I was curious to see what progress had been made hooking up the Somerville Community Path extension to the existing path, so I took an early morning ride today to the turnaround at Lowell St. In fact, the wooden fence is gone and there is now a paved base layer of asphalt connecting the new to the old:
There appears to be provision for lighting also.
This probably won't be open for at least six months, since the opening of the Green Line itself has been pushed back to early 2022, but it is still encouraging.
From there I rode back to Alewife, did the out-and-back on the Fitchburg cutoff, then rode out to Lexington center and back (to East Arlington). It was a pleasant 20 mile before it got too hot.
Speaking of new bike path connections, does anyone know if the Huron Ave underpass connecting the Watertown Cambridge Greenway to Fresh Pond reservation is open yet? It was blocked off the last time I checked, about a month ago.
I also want to mention that all the talk about Estabrook Woods in Concord/Carlisle has me curious, so last Tuesday I explored as far as the three way junction just north of the end of the paved Estabrook Rd. It was a very muddy that day, and I had a time constraint so I turned around there and retraced my (muddy) path on the Reformatory. Later this week I plan to go back and actually ride through Estabrook Woods to Carlisle. I want to see that teepee of tree branches for myself!