I stood quietly in order to listen better. The interstate’s dull roar was off in the distance, ever-present by the ocean. But this new sound was much closer, and entirely unexpected in this place, and turned out to be… lots of bells?

Fortunately I wasn’t being attacked by Santa or a crack team of ninja Morris dancers. A few moments later, a number of dogs sauntered by, each with a large bell on its collar, their owner (sans bell) close by. I exchanged looks with a soulful looking black pug before he too passed me and I was alone again in on the trail.

Dogs were a recurring theme on my seven mile trek around the Middlesex Fells’ Skyline trail. I’ve been to the Fells many times and walked parts of the trail before, but yesterday I decided to hike the entire trail, which takes a generous loop around the Western portion of the Fells.

The Skyline trail, as its name implies, delivers a few different views of the surrounding land, and does it by not avoiding any of the hills. On the contrary, it aggressively cuts up each one, which makes the hike a bit of a challenge, though not terribly difficult.

The Southeastern corner provides this view of Boston proper, which seems to make it a popular drinking spot from the looks of all the empty Coors cans littering this area:

Futher up on the Eastern side, looking West, the view is a little bit less urban:

There were other people out on Easter, though not too many. For large stretches of the walk I was alone. There were lots of people out walking their dogs, all seemingly unaware of the leash law. It wasn’t a problem as most of the dogs were very well behaved and I’ve heard there are precious few places to walk without a leash in the Boston area, but there was one man dashing around looking for his two dogs that decided to explore without him. I crisscrossed members of his party and the dogs themselves in various parts of the trail. My attempts to catch them failed (dogs are slippery!), but an hour later I found out that they had been reunited with their owner. Perhaps he should try putting bells on them next time.

As it was Easter, there were families out on some of the flatter trails, and a few families had set up small Easter egg hunts for their children. It was absolutely adorable.

The Fells themselves were beautiful, with Spring clearly just about ready to explode. I ran across a small stream flowing happily, coexisting with some serious icicles:

Right near that place, I sat quietly for a few minutes, and thanks to the running water and the gentle breeze, couldn’t even hear the freeway.