This morning, before I was to meet up with my friends to go apple picking, I decided to do a little more sightseeing in Concord. My first place of visit was the
Walden Pond State Reservation.
From the parking area at 915 Walden Street, I headed down the Pine Hill Spur to the view of Goose Pond.
From here, I took the trail back to the parking lot, and across Walden Street to the main beach at Walden Pond.
From here, my original intention was to go up the Esker Trail, but I ended up crossing back across Walden Street and heading up the Pine Hill Access Road. After I realized my mistake, I backtracked across the road and finally found the Esker Trail. From here, my original intention was to head onto the Emerson's Cliff Trail to reach the viewpoint there, but the trail was so hidden that I overlooked it totally, ending up crossing the commuter railway line in an attempt to find the path.
When I realized my mistake, I decided to reach the viewpoint from the other side, by heading along Fire Road South, which turns into the Heywood Meadow Trail that passes by the waterlogged meadow.
Finally, I found the path and headed up Emerson's Cliff. There was nothing much to see up here though.
From the top of Emerson's Cliff, I went back down to the Esker Trail, and headed toward Walden Pond itself on the Pond Path. Pictures of the pond, in which people were swimming or fishing, follow.
While walking along the pond, I spotted a heron hunting for fish.
From the Pond Path, I headed to the Wyman Path, which goes around the Wyman Meadow, and onto the Sherwood Trail to go back to the Main Beach
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| Wyman Meadow |
From here, I headed back to my car, passing by a model of the Henry David Thoreau cabin and his statue.
The last place of visit in Concord before I left to join my friends for apple picking was the
Middlesex School, a private high school that seemed pretty upscale considering the beautiful campus I saw.
It was fun to return to
Touga's Farm after visitng it just
2 days ago, and boy did things change in that short amount of time. On a Sunday afternoon, the place was packed with people. There were tractors ferrying people around in carts, and my favorite honeycrisp apples were no longer on the list of apples to pick.
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| The huge crowd |
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| Tractors ferrying people |
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| Instructions on picking apples |
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| Sunflower |
I had a great time trying all sorts of apples, and a good one included the Cranston Apple. After a great lunch at
JJ's Sports Bar and Grill in Northborough with my friends, it was back to sightseeing in Concord for me.
White Pond was where I visited next. Highlighted in pink below is the path I took from the parking area close to the junction of Shore Street and Dover Street.
The pond was a beautiful place, but quite a climb down to get to as the slopes were very steep. I saw a couple playing fetch with their little dog in the clear water, and it was fun to see the little dog paddling in the water to get back to shore, while trying to breath through its open mouth constantly filling with pond water.
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| View from Squaw Sachem Cove |
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| Cute dog fetching a stick |
The next place I visited was Harrington Park. This place was really hard to find because the entrance to the place along Harrington Avenue close to its junction on South Street. The paths were really overgrown as well. The path I took, which was quite simply from the parking area to the Assabet River shoreline, is shown below.
Overall, there was nothing much to see here except for this view of the
Assabet River.
The next place I went to was
Cousin's Park, which is directly opposite Harrington Park on the Assabet River. Here there is an open playing field right next to the parking area on Brown Street at its junction with Prairie Street, and an interesting garden where I took a few pictures of the flowers which were full of bees, and I also managed to capture a monarch butterfly.
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| Monarch butterfly |
The path I then took to reach the Assabet River is shown below in black.
At the Assabet River shoreline, I took a few nice pictures of the scenery.
Next I headed to the Concord section of the
Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The entrance to this place is a little hard to spot because the driveway is between private property, but as you are about to turn right while driving on Monsen Road into a dead end, the entrance to the refuge is right at that corner of the turn on your left, bounded by a wooden fence.
There is an observation tower at the parking area, and it was here I took great pictures of the wetlands. I decided not to walk the trails then.
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| The Observation Tower |
The next place I went to was the
Old Calf Pasture at 240 Lowell Road. The path I took is highlighted below.
I could not find the return path, so I ended up emerging on Keyes Road and walking along the road back to my car.
The lsat place I visited in Concord for the day was the historic
Old Manse, where various famous authors used to stay, with the
Old North Bridge nearby. This is a really scenic historical place, with great views of the Concord River and memorials commemorating the battle of Concord during the American Revolutionary War for Independence
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| The Old Manse |
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| The Concord River |
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The Old Manse boathouse
from Old North Bridge |
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| The Old Manse from behind |
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| Minuteman Statue |
The Old North Bridge
From the boathouse itself near the Old Manse, I walked on a rickety pier that seemed like it was going to collapse at any moment, but I managed not to get wet after all.
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| The bridge from the boathouse |
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| The Boathouse from the pier |
With that, and the sun setting, I decided not to tackle the Punkatasset Conservation Land trails today, heading to the town of Lincoln to start my exploration there. Before the darkness finally set in, I managed to take pictures of 2 more places.
My original intention was to have dinner at the
AKA Bistro nearby, but apparently it was closed for Columbus Day, which unfortunately is not a company holiday for me, so I headed home for dinner instead, and that was the end of a long sightseeing day.
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