Another beautiful day! Took the Surly Trucker DeLuxe on a 25-mile ramble through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, and Lincoln, a ride whose route firmed up as I rode along.

Tophet Swamp, Lexington: tow-headed phragmites dream in the sun.


Depot Park, of course.


Reformatory Branch, Concord: Ra lights the way.


Great Meadows NWR, Concord: looking sere.


I jumped off the Reformatory Branch at the Great Meadows access road, and got back on the asphalt.


Old Bedford Road, Concord: photographing this fish-with-a-bicycle had become one of the two goals of the ride. Seems to me the fish is pleased.


Virginia Road, Lincoln: top of the hill looking back at what I'd just climbed. It's gotten easier, this has been a good year for hills.


Cambridge Reservoir, Lexington Road, Lincoln: Got drought? The mudflats say yes. Checking on that had become the secondary goal of the ride. Cantabrigians, flush with discretion.


Marrett Road, Lincoln: oak trees in autumn are easy to ignore or disparage, but the dying light painted them a handsome red.


Arlington's Great Meadow, Lexington (where else): as the clock would have it, this became a Sunset ride on the Minuteman; if this ride were a mathematical proof, that would constitute reducing the problem to one with a known solution. Pretty, though.


rod