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Here's my route on July 9. The GPS track is plotted on a USGS topo map by GPS Visualizer. I started in South Dennis, rode up to Wellfleet, where the rail trail ended, over to the beach, retraced my path to the Chatham trail, took the Chatham trail to West Chatham looking for a place to eat. The path to Chatham was under construction and I thought it had ended at the southward dip in the track. That's where I got off the path and took route 28. On the way back, I noticed that the dirt section, that I thought was the end of the trail, just went around a curve and then there was more asphalt. So I probably could have ridden the trail all the way to Chatham.
Although the track colors indicate altitude, the ride was quite flat! The full size image is 1.3 Mbytes! |
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Here I am at the parking lot where the rail trail starts in South Dennis. I left Cambridge at about 9:30 am, but didn't get started riding until just after noon. There were big construction delays in Boston and, even though it was Friday morning, some Cape Cod traffic backups. |
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The trail starts at the end of the parking lot. |  |
Some riders coming the other way on the trail. As you can see, the trail is asphalt. It's a nice trail, but there are places where roots have buckled the trail and other places where holes have developed. Also, there are lots of intersections with roads. |
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The trail goes right by Long Pond. So far as I can tell, there is no connection between Long Pond and the ocean, so I'm guessing this is a fresh water lake. |  |
I think this is Seymour Pond, on the other side of the trail from Long Pond. As near as I can tell, Cape Cod is mostly sand, so the little lakes have sandy beaches. |
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The parking lot at the other end of the trail. This is about 21 miles from the start. I was expecting a 26 mile trail (according to a rail trails book). I asked some people here and they said there was a bit more of the trail but you needed a trail guide to find it. Naturally, I'd forgotten and left the book in the car, but when I got back to the car, I checked and decided it wouldn't have been helpful anyway! There was a sign behind me that said beach with an arrow pointing to the right (east), so I asked how far was it to the beach. The answer I got was "It's a hike, about three miles." I decided that wasn't so bad, so I rode to the beach (turned out to be about 1.5 miles). |  |
View of the beach and the Atlantic Ocean from the overlooking bluffs. Going off to the left is a ramp of more or less hard packed sand that leads down to the beach. |
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Another view of the beach including a life guard tower. |  |
I walked down to the beach. Here's a view to the south. |
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A view to the north. |  |
A view more or less to the west. My bike is locked to the end of the fence at the top of the ramp. Notice the flag standing straight out! |
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The life guard tower. Hmmm... they seem more interested in what's in the tower than what's in the water! |  |
Where I finally had dinner somewhere in West Chatham. There weren't that many places to eat. Dinner was a burger, fries, cole slaw, two beers and a milk shake. (I probably would have had more choices had I made it all the way to Chatham, but not being familiar with the area, I didn't know that Chatham was just a couple more miles down the road.) |
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On the way back from Chatham, I took a break at the "rotary." |  |
The bicycle rotary. It connects three trails: to Wellfleet, where I found the beach; to Chatham, where I had dinner, and to South Dennis, where I started. My bike is still leaning against the same picnic table as in the last picture. |
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Looking from the rotary towards South Dennis, there's a culvert that takes the trail under a road. |  |
I had dinner at about 5:30 and finished the ride just before 7 pm. So I didn't get back to Boston and get cleaned up until close to 9 pm. By that time, the evening's games at the puzzlers' convention were well under way. Here are Jane and Alison hard at work solving something. (To the other puzzlers, they're known by their "noms," Blossom and Pebbles!) |
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A whole ballroom full of puzzlers! |  |
Here's my ride for Saturday, July 10. The GPS track is overlayed on a USGS topo map with GPS Visualizer. I started in Kendall Square in Cambridge (At the joint between red and green tracks) and headed toward the Minuteman Bikeway which my rail trails book told me started at the Alewife T station. (T is Bostonese for MBTA which used to be MTA which was what Charlie couldn't get off for want of a nickel!) I rode along Broadway to Harvard where I got on Massachusetts Avenue. When I got about where I thought the T station should be I asked someone for directions. They said "go down this road here to the bike path and then go back that way." I said, "Actually, I'm really looking for the bike path, thanks." It turned out to be a one way road the wrong direction, so I jogged over a block figuring that would work (but it didn't, so I rode a connecting street back to the one way street which had this little dead end that went down to the path which was two-way (so I was legal). I got on the path in Arlington, rode to Lexington, where I walked around the green, then continued to Bedford.
I retraced the path back the way I had come but continued past the point where I had joined the path to find out just how far it was to the Alewife T station. It turned out to be about two or three blocks. Once I got there, it wasn't obvious how to get back to Mass Ave, so I asked someone and they steered me back to the one way street I had come in on! I took Mass Ave through Harvard and (with one small glitch) over the Charles River to the Charles River Path on the Boston side. I road upstream following the path which was often just a sidewalk with a line painted down the middle. At one point I followed the line and found myself on a bridge crossing the Charles to the path on the other side. I had expected to make it to Watertown before turning around, but it was getting late, so I didn't bother to go back. Instead, I came back to Kendall Square via the path on the Cambridge side of the Charles. The full size image is 3.4 Mbytes. |
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After reaching Harvard, I took a few pictures. I believe this is Memorial Hall. |  |
This building is Busch Hall (I think). |
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The Minuteman Bikeway starts a few blocks south of this sign in Arlington. |  |
At Lexington, the trail is quite close to the historical area (first battle of the Revolutionary War). There's a gift shop and information center whose front faces the Green and roads and whose back is next to the trail. Not knowing exactly where I was and seeing the info sign, I stopped and went in the info center. I had hoped to see some of the historical sights, but still didn't know where they were. After studying some of the maps, I concluded they were right there. So I rode around to the front, locked my bike and went on a short walking tour.
