Catching up

Back to the trails....

A summer with many miles of trails and riding has passed. I've learned a few more trails, and added some nice tools for communicating about them.

I got a Global Positioning System (GPS) device for my birthday at the end of June, and have had a chance to record "tracks" around many trails around here. One such effort is available at http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Minuteman-Connector-Loop-1.

I've been putting together a few detailed maps using the GPS track data, but I'm not content with the results yet. Below is one way of representing the trails of the Willard's Woods conservation land in Lexington:

After playing around with a variety of software tools to merge the GPS tracks with other existing maps, I've found several ways to produce something fairly usable. A very nice tool is GPS Trackmaker, free from www.gpstm.com (I think). It allows me to bring in an image file of a map and overlay that with the GPS tracks.

It turns out that there is a lot of manipulation needed on most map images before they can be used as a background for GPS tracks. For example, they have to be aligned with North to the top. I found that the free software Irfanview allows rotation of images by fractions of degrees, which is invaluable for this kind of alignment.

Another view of Willard's Woods trails using the Lexington Town map as a background may be easier to read, since it only shows the roads.



The tracks should be displayed as wider lines, I think. Also, I should erase the big number 6, which is the voting precinct within Lexington. The heavy dotted lines are also precinct lines...

So the summer has not been wasted as far as the trail mapping goes... Just in a learning mode as far as mapping tools, and an enjoying mode, as far as getting out and riding the trails instead of talking about them. I'm sure you can understand!

Now with the shorter days of autumn and winter, I'll have to work through all those stored GPS tracks and start churning out the maps.

Snow falling from trees

Last night there was an inch or so of fresh wet snow. After dropping my daughter off at the airport at about 7:00 a.m., I returned home through Winchester. This route runs by Whipple Hill.

A few rays of sunlight illuminated the tops of the hills, and they appeared as if dusted with confectioner's sugar, brilliant white. I had to take a closer look, so I stopped at the little parking lot at the base of Whipple Hill on Johnson/Winchester Road (at the Lexington/Winchester line).

I took an old towel and blanket from the back of the car with me as I walked up to the top of Whipple Hill, making the morning's first tracks in the thin snow. The snow was already starting to drop off the branches as the rising sun made its presence known to all, and the temperature moved well above freezing.

The rocks at the top of Whipple Hill were bare of snow, so I spread out my towel and assumed a lotus position, wrapping myself in the blanket.

Everywhere, the snow dripped, dripped. White blobs slid, tumbled, pulling tiny avalanches from the lower twigs and branches. Follen Hill, visible across the Great Meadow, was crowned with white, but I knew it too would soon lose its sugar coating to the cruel warmth of the sun, even as the clouds softened the direct rays. Visible changes of the dripping snow falling from every branch, little by little, fed my contemplation. Here the change was visible, but truly, every instant, every part of the world is changing. Here an insect waves its antennae, there a bud emerges, a leaf falls, a wind current pushes a branch. A person is born. Another dies. Change. Drip, drip.

A man with a dog. A couple with British accents and a dog. Cheery greetings, returning to watch the changes. Follen Hill dark now, melted. Snow dripping still all around, but many dark branches have shed their white skins. Dark branch. Rain on the temple roof. Just this.

Greenway Meeting with Hayward Avenue Neighbors

The West Lexington Greenway team had the opportunity to meet with a number of neighbors of the Hayward Avenue, Woodpark Circle, and Wood Street area. This is one of the few areas where the proposed WLG trail which might pass within easy view of houses. (Another area of visibility is near Holton, Patterson, and Conestoga Roads.)

The piece of a topographic map shown here covers the potential trail route under power lines and around the "Bloody Bluff" hill to join the Battle Road. This area needs detailed study in the Master Plan. Perhaps this section will be infeasible at present, and travelers on the West Lexington Greenway trail will need to follow Wood Street and Fairview to reach the Battle Road. (That's what I do nowadays.)
In any case, it was very gratifying to see the turnout at the meeting on a snowy evening, and to discuss some possibilities for this project with the neighbors in this area.
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(click the picture for a larger view, or to save it on your computer)

At the meeting, the Master Plan concept was presented, and there were a number of good questions asked and discussed.

The Master Plan concept is to hire a professional consulting team to analyze issues such as property boundaries, wetlands, plant/animal communities, invasive plants, potential trail sites, etc., and develop a detailed Master Plan for the area which will be the basis for community decision-making, detailed engineering, and eventual construction/improvement of trails through the Greenway corridor.

Some of the questions raised and discussed included:

Q: How can we keep informed on the progress of the project?

A: There will be public notices and we expect the project to have a web presence. We members of the WLG steering committee plan to remain accessible and involved in the project. Also, the Town Recreation and Conservation departments will be closely involved in the project.

Q: How can we provide input as to location of specific plant/animal communities which should not be disturbed?

