I continued today where I left off
yesterday in the town of Townsend, heading to the town common area on the corner of Main Street and School Street, with a few interesting buildings and monuments in the area.
Templeton Town Common
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| Townsend Memorial Hall, 272 Main Street |
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| Old Hart Free Library, 276 Main Street |
Other areas I went to in Townsend before heading to the town of Groton follow.
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Townsend Upper Common,
Main Street and Turnpike Road |
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| Townsend Senior Center, 16 Dudley Road |
The first place I happened to pass by in Groton was the Carole Wheeler Memorial Park on the corner of Groton Road and Townsend Road. There are really nice views of
Squannacook River here with a waterfall as well.
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| Squannacook River |
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| Carole Wheeler Memorial Park |
I next went to the
Nashoba Paddler, where you can rent canoes and kayaks out to row on the
Nashua River during the summer and fall months. It wasn't open, but there is a decent view of the Nashua River from the bridge on West Main Street.
I next went to the
Groton School, a private boarding school which had a pretty nice campus.
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| St. John's Chapel |
It was time for the first hike of the day, at
Bates Conservation Land. The parking area can be found on Old Ayer Road closed to Peabody Street. The path I took here is highlighted below in pink.
Walking all the way to the supposed viewpoints, the views were okay, being slightly obscured by the trees there.
Moving a little further to the grassy area, there were also some nice views here as well.
Eventually, I emerged onto Indian Hills Road, and walked along it back to Old Ayer Road, then along that back to my car.
Next before heading to the
Lawrence Academy, I visited some interesting buildings.
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Groton Town Hall,
173 Main Street |
The Lawrence Academy has a pretty good looking campus, and as it is sited on top of a hill, there are good views of the surroundings as well.
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| Lawrence Academy |
Views from Lawrence Academy
Moving on, I wanted to find the
Bancroft Castle, thinking it was up on Gibbet Hill Road on Lowell Road, close to its intersection with Shattuck Street, but I soon realized that there is a trail leading to it from Lowell Road, going around the farm there up the hill to the castle ruins itself.
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| Bancroft Castle |
The views from the top of the hill was also fantastic.
Views from Bancroft Castle
After getting back down to my car, I decided to head for lunch at the
Mango Grill in Ayer as the restaurants in Groton were closed for Christmas. Along the way however, I came onto an open field called the General Field Conservation Area, found at 400 Farmers Row. This place has a great view of the surroundings as can be seen from the pictures below.
Finally in Ayer, I passed by several interesting buildings along the way to lunch.
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| Ayer Post Office, 1 Columbia Street |
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| Ayer Town Hall, 1 Main Street |
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| Old Ayer Fire Station, 15 Washington Street |
The Mango Grill is a Chinese-Thai fusion restaurant with pretty decent decor. I decided to get the special, the Spicy Seafood Pad Thai, which was delicious.
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| The Mango Grill |
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| Spicy Seafood Pad Thai |
After lunch, I decided to stay in Ayer to finish the town before heading back to Groton. The various places I visited in town follow.
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Grove Pond from Pirone Park,
Bligh Street and School Street |
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Sandy Pond Beach,
Sandy Pond Road and Snake Hill Road |
Done with Ayer, I decided to head back to Groton while the sun was still out, and went hiking at the
Gamlin Picnic Site, located on Fitch Bridge Road near Gratuity Road. The route I took is shown below in pink.
The hike seemed promising enough at first, with a nice view of the Nashua River as Tully Brook enters into it, as shown below.
However, I could not find the return path, so I decided to give up and backtrack to my car. This place, not recommended.
Next, I went to hike at
Shepley Hill. The route I took is highlighted below in pink.
This place is used for horse riding, hence there were a lot of barriers here. I was hoping that there would be views from both drumlins, but as it turned out, all I saw was trees here. Hence, I ended up not taking any pictures here.
The last place I went to today was
Wattles Pond along Longley Road near Paquawket Path. There is a trail here, and the path I took is highlighted below in pink.
I wanted to get to the top of the knoll to find the viewpoint, but I could not find it and gave up. The only view I got was of Wattles Pond from the road.
Done with hiking for the day, after 3 wasted trips, I decided to head back for dinner with a friend at
Sichuan Gourmet in Framingham. Even though I had made a reservation, the restaurant was so full that we still had to wait for about 20 minutes before finally getting a seat. When we did, we ordered the Chinese Eggplant with YuXiang Sauce, and the Old Sichuan Chicken dish. The food was delicious, but my friend's appetite was very small, so we ended up having a lot of leftovers, which I brought home because my friend wanted to maintain her diet.
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| Eggplant with YuXiang Sauce |
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| Old Sichuan Chicken |
With that, I was done sightseeing for the day.
Templeton Town Common
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