Took the Surly out on a warm Summer day for 20 miles on
a route that combined the familiar trails along the Mystic River with unfamiliar trails along the tributary Malden River, with several hilly segments thrown in to keep the legs interested. A nice mix of cool breezes off the rivers with sweaty climbs followed by evaporative cooling on the hill descents. Much of the time was spent in Medford, but Malden and Melrose got visited as well. A minor segment involved the Northern Strand, but it would be easy to combine a ride on the whole Bike to the Sea route along with the ride along the rivers.
East Arlington: more dragons.
Medford: the trail system along the Mystic River is reached via a right turn from Riverside Avenue onto Freedom Way, and runs behind a series of schools and other Town buildings and the river. Lots of opportunities to peep through the leaves at the river at various spots. Sometimes the scene is peaceful, sometimes
I-93 traffic roars across the river at you.
A memorial to Medford's days building clipper ships inspires thoughts about how the world came to be as it is. The great current of historical causality ran along this river bank for a few decades.
The paved bike path follows alongside busy
Route 16 for a bit, and leads to the
green expanse of
Torbert MacDonald Park and the
Mystic River State Reservation, with its familiar observation tower. This has a view that's worth the climb, but I let it be on this ride.
After crossing Fellsway at a cross-walk, I continued along the Mystic a little farther,
past a marina, until the path followed
alongside the Orange Line elevated roadbed, then hooked around at
the mouth of the Malden River and ran North towards
Wellington station.
Once at Wellington, I recalled what I had learned scrutinizing Google Maps, and
successfully crossed Route 16 using River Edge Drive, picked up
the beginning of the Malden River trail system, and
discovered that a path loops
under Route 16 and connects with
the sidewalk on the South side of the Route 16 on-ramp from Wellington. Sounds hair-raising, but it could do the job of getting you safely across the road. That puzzle solved I rode North to get a sense of the Malden River trail. It's
well-groomed and
pretty, and seems to have an established, local group of users.
Eventually, the paved trail led me out to River Edge Drive, which turned to Commercial Street at the Malden line (the path itself is apparently entirely in Medford). I followed that North a short distance to Medford Street, Malden, a familiar route to the Northern Strand. I
took that as far as Main Street, Malden, which I followed up the hill into Melrose, turning West onto West Wyoming Avenue, then taking a diagonal left onto Ravine Road, which gave me a short-cut to Fellsway East. Another left turn put me on that, and a series of climbs and descents
took me through a section of the Middlesex Fells and ultimately down past Fellsmere Park, Malden. I paused there to get a picture of a
jet d'eau, gleaming in the sun.
I turned right onto Route 60 (Pleasant Street in Malden, becoming Salem Street in Medford), took that as far as Sheridan Avenue, and then took that left and rode it for several blocks to Washington Street. A right turn and one short block brought me to the stupa in the back garden of the Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies. I stopped to pay my respects. This is normally my first milestone on a ride East; today it was my last.
A bit more pedaling on familiar Medford roads--most notably,
High Street--got me back to East Arlington and home.
rod