Rain in the morning, so I drove down to New Bedford to water the plants and pick up the mail. On the way back, by two o’clock the looked to be ending; right after Route 24 ended at Interstate 93 I got off the highway at the Houghton’s Pond exit, parked by the pond, and went for a walk in the Blue Hills. I started walking at two-thirty, having smeared sunscreen on, but also carrying an umbrella just in case.

From Houghton’s Pond, I headed up the Massechuseuk Trail, cut over on one of the innumerable smaller trails to the Skyline Trail, and climbed up Tucker Hill. By the time I got up to the open ledges on top of Tucker Hill, the sky was blue and clear except for a few small puffy white clouds overhead, and a line of grey clouds to the south. The observatory tower on top of Great Blue Hill to the west stood out over the intervening tree-covered hills. The intersection of Route 24 and Interstate 93 sprawled through the woods south of me, busy with hundreds of tiny cars bustling back and forth.

The north branch of the Skyline Trail from Tucker Hill to Great Blue Hill turned out to be fairly challenging. It was steep enough in places that I had to use my hands, particularly in Wildcat Notch. In other places, missing or badly placed blazes meant I should have been paying full attention to picking out the route; but I wasn’t paying full attention, and went down the wrong trail in one or two places. While none of the hills is particularly high, the Skyline Trail goes over as many hills as it can and the cumulative effect was that I got a pretty good workout.

I climbed Eliot Tower on top of Great Blue Hill, and spent a few minutes up there cooling down — the woods were still humid from the morning’s rain and I was drenched in sweat. The view to the east was worth more than a few minutes: the skyscrapers of Boston, Boston harbor and its islands, the rolling hills between. But I hurried on.

At the base of Great Blue Hill, there was no crosswalk to get across busy Washington Street. I walked along the edge of the road to the traffic lights at Royal St. and managed to make my way across to Dunkin Donuts, where I got a large iced decaf coffee. Hundreds of breast cancer walkers, mostly dressed in pink and white and black, were coming down the sidewalk along Washington Street, and I had to walk against them for half a mile in order to get to the start of the Red Loop Trail up Great Blue Hill. Mostly they ignored me, or almost ran into me (there were no other pedestrians or hikers out); except for one woman who, conscious that she was engaged in a virtuous and purposeful activity and I was a mere idler, said, “Hey, you’re headed the wrong way” — half humorously, half challenging me.

The Red Loop Trail, wide and well-worn, is supposed to be the most popular trail up Great Blue Hill. A man and a woman and three children came down the trail towards me. “Excuse me,” said the woman, smiling, “but there is a pond?” I told them they were far from the pond. I don’t know what their native language was, but they clearly didn’t follow what I was saying, even though we kept trying for a while.

At the top of Great Blue Hill, I went up Eliot Tower again, and this time managed to see Mount Wachusett off in the west. I wanted to spend more time looking at the view, but the sun was getting low, and I was getting tired. I set off back down the North Skyline Trail, veered south on the Houghton Trail towards Houghton’s Pond — but when I got to Royal Street, there was no crosswalk and I didn’t dare cross the heavy rush hour traffic. Up over Houghton’s Hill towards the crosswalk at the Reservation Headquarters. But the hill was pretty steep, and on the way down my left knee started to hurt and warn me that I was in too much of a hurry.

By now it was quarter to seven. The picnickers and swimmers had mostly left Houghton’s Pond. The sun, setting in what was now a clear blue sky, sent a golden summer light through the trees. By the time I got back on the Interstate, rush hour traffic was mostly gone.

Eight miles.