Sunday Driver

2013 Ford Focus ST. Plenty of fun in the sun.

I have been away for quite some time. Generally unplugged from many social media platforms and just living life. However, I admit that writing is a guilty pleasure no matter how much the urge to suppress it is. I return to the Forest with streamed consciousness, and this time with another guilty pleasure: my love for the automobile and the open road. Hence, a series for the driving enthusiast and average Joe or Jane that wants to trek the path less traveled. When your commute is two hours, why not make it worthwhile.

Now, I will save everyone from the history lesson and give the super cliff notes version: There was a time in our history when we all packed into the car and drove/rode for the adventure of the activity itself. Parkways were basically built with this in mind and spurred along by the growth of the automobile. Clearly there are many people still out there that drive for the sake of driving, doing Cruise Nights and what not; but the price of gas, being shamed for "unnecessarily" dumping CO2 into the atmosphere and those awesome two hour commutes have sort of made driving like doing your homework or going to dentist with a bad hand tremor instead of a pleasure. So in addition to posting whatever feels right, there will be a series of video entries titled Sunday Driver as long as there is a stretch of pavement worthwhile. I will travel to various destinations in New England and experience the area, its scenery and driving dynamics and present them from behind the windshield. Clearly there are books, map services and websites you can already go to in which you can read all about them, but I want to try and give a different experience and focus on the driving pleasure aspects from the driver's seat and reconnect us to pleasure driving.

Some basics about this endeavor. There are a number of places I plan on sharing, but I am open for suggestions. My conveyance of choice is a 2013 Ford Focus ST. It is my daily driver and I would not have it any other way. It is plenty of fun in the sun, but it needs snow shoes in the winter. No speed limits were abused in filming this series; these are public roads after all. My work schedule is Tuesday-Saturday, so to a certain degree I can enjoy these spaces when people are less likely to on them. So, this allows me to cheat. I will do some of these drives on a Monday (like the one I will be sharing today) to take advantage of my schedule and the fact that most everyone else is pushing papers, building things or saving the world from itself. Nevertheless, I would like to live up to the idea of a Sunday Drive and be transparent about when videos are shot and posted.

So with all that said, here is the first swing of the bat:

Blue Hill Reservation- Wampatuck Rd. to Houghton's Pond, 4.8 miles.

This is a heavily traversed area and serves as a commuter cut through for a lot of people trying to avoid "The Braintree Split" (Interstate 93/Route 3 Interchange). The reservation roadways are made up of several decent driving roads. The section shown at the bottom of the page starts at Wampatuck Rd. in Quincy near the old Quincy Quarry area and goes through to  Chickatawbut Rd. then Hillside St. and ending at Houghton's Pond. However, the road continues to Blue Hill River Rd. which eventually intersects with Route 138 in Canton and part of the old Route 128 (before the highway). I will leave it up to you to check out other roads on the reservation lands, but this section is my favorite.

Old March photo of Boston fromWampatuck Rd.

The Wampatuck section is gated with posted closure signs. There was a time in which they would close the gate, but that seems to be very infrequent occurrence for several years. This section has elevation changes, sweeping corners, esses and not many straights. Surface varies from smooth to "character bumps" but nothing too severe for those with a stiff set up. There are no passing zones in the area, so sometimes you will need to gap the traffic if you are in the mood for spirited driving. In addition to car traffic, there are plenty of hikers in the warm months, so please be very mindful of that if you do plan on some spirited driving. Early morning seems to be a fine time if you are looking for an uninterrupted run through the Blue Hills. FYI, Massachusetts' finest (The Massachusetts State Police Milton Barracks) are on the reservation lands. Do with that as you please.

There are great views of the city of Boston and great trails to hike if you are so inclined to drive the reservation road and stop for a couple of hours. In addition to Houghton's Pond, if you are looking to sit next to a body of water you can check out Blue Hills Reservoir. Moreover, there is the Blue Hills Weather Observatory, home to the oldest continuous weather record in North America. Finally, if you choose to stop at the look out point for the city of Boston in the Wampatuck section, you need not walk no more than a ¼ mile to access the defunct launch control site for Nike Missile installation B-55. FYI, the missile location is off of High St. in Randolph.

Blue Hills Reservation
Ski the Blue Hills