Continued...

One of the things that is new (since 1974, anyhow) is the relatively good cycling and pedestrian connection between Charlestown and Cambridge. I started on the homeward leg, still not sure how I'd go, but figured I'd learn something getting there. First, took a causeway that crossed under the Zakim Bridge in a graceful arc.


A bit of the old and familiar intruded: I watched the North Station rail drawbridge raise its counter-weighted span to let a small boat pass up river.


Another bit of the old that seems to be making do with the new is Boston Sand and Gravel: I got a look at a couple of their dunes, stowed under the Zakim Bridge (or some associated infrastructure).


North Point Park, another little pocket of novelty, connected via a little web of bike paths to bits of the Old.


I considered riding back along the Charles, but had some things that needed doing that afternoon, and had a feeling I'd learn more taking another diagonal route through Somerville. First step (after some more bike-path riding) was a jog through the Lechemere pedestrian tunnel; as far as I know, Lechemere is the only spot in the Metropolitan Boston Area with a 6 mph posted speed limit.


This got me to Cambridge Street, and the imposing brick pile that houses the Middlesex County Registry of Deeds and Registry of Probate. If your Middlesex County heirs and assigns tactfully hint about your taking steps to avoid probate, they're talking about this place.


Cut through some charming East Cambridge residential side streets; I once knew somebody who lived in that neighborhood, it always sounded like a good deal, but never had the pleasure myself. It's a part of Cambridge with its own character.


In the process of making my way to the intersection of Somerville Ave. (which I wanted to ride on) and McGrath Highway (which I wanted to avoid), I passed this bunker-like auto body shop that evoked, no doubt unfairly, the bad old days when the chop shop business was booming in these parts. It struck me as photogenic, but perhaps that's just nostalgia.


I rode Somerville Ave. as far as Union Square, then picked up Summer Street as far as Willow (where I saw a dandy Infant of Prague). Good bike lanes for most of this, and Prospect Hill (or something like it) as a bonus.


Picked up the Somerville Community Path at Willow, and stopped to admire a fine map of the city. Somewhere along the line I saw a sign that said, "Davis Square is closed. Seek alternate route." And so it was... ArtBeat was in its glory.


This topped the crowds at the Navy Yard for viscosity, so I poked through on the West branch of the Community Path; things thinned out after the bandstand (don't know who was playing, but they had a pedal steel guitar), and I crossed Mass. Ave. and continued on the Linear Park to Alewife. Passed the little body of water that was a swimming hole for Cambridge kids in living memory, and is now a number of other things, but not that. Took the Minuteman home, and got on with the day.

This was a relatively short ride, 20 miles through Arlington, Somerville, Charlestown, and Cambridge, but was a lesson in the efficacy of diagonal routes through Somerville (something that I really hadn't thought about), and also a gentle reminder that the mental map I formed of Boston 40 years ago, while driving cab as an undergraduate part-time job, needs a bit of revision. Oh yeah, and 1945' of climbing, courtesy of Clarendon Hill, Winter Hill, Bunker Hill, Prospect Hill, and miscellaneous speed bumps and ramps.