachusett , and I commented that my dog & I had walked most of the trails. That's true, but in addition to the trails, Wachusett has several unimproved (dirt) roads. I've crossed them often on the trails, and have wanted to follow them some day. Today was that day. Wilma & I made the quick drive to the trail head and began our walk on the Administration Road. We'd walked part of it on our last visit, entering from the Jack Frost trail and exiting on Echo Lake Road, but today we'd walk the entire road. It was a wide path with a rough surface of crushed rock, and Wilma had to content herself with sniffing piles of leaves along the edges. We passed the junction with the West Road (which we'd be returning on), then a crossing of the Harrington Trail before arriving at a paved road and a picnic area. My map showed the...

Where: Mt. Wachusett When: 12/23/2023 With: Wilma I stopped taking Wilma on climbs like this after she came up lame following a trip. She spent several days hobbling around and getting sympathy, and I figured that mountain days were over for this 16+ year old dog. Best to stick to long walks on level trails.  Now, I'd been thinking of a hike up Wachusett for some time - maybe redline a few more trails - and when the weather and my schedule lined up nicely, I decided to go. I mentioned it to my sister on a phone call and said Wilma wouldn't be going along. "Oh take her," she said, and I thought, why not? Wilma hadn't been showing any signs of aging lately. Just the opposite, in fact. On our walks around the neighborhood, she'd break into a trot sometimes, often on the uphill section. So I bundled her into the car and off we went. I drove to Wachusett without the usual navigation assistance, and found I knew the way just fine. Today's starting point was the ...

Where: Wachusett Mt. When: 11/21/2022 With: Solo This was a quick test drive of my post-Covid lungs & legs, and my new trail runner shoes. The lungs & legs did just fine, and the shoes were wonderful. Light, good grip, and very comfortable. The wide toe box was appreciated on the downhills. With winter on the doorstep, they'll likely go into hibernation until next summer, but I'm pleased with how they worked today, I parked at the park headquarters and followed the Bicentennial Trail a short distance to the Pine Hill Trail, my primary goal. It was the only trail on Wachusett that I haven't hiked (though there are still a number of roads to follow). I was immediately struck by the trail's construction - stone steps with stone sidings. I figured it would just be for a short distance, but it wound up continuing nearly the entire way to the summit. My guess is this was the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who did a lot of work at Wachusett. It was very impre...

Where: Wachusett Mountain When: 3 May 2021 With: Wilma I had nothing on my schedule, everyone else was busy, and the weather was due to turn stormy later, so I grabbed Wilma for a hike at Wachusett Mountain. I had a vague goal of redlining some trails I hadn't walked before, but the primary priority was to get out and put some more miles on my new hiking boots. I didn't know how much Wilma (two months away from 14 years old) would be able to handle - she'd come up lame in the past after vigorous hikes - and figured we'd just do whatever we could. The ride to the mountain was uneventful, and I pulled into the parking area at the base of the Stage Coach Road trail. It gave us a number of options for routes, but I wasn't sure where I wanted to go. I pulled out my map and decided to continue on a bit further to the Harrington Trail trail head. I'd walked the upper portion of the Harrington before, but not the lower section. It was just a few minutes down the road, a...

Where: Wachusett Mt. When: Jan 13, 2020 With: Wilma No pictures from this hike, which is odd for me. Whatever. My recollection is that I'd planned to park at the visitor center at the base of the auto road and take the Pine Hill trail to the summit. I didn't feel like paying the parking fee though, so I used the restroom and drove back down Mountain Road to the Mountain House trail head. On the trail, we quickly turned on to the Bicentennial Trail heading north and followed it to the Loop Trail. We walked that until it rejoined the Mountain House Trail, visited the summit, and took Mountain House back to the car. There were few other folks out that day, and we only saw other hikers at the summit. There wasn't enough snow/ice to allow any traction, and a dusting of snow on wet rocks (with some ice) made for tricky footing, but careful stepping got me to the top. No views, but the frosted trees at the summit were pretty.  

Where: Wachusett Mountain When: October 14, 2019 With: Andy & Wilma A spur of the moment hike. We were all home, with nothing scheduled, and Jane needed some quiet time for gardening homework, so I convinced Andy to join me & Wilma for a climb up Wachusett Mountain. It was a beautiful fall day, with perfect weather. It was also the Columbus Day holiday, so I was a bit concerned about crowds.  I aimed for a parking area & trail on the west side of the mountain, figuring the casual walkers would be on the other side. There were plenty of cars there, but we slipped into a spot right at the trail head and began our walk. This was a route I did with Wilma previously, following the Stage Coach Road to the Harrington Trail to get to the summit. We crossed paths with a number of folks, both coming & going, but it wasn't all that busy. A lot of people had dogs as well. The hike began with moderate climbing at first. It passed the wind turbines, then entered the fores...

Where: Wachusett Mountain When: 6/27/2019 With: Solo Looking at a map of the trails at Wachusett Mountain, I realized I'd walked most of them already, so when the opportunity arose (a day with no plans), I headed west to cover one I hadn't walked, the West Side trail. My phone's navigation got me there with no problems, with the route leaving the paved roads and on to gravel to get to the trail head. Though it was mid-day on a Thursday, I noted that the other trail heads I passed along the way all had multiple cars parked. It's a popular place to walk. I pulled in to the parking lot right around 12:30, sharing the area with two other cars, and I was quickly headed up the trail. I turned around a few hundred feet up and went back to get a picture of the trail head sign before retracing my steps and continuing the hike. A fairly easy walk at first, then the path made a steep ascent through a rocky cleft before leveling off again. The rest of the walk was bits of lev...

Where: Wachusett Mt. When: March 3, 2019 With: Wilma I've got the photos , and sort of remember the hike. There was snow on the ground, but not a lot. We parked at the Mountain House trail head, and got the last spot. Took Mountain House to the summit, then the Jack Frost, High Meadow, and Bicentennial Trails back.

When: Sep 17, 2016 Where: Wachusett Mt. With: Wilma I don't recall what route we took, but I have photos from this hike that provide some clues. There's a shot of a wind turbine from near the base, and another photo taken from Josti's Vista. We probably parked at the Westminster Road corner (near Machias Pool) and took the Stage Coach Road and Harrington Trail to the summit. I do remember large crowds on the summit, and this may have been the day that ham radio operators were conducting some test/event. For the return trip, I believe we got on to the Jack Frost Trail, then took the High Meadow Trail past Echo Lake and finally walked the Echo Lake Trail back to the car.

Where: Wachusett Mt. When: Aug 24, 2014 With: Wilma Somehow I got it into my head to hike up Wachusett Mountain. I'd been on part of it many years ago, in the winter, but I don't believe I'd ever climbed to the summit. I picked a route from the north, starting at the Bolton Pond trail head. Part of the route passed through old growth forest, I think, so that influenced the choice of route. I don't remember a lot of details from the hike, though the pictures help. We started about 11AM and were at Bolton Pond 15 minutes later. We passed Balance Road, then got on the Old Indian Trail, crossed the ski trails, and arrived at the summit around noon. We took the Harrington and Semuhenna Trails back (had a brief tussle with another dog on the Semuhenna), rejoined the Old Indian Trail and were back at the car around 1:30PM. More photos