Breakheart Reservation

April 12, 2020 Cloudy

This reservation in Saugus and Wakefield consists of hardwood forests, two lakes, walking trails, and a hill with a good view of the Boston skyline. It also has a roughly 2 mile paved loop for walking or biking.

We parked at the vocational school on the Wakefield (northern) side of the reservation and headed for Pearce Lake. The trail was mainly pines and other evergreen trees, and was littered with many downed trees, such as the one below. This made the forest seem more messy or wild than we expected.

The kids found a great old tree to practice their balance on.

The walk followed along the western side of Pearce Lake, which had a striking blue color and a small rocky island in the middle.

Continuing to the other side of the lake, we went up a short hill away from the lake and found some stone works that the kids crossed. Just above this was a neat underpass for the paved bike loop, which led us to the Upper Pond of the reservation.

Continuing along the shore we found a few resting areas from which you could watch for wildlife. On our visit we saw a number of ducks, geese, and other birds sunning themselves.

At this point we decided to take the short side trail up to the top of Breakheart Hill, which was well worth the easy climb. There were some clear views of the Boston skyline (where you can easily spot the Prudential and the Hancock buildings). At the far right, with the curved profile, is the recently opened Encore Boston Harbor casino.

There was also, strange to see, the remains of an old car (?) sitting on the rocky hilltop. Some later investigation on Google appears to support the idea that this was a sort of home-made tractor from the WWII era that’s based on a 1920’s truck chassis. But the unusual thing is that there are no roads visible nearby and the path to the top seems pretty rough.

After descending, we followed along Pearce Lake for a visit to the small but sandy beach, where the kids played for a while. The water looked clean and clear, and beckoned us for a summer visit.

From here, we continued on a paved route back to the parking lot.

I enjoyed the ruggedness of Pearce Lake and the inviting beach, as well as the views of Boston.
This is a nice walk with a good variety – beach, hilltop with views of Boston, lakes.
This place was cool because it was a pretty long walk but it went by really quickly.
It was long and you have to hike up a mountain.
It was super windy and there was a car at the top of the hill.