The Breakheart Reservation

For bare-bones directions unaccompanied by florid prose, GPS coordinates, and suggestions for alternative routes click here.

 Directions to

The Breakheart Reservation's Wakefield Entrance

Breakheart, located partially in Wakefield but mostly in Saugus, is the middle reservation of the MDC's three-part greenbelt: Lynn Woods, Breakheart Reservation, and the Middlesex Fells. According to the Commission it's "a 640-acre hardwood forest with jagged, rocky outcroppings, two fresh-water lakes, and a rambling section of the Saugus River. Seven rocky hills, each over 200 feet high (yes!!) provide vistas of Boston, southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts." What's the origin of the name? Legend has it that "During the Civil War Breakheart earned its name when soldiers training there found it "lonely and remote," thus breaking their hearts." After the war, the area became a private hunting preserve whose owners dammed a pair of spring fed marshes to create today's upper and lower ponds, known respectively as Silver and Pearce Lakes. How's this for trivia? Pearce Lake, originally Waksau Lake, was renamed in the late nineteen sixties to honor John Pearce, the principal of Saugus High.  A final note for those old enough to remember the CCC; "in 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps established camp number 1149 here, and transformed the Reservation into a recreational area by building roads, dams, and picnic areas."

Getting there is easy; shoot for Wakefield's Hemlock Road. Hemlock Road is the primary access road for, in order, Wakefield High School, the Northeast Vocational High School, and Breakheart Reservation. Drive down Hemlock Road, past Wakefield High's football field, to the guard kiosk at the entrance the Vocational High's (vast) parking lot. Go into the parking lot and find a place as near the kiosk as you can. Though most of the spots are numbered and, at least in theory, reserved for teachers and students, the guard on duty during a recent visit assured us that by eight o'clock all the educators and educatees are either parked in their assigned places or else they're not coming to work. Don't be shy, he advised, about parking wherever you like. We'll start from the guard shack and find our way down to the Reservation's entrance proper.

From Route 128/95

Drive 128/95 to Exit 39 in Wakefield (just south of Lake Quannpapowitt where you might, if you miss the exit in winter and go too far, see ice boats whipping about) and decamp onto North Avenue going east toward Wakefield. From there it's a straight shot from 128/95 to Wakefield High, through a couple of stop lights, across Main Street (where North Avenue changes its name to Nahant Street and shrinks to a narrow road). At the end of Nahant Street, at its intersection with Farm Street, jog slightly right-left across Farm Street to Hemlock Road, and proceed along Hemlock as described above.

For those into 128 avoidance

If 128/95 is flowing freely, we doubt there's a better way to get to the Reservation than that described above, or, if there's a better way, one that's simpler. Bob used to commute by bicycle from Bedford to Wakefield, riding through Winchester to Forest Street, climbing up and over Route 93 to Main Street in Stoneham, crossing to Summer Street and following it to Pleasant Street, riding from there to Spring Street, taking Spring Street to Main Street in Wakefield, then riding west to North Street (yes, the same North Street), across it, and a few miles more to his workplace in an industrial park near the Colonial Inn. He does not recommend attempting to reproduce this route.

For those navigating to the start with MapQuest or a GPS system:

80 Hemlock Road, Wakefield, MA 01880 or N42 29.670, W71 02.839

       To contact us call 978-808-0900

*** Good Luck !!! ***