Today we hiked in Great Brook Farm, where we usually go x country skiing. Except, DH had downloaded a route that was mostly not on the ski trails. They were hiking or mountain biking/snow shoe trails. We didn't start until close to 2 PM, so we brought our headlamps, although we didn't want to have to use them! The first part entailed a very narrow, windy trail, in the middle of the ski trails on what is usually our normal starting point. Then, we crossed the road and thought we'd just be going up some of the bigger climbs on the ski trails. After a certain point, we were at a junction of a hiking trail and a spot close to the bigger climb on the ski route. DH's phone battery was being used up quickly, as he was using a new hiking app to follow a route and the cold, too. We decided we didn't want to venture into an area that while we knew headed around and back, without the trail map and possibly darkness. We saw that we were now on the conservation land trails in the next town, so we turned and went with a route that took us up a climb we know well, and back, no map needed. Even the ski trail signs are down at this time of year. We could see that what we did paralleled what was on the intended route in a shorter way, so next time we will start at noon. As it was we did 4.2 miles and got back about 35 minutes before sunset.
It's going to snow tonight, but not enough to ski, so maybe we can go back and it before we are on our skis. It might be hard to do this on snowshoes, walking on the edge of the ski trails we did do. But, it was cool to be in a place I've been to many, many times and see new stuff. Very few hikers, all with dogs. And only saw one mountain biker, back in the parking lot.