On Lexington Green (or the Common), the Minuteman Statue. |
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A little behind the Minuteman Statue is this marker. |  |
A memorial to the men who died in the first battle of the war. A little ways around the green from the statue. |
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The text at full resolution so it's legible. |  |
The sign on the right of this house says that it was the home of Jonathan Harrington who was wounded in the first battle, crawled to this house, and died at his wife's feet. |
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John Hancock's home just across from the green. |  |
The carriage house for John Hancock's home. The bike trail runs just behind this building. |
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A description of the building in the next picture. |  |
Buckman Tavern. |
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Hmmm... the men in the first battle of the war mustered in a tavern! |  |
After touring Lexington Green, I continued on the Minuteman Bikeway to Bedford where there's a little piece of rail left to mark the end of the trail! From here, if you know the way, you can connect with several other bike trails. I didn't know the way, so this is where I turned around. |
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Also, at Bedford were Bill and Evelyn from the Boston area and Cecilia from Brooklyn, NY. I had met them at Lexington before I started my tour of the Green. I was wearing one of my Bike New York T-shirts which got Cecilia's attention since she had done Bike New York this past May. Anyway, we got to talking and she's going to be doing the Harlem Valley Trail ride on July 18. It turns out I'm also signed up for that ride, so maybe I'll run into her again! |  |
Here's a mile (?) marker along the bikeway. The rail trails book I have says something about unique mile markers with the mileage in Roman numerals. I suppose one could take this as vii which would give seven miles which might be how far away I am from the start at the Alewife T station. The other side would then be iiii which is not a Roman numeral, but if interpreted as 4 miles, would be about right for the distance from Bedford. Roman numeral "4" is "iv"! |
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After crossing the Charles River on the Mass Ave bridge, here's the view looking back towards Cambridge and the MIT campus. |  |
A little downstream on the Charles, it's still Cambridge, but now the Kendall Square area. Our hotel, the Marriott, is the red brick building in the center. It has 26 stories and we were on the 19th floor so we had a spectacular view of the Boston skyline every time we waited for the elevator (elevators are just behind the vertical white strip), as well as a great view of Cambridge from the windows in our room. |
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The bridge in the background is where I accidentally crossed back over to the Cambridge side of the Charles River. |  |
Here's what the plaque says. This spot has had Europeans around for almost 400 years! |
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I cycled downstream and, after passing the Mass Ave bridge, stopped to take this and the next two pictures. Here's the Boston skyline with the Mass Ave bridge to the right. |  |
The Boston skyline with the John Hancock building prominent on the right. |
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Looking down the Cambridge waterfront, the Longfellows Bridge and the Boston skyline are in the background. The path is where you see the people walking! |  |
I got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and joined the puzzlers who were milling around in the hotel plaza waiting for their group photo. Later on Saturday, there would be the convention banquet (food was not bad!) and more games and puzzles. Jane wanted me to join in the games, but I didn't think I would be able to stay awake, so I declined! As it turns out, I was right. I was asleep by about 9:30 and Jane didn't finish until 2 am Sunday morning. There were others still going! |
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The puzzlers' convention ended Sunday morning after a brief wrap-up meeting. Afterwards, Jane and I made our first visit to Fenway Park to catch the Red Sox hosting the Texas Rangers. We sat in one of the handicapped sections: the first row behind the bullpens in right field. Just in case you can't remember who's playing, all you have to do is ask this young lady to stand up and turn around! |  |
The infamous green monster. Note the wall separating the two bullpens. If the top were made of "hockey arena glass" rather than plywood, it would be possible to see the whole field from where we sat. As it was, we couldn't really see what was going on in center or deep left. |
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The press box, main stands, and infield. |  |
Rangers starter Drese warms up before the game. |
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Rangers bullpen catcher. |  |
Red Sox starter Wakefield (a knuckle-baller) warms up. Texas eventually won, 6-5. Each and every time I went to the concession stand, Texas scored, and those were the only times they scored! |
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After the game, we went to Ellen and John's house in Brookline for a cookout. Ellen is one of Alison's daughters. Here are Leslie (another of Alison's daughters who lives in the Boston area), Henry (Ellen's son) and Alison. |  |
Jane, Ellen, and Leslie. |
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Leslie's husband Robert (in the black shirt) and his friend Bill, visiting from California. |  |
Our hosts, Ellen and John! |
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What a mess we left them with! (Our offers to help clean up were refused!) That's a neighbor and son, John, Ellen, and Leslie. |