Midstate Trail, MA

[One Half]

Anyone know it? Know where I can get a good map of it? Is it easy to follow? I was doing some reading last night and it seems like it has a lot of road walking on it. Is that correct?

Kind of decided to change our hiking plans for the weekend based on the fact that we were only going to get 1 day of hiking and I couldn't see driving 3 hours each way to hike 8/9 hours. This trail is much closer to our home so we will probably do a long stretch of this with a small day pack.

[Snowleopard]

The parts I'm familiar with are easy to follow (Mt. Wachusett, Leominster state forest and Mt. Watatic areas).
I like the Wachusett and Crow Hill parts and Mt. Hunger to Mt. Watatic parts best. The parts I go on have road crossings but not so much road walking, but I may be driving past the road walks to the good parts. Wachusett and Leominster State forest (Crow Hill) have a lot of trails not on the midstate trail that are also nice.

Also consider the Wapack Trail (Mt. Watatic in Ashburnham to Pack Monadnock)
http://www.wapack.org/map.html

I can't find a good map of the midstate trail, but there must be one.
Here it is: http://www.midstatetrail.org/Guide%20Form.htm
Perhaps New England Backpacker in Worcester has the trail guide in stock.
Other links:
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/trails/midstateTrailmap.gif
Check out the links here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midstate_Trail_(Massachusetts)
http://www.hikenewengland.com/Watatic000407.html

What part of Mass. do you live in? The Blue Hills have lots of trails (S. of Boston), the Quabbin is great. There's a circumferential trail around Boston http://www.baycircuit.org/; I've only been on little pieces of it.

[One Half]

closer to Leominster area - that's why the midstate trail option

[Tinker]

It connects to the North-South Trail (part of which I maintain) in Rhode Island west of Wallum Lake (just south of the Douglas State Forest - Mass.). There's a shelter just north of the RI/Ma. state line. I haven't hiked the trail myself, but have heard all sorts of rumors (that it isn't well maintained in sections, others say that it's easy to follow, etc.). Sorry I can't help more. Good luck.

[Snowleopard]

Wachusett Reservation map:
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/trails/print/WachusettMtn.pdf
The trail from Wachusett to Redemption Rock is pretty easy to follow.
Leominster State Forest map:
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/trails/print/Leominster.pdf
The Worcester AMC chapter does the midstate trail as a series of day hikes every summer.

[Toolshed]

Double ditto on everything Snowlep says. We used to live in Sterling and hike this a lot (Some pics of trail and shelter in my gallery). NE Backpacker in Worcester did have guide as well as EMS in Marlborough.
don't for get an hour W of you is Quabbin with some nice dayhikes at various gates. One of my favs was Soapstone mountain - I think I have some older maps and comments on it over at VFTT.

[One Half]

Thanks guys!