Check "Bicycling" under the Google Maps More... menu to turn bike paths and lanes a startling fluorescent green.
Lexington's big blower was out clearing the path at mid-day today, doing a nice job with the winter debris. There's a clear contrast as you reach Bedford.
Today: 8 miles. This year: 35.5 miles.
A footpath enters the trail across from Joyce Miller's Meadow and alongside the footpath stands a sign erased by the weather. To my eyes, it looks like the triplet of two signs along the trail in East Arlington.
Years back, there was a whole series of tepee frames along the trail in East Lexington, near the Great Meadow. Now one, at least, has reappeared.
Today: 8.7 miles. This year: 27.5 miles.
The last of the ice and snow is along the deepest shaded areas of the trail and off-trail on the vernal pools. What was under all that ice? Acorns, millions of acorns.
South of the trail, west of Route 128
Near Tophet Swamp
No full-width puddles, no ice-lined bottlenecks. Plenty of small debris.
East of Hartwell Avenue
Today: 8 miles. This year: 10.8 miles.
On or before June 24th, I will weigh 139 pounds. I will run 3.5 miles in 45 minutes or less. I will skate 407 miles.
Why these oddly specific ambitions?
Long-time readers know that I reached 139 pounds (BMI = 22) in my office weight-loss group in 2008. It's time to get back there. June 24th brings this year's Boston edition of the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. Unimpressive as it seems, a running time of 45 minutes puts me well ahead of the slowest runners from my company. And finally, 407 more miles of skating brings my lifetime recorded total to eleven thousand miles. Sometime in 2011 I'll hit 12,500 miles: half-way around the world.
Skating west from Lexington Center today I made it past some spotty ice short of Merriam Street, but had to turn around short of the Lexington DPW. Eastbound was passable until I met widespread ice 60 or 70 yards east of Woburn Street. In each location the ice is thin but deeply shaded, so it'll melt when the air is warm. A cold, sunny day won't do it.
Today: 2.8 miles.
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