A: Keep communicating with us and monitoring the progress of the project. We welcome your participation, and would be happy to have neighborhood residents join the WLG team.

Q: How is the funding being handled?

A: We are applying for $125,000 of CPC funding as “seed money” for the Master Plan, and expect to be able to qualify for several other sources of funding from state and federal sources for detailed engineering and construction, based on the Master Plan.

Q: Do you believe that state and federal funds can provide the bulk of funds beyond the initial CPC “seed money?”

A: We believe that this project will qualify for funding from several sources, particularly because it provides a connection between two significant existing trail systems.

Q: How can the project avoid having invasive plants introduced during construction?

A: The materials can be specified as to cleanliness and sterility from seeds, etc. This can be part of the design process.

Q: Does the proposed Hartwell Avenue bike lane project conflict with the WLG project?

A: No. If Hartwell Ave. is safe for bikes from Bedford St. to the Minuteman Bikeway, it will help achieve the connection to the Simonds Brook conservation land, one of the goals of the WLG project. The two projects also draw from different sources of funds. The Hartwell Ave. bike project (consisting of studies leading toward repainting the street lines) would probably not qualify for CPC funds.

Q: Concerning the powerlines, does the power company allow people to travel under the lines?

A: On the town-owned lands over which the NSTAR holds a right-of way, we have been advised that there is no prohibition against trails or the passage of people. We will need to coordinate with NSTAR’s needs to clear brush and perform maintenance in the areas of their rights-of-way.

Q: Have you talked with the power company?

A: We have had some contacts, and there is no indication of conflict over having trails under the lines or the clearings on Town-owned lands.

Q: Is it safe for people to walk or ride under the power lines? What about electromagnetic effects?

A: (not answered this way at the meeting) There is no evidence of harmful effects, although some people may decide to avoid the power line areas. No studies of people living for extended periods near power lines have shown clear evidence of problems, so there is no reason to think that people simply traveling on a path near or under the power lines would be exposed to any ill effects.

(Comment) The properties on Woodpark Circle extend under the power lines, so it may not be possible to site a trail under the power lines in that area without passing over private property.

Q: What about personal safety or crime on an isolated trail? How would crimes be handled?

A: The more “friendly” visitors in the area, the fewer “unfriendly” elements are likely to be there. Lexington police would have jurisdiction.

Q: Are there some maps of the area available?

A: Some related maps of conservation lands are on the Lexington Conservation Commission's web site, and some maps relating to this project are on Paul Knight’s trail blog, http://organictrails.blogspot.com, which are unofficial maps. The WLG project will produce more official maps.

Horse Shoe's Favorite Trails

I just wanted to add some trails from Bedford.

I really like the "Wilderness Park" trails. The main entrance is from the sidewalk along Springs Road, just north of the VA Hospital. You can park in the big parking lot on the left side of the road, then cross the road to get to the sidewalk. The trail begins almost directly across from the parking lot entrance which is farthest from the VA Hospital.

There are some almost-unrideable spots in these trails. I'm sure I've never made it all the way around without stopping at some point. On the main trail, there is a steep dropoff over some stone steps just before a wooden bridge crosses the first stream. This one is rideable downhill (with my full-suspension bike and knowledge of it) but I've never made it going up.

There are two more entrances to this area, but they are fairly obscure:
1) From the end of Lantern Lane, you can cross a stream (sometimes there is a home-made bridge of sorts there) and then walk through a 100-foot wide swamp area, and get to a rough track which runs to the left and eventually to the main trail loop.
2) From some ramshackle old barracks or warehouses beyond the nets of the driving range of the golf course at the VA Hospital, there is an old road which runs down into the Wilderness Park.

I will try to post a map of the trails later.

A new map of the West Lexington Greenway

Here it is... you should be able to click on it with the left mouse button to get a larger view, or click on it with the right mouse button and copy the picture for your own use. It is based on the Lexington Precinct map and is in the public domain.
I also selected a smaller section of this, which is just the Minuteman Connector, between the Minuteman Bikeway and the Battle Road. This one is a 2-Mbyte bitmap file which should print in fairly high definition.

For the entire WLG map above, I have the bitmap file, which is more detailed and may be better for printing. It is 8.3 Mbyte, and too big to load here, apparently. I have it as a ZIP file of about 600 Kbytes.
I also have it as a black-and-white PDF file with fairly good grayscale, so the shaded areas can be seen. It can be printed on a single sheet of paper. Email me to ask for either of these. (paul.the.knight at the mail address gmail.com).
If I find a good way to load it on this blog, I'll do it.

If you print this on a good black-and-white printer, you should be able to see the shading, as well. You may need to re-scale it to fit on one page. From "Paint" on my PC, it will fit on one page when scaled at 33%.

Please note that all the changes are done by me and do not necessarily represent any Town-approved plans. This is for informational purposes. The Master Plan process will result in official plans.

