Late Wednesday afternoon, I took the Surly out the Mystic Valley Parkway along the East bank of the Mystic Lakes, to once again enjoy the riding-next-to-water groove and observe the Summer scene, preferably before the heavens opened and drowned all and sundry as predicted..
It was a hot afternoon, temperatures in the low 90s, but perhaps a little cooler near the lakes. At the Tufts Barcow Sailing Pavilion, the Giant Schnauzer was absent, but a man giving a swim to three not-so-giant dogs took up the slack. A single open-water swimmer shared the water with the dogs and no one else. This puzzled me at the time, but was clarified a bit later.
I continued up across the Aberjona River.
After that, I doubled back and rode to Shannon Beach, where an ice cream truck was administering one of the sacraments of Summer.
I rode around Shannon Beach for a while, observing fewer people overall, and much less crowding at the beach itself.
A programmable highway sign on one of the paths to the beach area told the tale: "Polluted Water, No Swimming, Have a Nice Day". A call to the DCR beach water quality hotline (
617-626-49720) confirmed this. I followed the path of the Old Middlesex Canal past the beach and out to the narrows where one of the Canal aqueducts crossed the Upper Mystic Lake. This is leafy and out-of-the-way, and I paused for a few minutes, peeping through the leaves at the Winchester shore and its various docks.
After that, the sky began to look a little ominous to the North, so I rolled back to Arlington before it fell.
For the kids at the North Union Spray Park, Summer was good.
rod