We're in an interesting period, with new bike paths, lanes, and other goodies coming on line now and then. Sometimes, these fit into a jigsaw puzzle of a larger ride, either improving an existing route, or making a new route possible. After a bit of thinking about the newly-opened MCRT-Wayside, in Wayland and Weston, I took the LHT on a
48-mile loop through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, Lincoln, Wayland, Sudbury, Weston, and Waltham. This was structured around Sherman's Bridge Road (Wayland), Water Row (Sudbury), Pelham Island Road (Wayland), the MCRT-Wayside (Wayland and Weston), and the Cambridge Reservoir (Waltham and Lincoln), with "transportation stages" on the Minuteman, Route 62, Route 126, Trapelo Road, Smith Street, Spring Street, and Marrett Road. The trick is that MCRT-Wayside provides a missing East-West link, far more rideable than the Boston Post Road or Route 117, with an easy connection to the Cambridge Reservoir for the return. Hence the route. I'd ridden rough equivalents before, but this does seem like an improvement, with less exposure to snarky BMW drivers in their natural habitat.
Sherman's Bridge Road, crossing the Sudbury River for the first of many times.
Water Row, Sudbury, a moist world of frogs and bugs.
Pelham Island itself gets instantiated when Wayland gets enough rain. Pelham Island Road, on the other hand, is always there.
Pelham Island Road: this farmhouse retrofitted with a glass curtain wall was an early solar heating hack, famous long ago.
MCRT-Wayside, Weston. Speedy, quiet, no BMWs, damn few users on this weekday afternoon, solitude and nature. Some of the side paths lead to more Weston conservation land and bear exploring.
Peeping at the Cambridge Reservoir from Old County Road, Lincoln.
It was a pleasant ride, a hair under five hours, an afternoon's worth, 48 miles, 3806 feet of elevation gain, hit 34 mph on some descent or other. And it demonstrated how the MCRT-Wayside fits into the larger puzzle.
rod