Winning Farm - Wicked Wierd

Imagine wandering out of an upscale Boston suburban neighborhood of million-dollar houses into a nightmarish overgrown tangle of abandoned, collapsing houses, trailers, pieces of long-forgotten amusement park equipment with twenty-foot trees growing up through them, moldering picnic tables, and the remains of a show horse arena ... and you can begin to understand the strange feeling of entering the back side of Winning Farm from an obscure trail off Blueberry Lane in Lexington. I'd love to know more of this area's history. Trails from the clearings of Winning Farm disappear into the Winchester forest, and someday I'll explore them further, past the piles of abandoned lamp posts resting near the gas line clearing...

Check out the Google satellite view of this bizarre area on the Lexingtion/Winchester/Woburn town lines. The satellite image shows the tops of the abandoned houses, but you've got to be there on the ground alone (maybe on a moonlit midnight?) to appreciate it. This place has truly been abandoned (but occasionally mowed, it appears) for years, but not for much longer... Development is on the way! Enjoy its desolate charm while you still can, if you dare...

Somewhere within this area is one of the missing links of the Lexington Loop Trail. It may be able to become "found" with the right combination of events... If Lexington acquires the 8 or so acres of Winning Farm land inside the town borders, if the planned assisted living development of the Woburn part of the Winning Farm land allows access from Lexington over to Woburn/Lexington street, or perhaps if a connection from the 8-acre tract to the roads of the condo complex on the Lexington/Woburn line is arranged....

What is this missing link? It is indicated in green in the small map, which is a section of the larger Lexington Loop map. It is a link between Whipple Hill (the highest point in Lexington) and the Shaker Glen conservation land entrance at the end of Rolfe Road. Without the missing link, a nature-loving traveler from the small Whipple Hill parking lot on Winchester Drive (Johnson Rd. in Winchester) would have to follow Winchester Drive 0.7 mile down the long hill, turn right at the stoplight onto Lowell street, follow Lowell 0.4 mile to the light at Woburn Street (a busy stretch indeed), turn right onto Woburn, then left across traffic into Rolfe and a little peace and quiet...

With the "missing link" in place, the traveler coming from Whipple Hill can travel just 0.15 mile on Winchester Dr., then duck right to quiet on Tyler Road, right again on Blueberry Lane, and head into the Winning Farm forest to the right, near the middle of Blueberry Lane (0.35 mile from Winchester Dr.). After emerging from the forest onto Woburn St. close to the Lexington/Woburn line, our traveler will only need to cross Woburn St. and head left along maybe 0.05 mile of sidewalk before again leaving the bustle of traffic by turning right into Marshall Road, left on Fessenden, and finally right on Rolfe to find Shaker Glen.

The missing link avoids nearly a mile of busy roads with two traffic lights. It ties the Shaker Glen neighborhoods to the glorious Whipple Hill heights along walkable, friendly trails and sidewalks. What's not to like?

Links to Trails

Here are some links to maps or descriptions of trails.
I'll add to this list as time allows.

Please feel free to add your comments or suggestions of links to trail maps.

Massachusetts state park trails:
Mountain bike trail listings
All trails in Massachusetts state parks

Potential bridge sites in the Tophet Swamp

The "Minuteman Connector" part of the proposed West Lexington Greenway (WLG) project will have to cross Kiln Brook, the major stream flowing west from Lexington into the Shawsheen River in Bedford. On Saturday, March 3, I checked out one potential site for a bridge crossing one of the tributaries of Kiln Brook. This is the bridge labeled "1" on the Google Earth-derived projection here. Clicking on this photomap should allow an enlarged view.

This photomap of the project area in the Tophet Swamp conservation land may help in visualizing the challenges of siting a sustainable heavy-duty trail in this area. Two major branches of Kiln Brook flow from the bottom of the image, under Rt. 128/I-95, then join and flow to the right, toward the composting facility, and thence under Hartwell Avenue at the top of the image. These branches are mentioned as the northern (right) and southern (left) branches, in the discussion below. The gray-green areas along the streams are mostly wetlands or open water. Uplands where a trail could find a base of dry land show up as lighter gray in this image. Pines groves, with their green needles visible in some areas, also mark relatively dry uplands.

The photomap also shows where the current trail (in red) encroaches on the I-95 right-of-way. With no existing bridges across Kiln Brook, the current trail is forced onto the highway land in order to cross over several of the culverts which carry Kiln Brook under I-95. Even if the heavy-duty stone-dust version of the Minuteman Connector concept is proved infeasible, the town of Lexington still should install foot bridges to allow safe travel in this conservation land without the need to encroach on the highway right-of-way.

The area around bridge site "1" in the photomap was investigated a few weeks earlier by the WLG team. The current snow cover makes it easier now to pick out the traces of older trails through this low-lying landscape. With the leaves gone and the snow background making the trees stand out against the ground, the older trails are often easier to spot. I made a couple of photos to illustrate this opportunity to resurrect the older trail system as part of the basic framework for the proposed WLG trail system in this area. These photos show details of the bridge site labeled "1."

