Two-fer!

Lately (for, like, almost a whole week) I have been trying to get out on the local bike paths and cycle some. I want to get in good enough shape to do my cycling on the road. You know, like a big boy.Today brought me to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in Chelmsford MA. This former rail road bed runs from Lowell to Westford with Big Plans to have it extend far beyond! Starting at the Cross Point Towers (the former Wang Building) it passes under Rt. 495 past the town ballfields and throughout he center of town where there is easy access to restarants, stores and the public library. Among other attractions in the town center are a bicycle-repair station complete with tools-on-strings and an air pump. This is, by far, the busiest section of the trail with many walkers dog-walkers and cyclists. From the center of town the trail rises gently through the woods.There is a side trail that leads to a parking area at Sunny Meadows Farm. Not terribly useful since it's about half way down the trail. It crosses Male Rd near the Bynam School, Kate's Corner Store and Post Office and the First Baptist Church. Getting off the Trail in this little village and crossing Rt. 27 and heading past Parlay's Farm on Proctor Road opens up the Cranberry Bog, Great Brook Farms to explore. These areas are best suited for mountain or hybrid bicycles. If you forgo the side trip and stay on the Rail Trail you will pass Baptist Pond and travel parallel to RT. 27 to where the trail ends. As cool as this all is, the Bruce Freeman Trail holds a secret.   It turns out that this is two trails in one!

Another task that I have set for myself over the summer is to section-hke the Bay Circuit Trail. I have been concentrating on the portion closest to my house. You have to start somewhere and closer is always better. As you might expect, it is difficult to design a wilderness trail that circus navigates a major East Coast Metropolitan area. Concessions have to be made, and the Lowell-Chelmsfor portion of the trail is one such concession. I'm not even sure where (of IF) the BCT travels through Lowell, but in Chelmsford, it shares the same space as the Bruce Freeman Trail. So, today, as I cruised around on the Tri-Spec I also got to cross off another section of the BCT! Very efficient use of my time and precious calories, if I do say so myself. 

Willowdale Death March

I set out to the lovely town of Ipswich MA to tackle the Willowdale State Forest portion of the BCT. Actually, I don't know if Ipswich is lovely or not. I know next to nothing about the town except that it's NOT Gloucester and there are Wolves there. And the "Forest" which I might clarify more as "woods", like most of the State Forests in Eastern Mass. I parked off of Line Brook Road and set off with my new Deuter ACT Trail 32 pack, which I like very much. The bag is definitely large enough to carry a LOT of stuff, including a can of bug spray. Sadly, I didn't put one in and soon was getting eaten alive by a bazillion mosquitos and other similar insects. I turned back. I made it about two or three miles total. It didn't feel like I went very far. I bought bug spray.

I returned the next day and took to the trail, slathered in DEET. I made it past the point where I had to turn back the day before and quite quick thereafter ran out of Forest. The path of the Bay Circuit Trail seems to consistently take a very wide and direct route through wherever it goes. This was no exception. Basically a dirt road running down the middle of the forest. I passed a couple of quaint ponds and had to find my way around a few muddy puddles and a lot of piles of horse poop! I crossed the road at the end and poked around the northern part of Bradley Palmer where the foot bridge over the Ipswich River is. Turning back, I thought that I would try to go a different, more interesting way. There is a fairly large pond running right down the middle of Willowdale. The BCT runs down the western side of the pond. I took the first trail heading east that I could find after getting back into the forest. It would up and around a pretty god hill. The forest was much thicker here and more interesting to look at with old stone walls, fern-covered glades and babbling brooks. I ran into two girls riding their horses out here. I tried to find a Geocache out there but it was too well hidden. Apparently NOT having people find your cache and getting frustrated and pissed of is WAY better than having them find it and having a fun outing. Whatever. Nerds.  It took a lOT longer than I though it would. The BCT portion was only about three miles (I made it  a LOT further under bug-attack the I thought on day-1). Coming back up the east side of the pond made the hike about 7 miles long and the east side is definitely more challenging, although it's "nothing" compared to a mountain hike! As straight as the west trail is, the east trail is winding and has many branches to explore. I would like to get back in there and go through the rest of the forest, or at least the "interesting" side!