5 miles of beauty

[dmaze]

My goal for today was to bike 30 miles, but I didn't have a clear destination in mind. This is the kind of awkward distance where you're clearly Going Somewhere but the local geography makes it hard to find an interesting route. I wound up heading up through Winchester and Woburn, then up route 3A into Billerica, then back down towards the bike path, totaling a little over 34 miles. (Route map)

For next time I really should try harder to come up with a good plan. I wound up changing course midway because I decided the original plan was too short, but even so, the Main Street, Winn Street, 3A route was pretty much all pretty depressing. Heading southwest out of Billerica Center was pretty nice, though, and going through the VA Hospital grounds in Bedford was pretty worthwhile. And then...well, the Minuteman is the Minuteman, and around mile 27 I started wearing down.

I've also concluded that Japanese knotweed is the cue dot of the horticultural world: unless you know what you're looking for, you don't notice it, but once you do, it's everywhere. Like pretty much the entire length of the bike path.