First is a view of the "peninsula" where the buried sewer line passes under a branch of Kiln Brook. (The current trail from the Minuteman Bikeway, marked in red in the photomap, runs straight as an arrow upon this sewer line, until it suddenly swerves left toward Rt. 128 and crosses a culvert just before this point.) The northern branch of Kiln Brook flows from the left around the end of the peninsula. The tributary from the right joins it, and they both flow away toward the upper right, not easily visible in this photo. The potential bridge site is on the right side of this photo, crossing the tributary. In this photo it appears as it was before I made a few tracks in the snow as a highlight.

The second photo is a view with tire tracks headed across the Kiln Brook tributary which drains the large area of open water between the trail and the composting facility. This photo clearly shows the opening between the trees on the other side, where the older trail had crossed that tributary in earlier days. The activities of beavers in the Kiln Brook/Tophet Swamp basin have apparently affected the water level of this tributary so that it is now nearly always too deep to cross casually. However, I remember crossing here with little difficulty when I first began to explore this area, nearly ten years ago. Fallen branches on the other side have also contributed to the obliteration of the older trail.

The land visible across the tributary is essentially an island when water levels are high. If the Minuteman Connector trail follows this route, it will still need to cross the main channel of Kiln Brook in order to continue south. One possibility might be to choose a path which will only cross the main channel, but from this "island," there is a substantial stretch of wetland to cross before arriving at the channel itself. The photomap shows this clearly.

An option which may result in less wetland crossing is shown photomap, based on using two bridges to cross first the northern branch, then the southern branch of Kiln Brook. There appear to be potential bridge sites (labeled 2 and 3) at which a bridge can butt on relatively higher ground on both sides. In this way, most of the trail in this area may be able to avoid wetlands and the need for raised boardwalk construction. Careful surveys will be needed to really evaluate this route, and the WLG team expects to draw on professional expertise obtained through Community Preservation Act funding to help bring this trail concept closer to reality.

Out on the snow and ice after two inches of rain...

I was afraid the nearly two inches of rain Friday would wipe out the ice for the winter. Worse, temperatures over 50 F. were forecast for Saturday. However, the overnight freezing fog raised my hopes, and I made an early start Saturday morning while the temperature was still below freezing. Black ice covered many streets, but where the rising sun struck dark frosty surfaces, billows of vapor showed the freezing temperatures would be fleeting. Meanwhile, I was glad to have the studded snow tires. Even the cars were slipping on the black ice.

The Minuteman bike trail just west of the Bedford Street crossing was still covered with snow, and I was delighted to see a lot of apparently solid ice, where the slushy mixture had frozen overnight. My glee turned to disgust as I broke through the top half-inch of ice and wallowed in several inches of liquid slush. Was this another wasted day for riding?

Luckily the slushpot was not too extensive. It only covered about 100 feet of the paved bike trail, but I decided to get to a wooded area as quickly as possible. Without pavement underneath, the water has a better chance to drain into the soil. With the school bus parking lot on my right, I cut left on the little trail across the playground, managed a couple of circles on top of the snow without breaking through the crust, then continued onto Garfield Street and the entrance to the Meagherville conservation land at the playground at the end of Garfield. The baseball field looked like a skating rink, the kind of area that makes ice biking so much fun. But again I was to find only disappointment as the thin ice over slush betrayed me, and I found myself pushing the bike through several inches of the gloppy stuff. The main trail into the woods in Meagherville was more favorable for riding, and I had an enjoyable ride on the white blazed trail, and the yellow blazed connecting trail back to Ward St. The ground fog was quite nice in the early sunlight, and I made a decent snapshot of one very nice ice stretch which really represents the opportunities for ice biking on the wooded trails.

I have high hopes for the prospects for great ice biking in the coming week. The temperatures are predicted to remain below freezing for nearly three days, with lows below 10 F. This will allow the slushy trails to really freeze solidly. It will be dangerous for anyone on foot without crampons, but it's shaping up to offer a few days of some of the best ice biking in recent years. It's too late for safe riding on the bodies of water, I think... That ice has been corrupted by the rain and warmth, and will not become safe again with only a couple of days of freezing. But the icy trails should be glorious, if I can get a few hours free to enjoy them....

After making my way back to the Minuteman Bikeway's railway bridge to cross 128 on the way towards Bedford, I turned left at the end of the wooden guardrail, onto the Tophet Swamp/Katahdin Woods trail. Although the softening snow crust made for slow riding and frequent walking, I took a few images of one of the larger fallen trees which block the trail. The arrow-straight trail in this section is no accident: It lies atop the sewer line, whose levee-like bed provides the only dry ground between Rt. 128 and the towering edge of the town's landfill/composting facility.

