I recently met a lady at an open house who got me pretty excited about the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail. She lives in Hudson and says she accesses the trail near her home. My youngest daughter and I decided to check out this trail, so we went to an access point within reasonable driving distance – – we parked in a lot in Acton, but based on how far off of the highway it was, we probably would have been better parking at the lot near the Concord rotary.
As the cycling season is winding down, you may want to bookmark this for the spring, but it was a great trail, so close to home! We ended up doing a stretch of the trail from Acton through to West Concord, at the commuter rail stop. There were so many pleasant surprises on our route. Everything was so clearly marked, and because parts of it ran behind businesses on Route 2A, we actually could’ve gone off trail and to Trader Joe’s and a lot of eating spots.
The section of the trail we were on also crossed over Route 2, via a pedestrian bridge, shortly before the Concord rotary. We passed a horse farm and some beautiful pond areas that literally looked like they wanted to be paintings. There was a spotless restroom facility, a water bottle refilling station, and even a workbench with every tool you could need to repair your bicycle–wired to the workbench, of course. When I told my son about this workbench, he noted that there was one elsewhere in Central Mass and all the tools had been snipped off, but I was in Concord.
While I was surprised to see the water bottle filling station, and the bicycle repair workbench, the biggest surprise on this trail was a Poetry Telephone Booth. What is a Poetry Telephone Booth, you ask? Me too! This was a repurposed telephone booth, and you picked up the receiver and pressed the button for your choice of poems. I chose a poem called Ryan James by Jim Leahy, which was a whimsical poem about a man with two first names, one of them being his last name, which was also a first name. The poem was read aloud by a mystery voice speaking to me through the receiver of the phone in the repurposed telephone booth.
We did not go off trail to get a sub, a latte, or even an açai bowl – – all of which were temptingly available right off of the trail. We were there to get a little exercise, not a little snack. I look forward to exploring more of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in the Spring, and will have some lunch money along!
