As part of my on-going program of Minuteman Bikeway crowd aerosol minimization, I rode the Surly Trucker DeLuxe on a 19-mile course out Mass. Ave to Bedford Street, Lexington, turning left onto Valley Road for a fast descent and picking up the Minuteman with a ramp a few hundred yards from the 128 bridge, then rode out past Tophet Swamp before turning left onto Hartwell Ave., continuing past the HAFB and Lincoln Lab gates on Wood Street to Mass. Ave., crossing 128 again and climbing up the big hill and rolling briskly down to Lexington Center, and on back to Arlington and home. By my calculation, this allowed crossing 128 on the Minuteman with a minimum of slaloming around breathers. Lovely afternoon, lovely ride.
Every time I transit a deserted Arlington Center at what should be rush hour, I find myself wondering how long this can persist. Not that I don't enjoy it, from a narrow cyclist's perspective.
Cables, clouds, and more emptiness in East Lexington.
Some things are easy to miss. The
plaque on this building, adjacent to the Battle Green, tells a tale.
Wikipedia takes the story further, telling us that what started as the first publically-funded Normal School evolved into Framingham State University.
Lexington's Valley Road is an entire neighborhood of easy-to-miss, with a dandy descent to its terminus, a strip of weeds peeking out over the Route 128 traffic (such as it currently is). Social distancing is nothing new here.
The easy-to-miss ramp from Valley Road to the Minuteman.
Much pedaling later, I'm back on top of the big hill on the forgotten end of Mass. Ave. Seems to me that this hill, and the neighborhood atop it, must have a name. If so, it's a well-kept secret. I guess it could be added to the easy-to-miss list. It's also easy to leave, and I sailed down the nicely paved descent.
Balich's 5 & 10 was one of the last real dime stores in the area. A sole proprietorship that closed when the owner retired, it was slated to be redeveloped as a tavern, but the pandemic pushed the Pause button on that. Meanwhile, the facade reminds us of simpler days.
An interesting feature of this route is that it never quite leaves Lexington, as far as I can tell. It approaches, but does not transgress, both the Bedford and Lincoln lines.
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