I also scouted out a potential crossing spot for the Minuteman Connector, for the location of a bridge across one branch of Kiln Brook. More on that tomorrow. It's late, and that's all for now... .

Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff under attack!!!

The highest point in Lexington is Whipple Hill. Or is it?

If you look in Google Earth, you will not find it marked at all... unless you happen to look in the backyard of a house on Bryant Rd. in Lexington. There, at the puny elevation of 184 feet, is the mark for Whipple Hill!!!

We all know that in reality, it towers 374 feet above sea level, affording views of Mount Wachusett to the west, and even Grand Monadnock, in New Hampshire, to the northwest.

What's behind this blasphemous attack on Whipple Hill? Are those west-coast-centric Googlers jealous of our soaring landmarks?

But that's not all. Google Earth has further insulted Lexington by placing Bloody Bluff almost half a mile north of the Battle Road! At least it's still in Lexington, but it is located up near Lincoln Labs just off Wood Street... Ridiculous! If the British regulars had tried to take that route back to Boston to escape the Minutemen, they would have soon found themselves floundering through the extensive bogs of Tophet Swamp!

However, now it's time to reveal the dirty truth behind these attacks on our town's identity, and what has been done to fix it. Yes, friends, it should be fixed the next time Google Earth refreshes its data from the official source.

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It turns out that Google Earth is not really the culprit in this case. They are simply pulling information from the official source for named places in the United States, the US Geological Survey's "Geographic Names Information System." So it turns out that the GNIS was wrong. After verifying the incorrect data in the GNIS, I sent them the correct information about Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff in a couple of emails. They agreed to change their database. Unfortunately, (as explained in the GNIS letter below) their model for elevation still cheats Whipple Hill of its true glory, resulting in a listed height of only 361 feet. This, despite their own USGS topographic maps showing a benchmark at 374 feet! For shame!

Side note: I could not find the round brass benchmark when I was up on Whipple Hill recently. Was it removed? Is this another part of the long-running conspiracy to discredit Whipple Hill, tracing back to the time it was known as Mount Whipple? And by the way, who sent those glaciers through here which resulted in Whipple Hill and all the other land around here being ground down to almost nothing? And...

Back to the GNIS errors: I couldn't figure out any simple mathematical reason for the two errors, such as transposing digits or substituting Degree-Minute-Second (DMS) notation for the fractional degrees used in GNIS. There doesn't appear to be any systematic error, and I only located two sites in Lexington which were mislabeled. If anyone finds other badly placed landmarks, please contact gnis_manager@usgs.gov, with a message similar to the ones below. (And add a note to this blog.)

The GNIS is an interesting system. They have a somewhat clumsy query interface to locate geographic names and features.

At the time I noticed the problems with Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff, I was trying to find the name of a prominent hill at the corner of Lincoln Street and I-95. Sadly, it is not included in the GNIS. If anyone knows the name of this hill, I'd be happy to hear about it! If not, perhaps the Town of Lexington can sell naming rights to the hill, with the income going into the mowing/maintenance fund for the town conservation lands...???

Back to the attack on Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff:

Here's the interesting (??) correspondence resulting from the problems with the two landmarks. For both letters, the GNIS response precedes my message to them. First is the message concerning Bloody Bluff:

From: Roger L Payne [mailto:rpayne@usgs.gov] On Behalf Of gnis_manager@usgs.gov
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 6:23 PM
To: Paul Knight
Cc: Louis A Yost; Maria L McCormick; Jane A Messenger; Kenneth B Fox; Sandra V Hoyle-Moore; Renee A Hughes; cpmatthys@usgs.gov; Jennifer E Runyon; Dwight S Hughes
Subject: Re: Incorrect info in GNIS: Whipple Hill, Lexington, Massachusetts

We have investigated and verified your suggested correction, and we have made the change to the entry in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the nation’s official geographic names repository. The geographic coordinates were incorrect as you indicate. The adjusted coordinates are precisely on the top of the feature, but yielded an elevation of only 361 feet. We have included below the FAQ from that area of our website that explains elevation. We have included in the description field of the entry that there are reports of the elevation being 374 feet. The corrected entry is now available at that website. Thank you once again for your interest.

How accurate is the elevation data in the GNIS Database? How was it measured?
The elevation data in GNIS are not official.
Only the geographic name and locative attributes are official.

The elevation data are from the National Elevation Dataset of the U.S. Geological Survey for the primary location of the feature (Coordinates Sequence = 1 in the Feature Detail Report).

The Primary coordinate values for communities are taken at the center of the "original" community meaning the city hall, main post office, main intersection, etc. For other areal features, coordinates are taken at the approximate center, and for reservoirs at the dam. The primary coordinates for features classified as summit (all uplifted features), are recorded at the highest point and for linear features (stream, valley, and arroyo) at the mouth.

