Bike mob: Ayer, Dunstable, Camberville

[dmaze]

At least nuclearpolymer and I will be heading out bright and early Saturday morning for Ayer, the Nashua River Rail Trail, and then back to Boston. The trail itself is pretty nice; think of the Minuteman, except more rural, a little more consistently uphill, and much less populated. The return route is a little up in the air, but will probably be either "via Westford, Carlisle, and the Minuteman" or "strategically avoiding Lowell then following the commuter rail". The full route will probably be somewhere over 50 miles, though I haven't added it up for real. (Google Maps thinks it's 44 miles from the end of the trail to my new home, but that going northeast on 495 from Lowell; our route should be more direct.)

This is a "take the train out" trip. We're going to be leaving bright and early: train #1405 leaves North Station at 8;35, Porter at 8:45, and Belmont Center at 8:50, getting to Ayer at 9:44. Commuter rail fare should be $6, $5 from Belmont. It'll be warm, so make sure to bring enough water. We'll be finding lunch along the way.

Let me know if you're interested, or be on the train. Left to my own, I'll pick the route that's harder to stop early on, so also let me know if you actively want the route that follows the Lowell commuter rail back.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

I'm busy, alas. fredrickegerman might be interested, or might be tooling frantically for his conference presentation, I can't predict. But it'd be worth dropping him an email, which is probably a more reliable communication method than LJ (though I'm not sure about that either. :) )

[76trombones.livejournal.com]

I am interested. I should probably try to nail that interest down a bit, though, because if I join you, I will want the ability to punt early. (Hm, how much of the return trip is downhill?)

[76trombones.livejournal.com]

I'll be decisive! I want to join you. And if the no-commuter-rail-on-return version of the route can be approximated in length/difficulty by "what I did last time, plus the Minuteman at the end" then I am OK with that plan.

[dmaze]

Hmm. Google Maps thinks that it's 25 miles from the end of one bike path to the end of the other, via US-3, which is reasonably direct. I make no promises on difficulty, beyond that the route I'm eyeing has no hill arrows on the bike map (and wow Westford Center is at the top of a hill). But beyond that, that assessment sounds about right (NRRT ~= 10 mi, + 25 mi, + Minuteman). Funny how, when you've done it enough times, making the Minuteman your last ten miles feels like you're "almost home"...

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

There's a train station in Belmont Center? I might try to go there.

[dmaze]

Yeah, that was why I suggested it. The train does force some amount of promptness, but that makes it pretty easy to coordinate too.

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

I'll probably go to Porter, because the Belmont stop is request only on weekends, and I'm afraid they won't see me on the platform.