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Old 05-20-20, 08:17 AM
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autonomy
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Originally Posted by rholland1951
@autonomy suggested Paul Revere Road, and when I looked at the map, I realized that it allowed climbing the Stone Store hill on Mass. Ave. from W to E, without the need to cross Route 128 (a.k.a., I-95) twice. Had to give it a try, so off I went on the Nordavinden, 17 miles across Arlington and Lexington. The route took me from East Arlington to Lexington Center on Mass. Ave., picking up Bedford Street and following that to Hill Street, then riding Hill Street along the margin of the Lexington Golf Club and the Poor Farm (perilously close to Over the Hill to the Poor House, that), crossing Cedar Street to continue on Paul Revere Road, where a final dive-bombing descent got me to Mass. Ave. again, and a hill to climb. Up, over, and down the other side was Worthen Road, and I followed that to Kendall Road, took Kendall to Marrett Road, and down the hill on that back to Mass. Ave. yet again, and down-hill back to East Arlington and home.

rod
, glad I was able to be helpful! That's the thing, you can do something 100 times and on the 101st find out something new. We can poke around and slowly discover all these new routes ourselves, or we can learn them from someone who has already discovered them. That's why I think today's mapping tools are so fantastic: from simply following individual athletes, to the Strava heat map and fly-bys, there's a lot you can learn if you know where and what to look for. Which brings me to this morning's ride: a dirt loop through Lincoln and Concord on parts of the BCT, accessible via the Minuteman NP and made possible by this curious connector I spotted on the Heat Map:

So I went to check it out.


Lovely long shadows on the Minuteman


A somewhat rare occurrence


Those signs are waaay bigger than they seem


Why, yes, there IS a tunnel under RT2 here!


It brings you to the Hapgood Wright forest, which is quite lovely. "This is some nice riding over here," I thought - and as soon as that, the path turned into a rooty washboard. So the BCT goes.


A less rare occurrence around these parts.

17 miles overall, but I forget just how much slower and how much harder single/double track riding can get.

Bonus: an unexpected surprise from looking at the Strava fly-by, looks like I passed within a few miles of Ghazmh who went on a nice 34mi ride this am
Here's the full loop:
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