The elevation figures in the GNIS are not official and do not represent precisely measured or surveyed values. The data are extracted from digital elevation models of the National Elevation Dataset for the given coordinates and might differ from elevations cited in other sources, including those published on USGS topographic maps. Published map data represent precisely surveyed points that often are marked by a benchmark or triangle on the map and a benchmark seal physically anchored into the ground at the site.

The variances between the GNIS elevation data and other sources generally arise from acceptable tolerances and will be most evident for features such as summits, where precision is of more concern, and where the local relief (rate of change of elevation) is more prominent. When the elevation figure is of particular note, for example the highest point in the State, then the actual elevation is recorded in the description field of the feature.

If the elevation figure for a particular feature seems significantly inaccurate, the feature coordinates might need adjusting and/or the elevation model data for those coordinates are not correct. For most purposes of general information, the elevation figures are sufficiently accurate. Efforts are continuously being made to improve the accuracy of both GNIS and NED data, the results of which will be reflected at this site.

For Lou Yost
Manager GNIS
703.648.4552

"Paul Knight" 02/13/2007 12:17 AM

To: gnis_manager@usgs.gov cc: "Karen Mullins" Subject: Incorrect info in GNIS: Whipple Hill, Lexington, Massachusetts

Esteemed GNIS Manager,

I'd like to bring to your attention an incorrect location and elevation for an entry in the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

Whipple Hill, ID# 612259, is incorrectly located in GNIS, over half a mile west of its true location, at a point with no distinguishing elevation (190 feet). The incorrect coordinates are 42.4423177N -71.1961663W.

The correct location is approximately 42.4422N -71.1837W, elevation 374 feet. This is correctly shown on USGS topographic maps, in the Lexington quadrangle.

This is a matter of some pride for Lexington, as this is the highest point in town.

We hope you'll make the correction to the GNIS database at your earliest convenience.

Best regards,
Paul Knight
Lexington Conservation Steward
Cc: Karen Mullins, Lexington Conservation Administrator
*********************************************************
Here is the message for Bloody Bluff:

From the GNIS folks:

Thank you once again. We have investigated and verified your suggested correction for the location of Bloody Bluff near Lexington in Massachusetts, and we have made the change to the entry in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the nation’s official geographic names repository. The corrected entry is now available at that website. Thank you once again for your interest.

For Lou Yost
Manager GNIS
703.648.4552

"Paul Knight" 02/13/2007 12:54 AM

To: gnis_manager@usgs.gov cc: "Karen Mullins" Subject: Incorrect info in GNIS: Bloody Bluff, Lexington, Massachusetts

Esteemed GNIS Manager,

I'd like to bring to your attention an incorrect location for an entry
in the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

Bloody Bluff, ID# 607039, is incorrectly located in GNIS, about 0.4
miles north of its true location. The incorrect coordinates are
42.453706N -71.2633902W.

The correct location is approximately 42.4475N -71.2651W. The elevation
at the top of Bloody Bluff is approximately 230 feet, and approximately
200 feet at the base.

This is a matter of some pride for Lexington, as this is site of an
engagement between the Minutemen and the British, along the Battle Road.
You may wish to refer to the National Park Service map of the Minute Man
National Historic Park, where this point is labeled simply "The Bluff."

(see http://www.nps.gov/mima/planyourvisit/upload/MIMA%20Park%20Map.pdf)

We hope you'll make the correction to the GNIS database at your earliest
convenience.

Best regards,
Paul Knight
Lexington Conservation Steward
Cc: Karen Mullins, Lexington Conservation Administrator

A Loop Trail around Lexington

I've scouted out a set of trails and low-traffic roads which together form a nice loop around Lexington. I have never yet ridden the entire loop while keeping track of my odometer, and I have not even marked off the loop in gmap-pedometer to determine the length of the circuit. I think it can be made quite close to the length of a Marathon, so I've been calling this circuit the "Lexathon." Some people think it sounds like a fund-raising event on TV...

So far I have used relatively low-tech tools just to get the concept out of my head and onto a shareable medium. I scanned a nice map (which shows most of the Lexington conservation lands as well as the roads) from the Community Phonebook Company into a bitmap file, and used Microsoft Paint to draw the trails, along with some alternative routes. Saving the bitmap file as jpeg makes it small enough to email (one meg instead of six). However, I'm doing all the editing work on the bitmap file, since it preserves the quality better than jpeg.

Okay, enough talking... here's the current map, version 1.92:

It's been updated to show the entrance from Laconia Street into the Lower Vine Brook conservation land. Thanks to the local residents who pointed it out to me!

If you're interested, you may want to save the image on your computer and print it out.

I think the key blocks are somewhat self-explanatory, but post a reply here if you have some questions.

Condition of the Loop

Many of these trails are ROUGH. Some barely exist, especially when the weeds and brush grow during the spring and summer. If you are interested in helping to keep the existing trails open, please contact the Steward for the area to get permission.

The segments marked in green on the map are barely-existent (or even non-existent), or cross private land, or both. Don't expect to ride those sections, although you might be able to pass through on foot.

