I Came Clean on Soapstone Hill LbNA #55591

Take Route 122 through Petersham, when 122 is intersected by West Road in one direction and West Street in the other, turn onto West Road. Follow West Road to the end and then turn left on Monson Turnpike. Follow this to the end where you will find Quabbin Gate 37. Park near, but not in front of, the gate. Walk along this wide path until you come to a trail on the right marked 37-2. Take that right and stay on the path looking out for a blue marker on the left. Take that trail, it starts off flat and suddenly makes an uphill ascent. At the ascent. look for a hollow behind a maple tree on the right for Box #1. Continue onward and upward..if you are like the letterboxing ham this will be easy…if you are like the lazy letterboxer this will not be so easy. At another point on your easy/not so easy ascent you will see a “nurse rock” on the right…how will you know that this is a “nurse rock”?? You will see a skinny little beech tree growing out of this rock…that’s how…box # 2 is nestled in a crevice behind this rock. Keep going up until finally you come to the summit…what a great view! Enjoy it as you look around/catch your breath. Seen enough? Okay, down you go…Just as you start to retrace your steps you will see a flat faced, lichen covered rock on the right of the path with maple saplings growing behind it..unless you do this hike in several years..they may be maple trees by then…I can’t be sure..anyway, Box # 3 is behind this rock kind of in the middle as you face it, tucked between the rock and the saplings where, hopefully, no geocacher will find it. Speaking of geocaches, the day we planted we found one on the summit (off to the right) that had cigarettes and an empty Mike’s Hard Lemonade can in it…hmmm…what am I missing!
Okay, now here’s the part where I come clean…when we got to the summit the Ham said to me…”wait til you see (okay, I was a few steps behind…well, more than a few) there’s an easier way to get here”…and lo and behold there was! This is the same view that you come to on our Cherchez les Femmes series..so, now it’s up to you..do one or both. You could park at the state forest, do the Femmes and then go down the steep climb and get the Soapstone Hill boxes backwards and then at the bottom, take a left and get back to the campground…or…do the climb and then get the Femmes series backwards and retrace your steps and finish the Hill series…it’s up to you…but I know what I’d do!