Some years ago I stitched together a long walk from a number of short ones. I called this my Thoreau Trail because it passed by a number a number of sites related to
Henry David Thoreau's life. It is a good hike for city dwellers to take because they can take a commuter train up to Billerica from Boston and then walk to a train station on another line back to the city. Taking the train from Concord will save them about two hours walking over to the one in Lincoln (though missing Walden Pond). It is best to start in Billerica for a few other reasons I won't get into here.
Though in the Boston suburbs, only small portions of the trail are suburban streets and rural roads. Most are trails going though two state forests, a mostly forested town park, land owned by land trusts, town owned conservation lands, a national wildlife refuge and a national park, a town forest, a state park, a few private lands open to walkers and some other areas I haven't figured out what they are.
Enough with the trail promotion. If you live in the area and are interested send me a PM.
The year was ending and I'm another year older. I decided to
challenge myself (alright, torture myself) with a long walk before the year was up even though winter is not the best time to do this. The warm spell and wind and rain on Christmas Day had removed the snow that had fallen a week earlier. Weather reports indicated that yesterday would be the best day for me. The day was sunny although the temperature was cold (up and down a couple of degrees on both sides of freezing) and there was a wind.
I decided to do the Thoreau Trail. The only other time I did the full walk was in my recommended direction so this time I decided to go in the opposite direction. Straight as the crow flies the distance between the two train stations is 20.34 km (12.64 miles). My wikiloc app said I walked 33.60 km (20.88 miles) and I took a bit over 8 hours to finish it.
So, on to the pictures.
Concord has the most interesting sites. A map of the trail. At a
Walden Pond beach; I had to look for a possible suicide
. Walden Pond with two bright yellow floats showing where wet-suited swimmers are coming in. Near the site of Thoreau's cabin. An open part of the trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's home. The old cemetery (c. 1636). At another cemetery,
Sleepy Hollow, a memorial by
Daniel Chester French commissioned by a brother to honor his three brothers who died in the Civil War. At the same cemetery Thoreau's grave, the little one on the left.
Old North Bridge.