For bicyclists, note that all of the trails in Lexington are for use at your own risk. You are responsible for knowing what is rideable for yourself at your own skill level. There are numerous sections where it may be safest to dismount and walk. And remember, any walkers or horseback riders have the right-of-way.

Ice Biking

One of the great things about winter in Massachusetts is that it usually gets cold enough to form safe thicknesses of ice on the numerous ponds, streams, and often even the rivers -- for at least a few weeks each year. This opens a wonderful range of areas for exploration, many of which are normally fairly difficult to visit. The watery swamps become glazed skating ponds when conditions are right, and it's fun to imagine the thoughts of the beavers swimming under the ice as they hear me passing by over their heads.

Appropriate tires for my bicycle are the keys to opening up the icy playground. The only reasonable approach is to buy metal studded snow tires. Although it's possible to make them at home using screws set in heavy-duty tires, please take my word that trying that route will only result in a dangerous, failure-prone mess. My Nokian Extreme 296 tires are worth every penny in healthy fun. I have ridden hundreds of miles on them for the last three winters, and they show no significant signs of wear. I expect to keep them for many more years to come. The 296 tiny metal studs only protrude a few millimeters, so they are not much of a danger when (given my penchant for trying to push my limitations in every situation) I end up tangled in, under, or around the bike. Since the tires are fairly heavy, and could damage the roots of trees when there is no snow or ice cover, I only use them after the ground has frozen solid and there is ice on the trails. On beautiful shiny ice, the studded snow tires give great traction. Not quite like rubber on clean pavement, but more like rubber on sandy pavement. You can slide if you want to, but with a little care you have complete control.

It's a lot of fun riding out to visit the ice fishermen, circle the hockey players on the ponds, and ride circles around pedestrians struggling simply to walk on the slippery ice in areas like the Old North Bridge in Concord. But really, the most fun is exploring the streams, swamps, and rivers which become highways to solitude.

A couple of weeks ago I rode out on the Concord River between Bedford and Carlisle in Massachusetts. This was part of a 25-mile ride (mostly off-road) that day. It's amazing how fast the miles add up when you can get moving at 20+ miles per hours over the smooth ice! The photo shows my bike on the ice, looking toward some huge riverside houses in Carlisle, about half a mile downstream (north) of a public access point at Riverside Avenue in Bedford.

Enjoyable ice biking requires a fine balance between the snow cover, and the air and water temperatures over an extended period. Too much snow simply stops the bike from traveling anywhere but on plowed roads and sidewalks. Dangerous on the roads, and boring on the sidewalks! Even an inch of snow on top of glare ice can often be tricky, since it keeps the metal studs from reaching the ice, and the result is a quick slip and slide. I find it painful to ride below about 15 Fahrenheit (-10 C), so my ideal conditions call for overnight temperatures well below freezing and daytime high temperatures around freezing. An extended period of cold weather without snow cover helps to cool the water in the streams and rivers. If there is an insulating snow cover, the ground water can remain too warm to allow the streams to develop safe thicknesses of ice.

What is a safe thickness of ice? Two inches (5 cm) is a minimum on a small pond, but if there is running water or a deep pond, I don't feel safe until the ice reaches four inches (10 cm). (I remember an old article in Boy's Life magazine stating that 4 inches will support an automobile safely.) For a river with minimal current such as most of the Concord River near Lexington, I look for six or more inches. Any stretches of river with significant current, such as around bridges or narrow stretches, I simply avoid. This is not a place to take risks.

As the winter days lengthen in February, the sun delivers enough energy to melt the ice on the northern edges of ponds and streams, even while the air temperatures remain below freezing. This is especially likely where the dark soil lies directly below the ice. This can lead an unsuspecting adventurer to a sudden encounter with a cold mucky stream bed. Luckily, this nearly always occurs in shallow water, or where the ice is directly on top of the muddy bottom.

Speaking of tricky ice situations, another danger in riding on rivers is the likelihood of thin ice at points where other streams flow in. Even the smallest streams (or maybe especially the smallest streams) can contain warmer water, or salt from road drainage, which can lead to thinner ice. Watch out!

My favorite conditions for ice biking occur when a thick glaze of ice forms atop the snow. In these conditions, the whole world becomes my playground. The snow cover turns steep rocky drops into evenly graded slopes, so I can ride up areas which require dismounting in other conditions. The studded tires bite into the ice glaze, and I glide over every obstacle, dodging between trees, over the undergrowth hidden below the snow ...until I reach the evergreen forest, where inevitably the snow's glaze is thinner and I sink into the fluff...

West Lexington Greenway Project

Some of the Lexington trail folks (Stewards and others) have been kicking around the idea of a link between the Minuteman Bikeway and the Battle Road Trail in the Minuteman National Historic Park for over ten years now. Harvey Bingham and Colleen Haggerty documented some possibilities here in 1997.

