Troop 54 returned to the Tully Trail in Royalston, Massachusetts, for our first time since March 2012. The trailhead was not quite in the place we had marked our last time, so it may have moved. This was planned as an out and back hike, following the same path each way. We had four youth and four adult participants on this trip.
On Saturday, we had scattered showers and cool temperatures. On Sunday, the rain stopped before we got up and didn't start again until we got back to the cars.
There were lots of blown-down trees in the forest. We had to climb under, over or around fallen trees lots of times as we followed the trail. With recent rain and trail erosion, many sections of trail were muddy or under water. We crossed the river on bridges a few times (one bridge being a couple of tree trunks that were starting to rot. Staying together seemed to be a major challenge. Following the trail was not too hard. The trail was marked with yellow blazes for the first stretch, then yellow and red, then yellow at the end.
A few minutes after we arrived at the Falls Brook Trail Shelter, Troop 1 of Southbridge arrived. The shelter did not have enough room for both troops and few spots nearby for tents. Troop 1 had camped nearby the night before and apparently decided to head back to the same spot.
Early in our return hike, we hit the toughest obstacle, a set of blown down trees. Three of the Scouts with through it, and two of the adults hiked up and around. These five waited on the other side for about 25 minutes before concluding that the other 3 must have gone around the obstacle and continued. It later turned out that those 3 had ended up on the wrong trail, which led them to a nearby road; they followed roads to get back to the cars.
After a few stops to make contact via texts (cell coverage was spotty and only available by climbing up off the trail), the 5 followed the trail back without incident.
See our actual trail:
My Maps - map uploaded into Google My Maps
GPX file (for downloading)
The steepest part of the hike had an elevation change of over 400 feet in just over half a mile.
This was our 172nd consecutive month with at least one overnight camping trip.
Page updated 5/2/23
J. Froimson
