Rode 63 hot miles Friday afternoon, through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Westford, Tyngsboro, and Groton; forgot to start the My Tracks app when I left the house, so recorded the
43-mile loop that started and ended at Depot Square, instead. Rode North on the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail, including the unsanctioned Billerica section that comprises a conspicuously posted private road (hard to contest an established right-of-way, the lawyers tell me) and a section of single-track that terminates abruptly in an industrial park. From there, picked up the segment of Dudley Road between Concord Road and Route 4, pausing to have a look at
Job Hill Cemetery, one of those seldom-noticed places that has become invisible through its stillness.
Crossed the Concord River on Route 4, making a mental note to stop for a meal at the
Riverview Restaurant and Drive Thru sometime, looks like a candidate for the cultural ecological niche occupied by the late, lamented
Willow Pond Kitchen. Jogged onto Treble Cove Road to pick up West St./North Road, pedaled up that past Great Brook State Park. At Lowell Street, headed North to Proctor Road, crossing the Bruce Freeman and continuing on Parkerville Road north of Heart Pond, past the
Middlesex County 4-H Fairgrounds (in case anyone was wondering where they put that) and the
Heart Pond Cemetery.
Crossed 495 on Tadmuck Road, Westford, where the 20th-Century Modernist aesthetic persists in a Cubist back-yard fence.
That house is for sale, btw, so this could be regarded as an opportunity for a little free-lance historical preservation.
Continued Northwest on Depot Road and Dunstable Road, past another burying ground (I see dead people), catching a glimpse of Long Sought-for Pond, and enjoying the relaxed lake cottage architecture.
From there, a long climb up Scribners Road, which I believe JandersUF referred to in a recent post. It was certainly noteworthy. In Tyngsboro now, turned West on Groton Road, a roughly paved roller-coaster where I reached 30+ mph on a down-slope, only to hit such a steep upgrade at speed that I got a bit of whip-lash. Fun. This got me to a favorite beauty spot on the Tyngsboro-Groton line, the dam at Cow Pond Brook Reservoir, where I stopped for a sandwich and some water.
Up the Island Pond Road hill into Groton, past Upper Massapoag Pond and more lake cottages, to Old Dunstable Road; followed that South to the unpaved-but-well-graded Rocky Hill Road, past the entrance to Dan Parker Road, deferring the re-try of that for another day.
Rocky Hill Road becomes Martins Pond Road, a beautiful paved road that threads through a mix of splendid conservation land, low-density housing, and a few working farms. This is country riding at its best, very little traffic and something new around every curve, e.g. the mailbox with the hand-painted image of the mummified Osiris deftly rendered on it. Mid-way down the road is Baddacook Pond, a blue gem where, thanks to effective conservation, the wild shoreline is largely intact and virtues other than the charm of lake-cottage architecture are in evidence.
From there, South on School House Road and East on Lowell Road (Route 40) to Lost Lake Drive, and into a tangle of steep hills, deep, lake-filled valleys, and a mix of cozy cottages and wild conservation land. At one point, passed what looked from my perspective in the saddle like THE BOTTOMLESS PIT, green and deep, with no apparent bottom, a woodland singularity with signs of human activity on its slopes; needed the momentum at that moment too much to stop to take a picture of that, which I now regret, it was oneiric. Continued on, skirting Lost Lake and Knops Pond.
Stopped at the Sargisson Beach conservation area for another water and fuel break, then found a Town of Groton trail (single-track, stone dust) connecting Duck Pond Drive to Hayden Road. I have some personal history on Hayden Road, and it was a pleasure to have happened on it unplanned, although some of the recent residential development was disorienting. Rode past the extensive Carmichael Swamp Conservation Area and connected to Forge Village Road (Rt. 225). From there, home by familiar roads, enjoying familiar sights, with a watering stop at Fern's.
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