A few years ago I started exploring the Tophet Swamp and Katahdin Woods conservation areas, and quickly came to love the nearly-unknown landscape of swamps, slow-flowing streams, powerline clearings, and forest. The unmarked and poorly maintained trails of the area kept out all but the most adventurous wanderers, and I nearly always had the area to myself. This is a land of beaver dams, ducks, foxes, deer, hawks, owls, and other interesting wildlife.

I have tried to keep the trails open, at least enough to pass through with a mountain bike, but often found I spend much of my planned riding time simply clearing away fast-growing brush and fallen branches and trees. Some of the larger trees blocking the trails are too big for my hand tools, and have become interesting tests of bike-hopping skill. While not wanting to abandon the trails to their natural fate, I often didn't have time after clearing a section of trail in the Tophet/Katahdin land to continue my planned route. I didn't have time to continue my explorations of the many other great trails which afford a huge variety of riding and walking experiences in Lexington and the surrounding towns. It was time to think of a long-term strategy for maintaining the trails in this area.

The several branches of Kiln Brook crossing the area force the existing informal trail to run onto the nearby highway right-of-way in several places, not an acceptable long-term arrangement. The trail bed cannot sustain much traffic in the wetter areas, and is often essentially impassable for many would-be visitors, particularly those with limited mobility.

Katahdin stream crossing – one of the easier ones

There had to be a better way to maintain access to the area and allow more people to appreciate its beauty (despite the noise from nearby I-95/128). Discussing this with some of the Stewards who have been involved with improving trails in other parts of the town led to the realization that development of a sustainable trail in this area would be an undertaking beyond the range of our volunteer capabilities. We need a professional assessment of how (or even whether) to route a trail across the wetlands and larger streams to establish a legal trail on the town conservation land, preferably as far from the constant roar of highway traffic as possible. We also want to coordinate the planning with residents adjoining the town conservation lands, to ensure their interests are supported. We have worked with the Town on a plan to request some Community Preservation funds to develop a professional master plan for this stretch, as well as adjoining public lands. The plan will guide further investments in the entire corridor over the next several years, most of which are expected to be funded largely by state or Federal sources, with the master plan providing the documentation to support the further funding requests.

In addition to the highway right-of-way issues, several parts of the existing trails in the Tophet Swamp and Katahdin Woods are not suitable for heavy use now, because there would be excessive erosion in wet areas. It is likely that some extensive boardwalks will be needed. Even outside the swamp-and stream areas, the main connecting trail has several patches which hold water during wetter periods. Our current thinking (without the detailed analysis which will be done in the master plan) is to plan for a "connector trail" similar in quality to the Battle Road, of stabilized stone dust 8-12 feet wide, suitable for wheelchairs and bicycles in addition to walkers.

Mudhole on the Katahdin trail

In addition to the connector between the Minuteman Bikeway and the Battle Road, there are trails across several nearby areas of conservation and preserved land (Simonds Brook, Paint Mine & Hennessey’s Field, and Cranberry Hill & Cambridge Reservoir land) which can be linked into a unified trail system connecting nearly all the public lands in Lexington west of I-95/128. These existing trails stretch from Lincoln Street in the south to Grove Street and Turning Mill Road in the north, nearly four miles. Our current thinking for these trails to the north and south of the "Connector" section is to leave them as walking or mountain bike trails, fixing the bridges, clearing brush, establishing signs, and making them more attractive without major construction work. However, the master plan, with plenty of input from Lexington residents during its development, will be the vehicle for establishing these choices.

Of Lexington’s 30,000 residents, I doubt that more than 30 have covered these four miles of beautiful and secluded trails in the course of a day, simply because they are not properly identified, maintained, and publicized. Many people drive great distances to enjoy a similar hike, when they could find it almost at their doorsteps. The West Lexington Greenway project is intended to develop a professional long-term plan for managing this corridor and developing and maintaining the trails in it, to allow many more people to have the opportunity to enjoy this treasure in our back yards.

High stone wall - Cambridge Reservoir trail

The Trail Begins

Trails go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

- adapted from The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Trail, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. Do you realize that this is the very path that goes through Mirkwood, and that if you let it, it might take you to the Lonely Mountain or even worse places?"

- adapted from Frodo's quotation of Bilbo's ruminations, in The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein

Although Tolkein used the word "Road" instead of "Trail," the roads of Middle-Earth were not inhabited by deadly roaring machines – they were more like the trails where today we travel
to seek enjoyment of each moment, not simply to reach a destination... so I feel justified in using “Trail” in the quotes instead of "Road." Tolkein’s point about the interconnectedness of the world's pathways often springs to mind as I explore the local trails around my adopted hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts.

Many Massachusetts towns have developed collections of “Conservation Lands” under public ownership, which offer miles of trails for the enjoyment of anyone lucky enough to find them. I plan to share information on these trails in this blog.