|
Say “Boston” to an athlete and the word “Marathon” usually follows.
But the world’s most famous running race is just the tip of the aerobic iceberg
in this venerable New England city of 475,000. The Hub, as it’s known, is bursting with
history—and historic places to walk, run, ride, and roll. If you find yourself in
Beantown, here’s where to walk, run, and bike.
Walk
The Freedom Trail: One of the world’s best inner-city walking routes is a
2.5-mile red stripe painted on the sidewalk. The Freedom Trail leads you past 16 historic
downtown sights from the Boston Common (America’s oldest public park) to Bunker Hill
(scene of a bloody battle early in the Revolutionary War). Other must-sees include the Old
North Church (where Paul Revere began his famous “The British are coming” ride),
the Granary Burial Ground (where Revere, John Hancock, and Sam Adams are interred), and the
U.S.S. Constitution (aka “Old Ironsides,” the oldest commissioned U.S. warship,
circa 1797).
Run
The Emerald Necklace: “It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, and to
Boston runners, it practically is,” says John Ellis, a manager at the Bill Rodgers
Running Center. The brainchild of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), a visionary
landscape architect who also worked on Central Park, Niagara Falls, and Yosemite, the
Emerald Necklace is an urban greenbelt that connects a chain of six parks running for
more than 7 miles.
Starting near downtown at Boston Common and the Public Garden, the Necklace runs west
through Boston and Brookline all the way to Franklin Park. Following the tree-lined Muddy
River, a tributary of the Charles, the greenbelt connects some of Boston’s most
famous sites, including the Red Sox’s Fenway Park, the world-renowned Arnold
Arboretum, and the so-called “jewel of the necklace,” 60-acre Jamaica Park,
home of famous Jamaica Pond. Crystal-clear and more than 90 feet deep in spots, this
natural springs-fed sinkhole is a favorite of boaters as well as runners. If you’re
lucky, you’ll run into Bill Rodgers, winner of four New York and Boston marathons,
on the 1.5-mile loop around the pond.
The Charles River: Separating Boston from its northern neighbor Cambridge, the Charles
is lined with a concrete path on both banks all the way to the suburb of Watertown. The
round-trip distance is a whopping 16.7 miles. The first five miles snake past the
grounds of four world-class universities: Harvard, M.I.T., Boston University, and
Emerson College.
Runners typically measure their mileage by bridges—14 span the Charles. Downtown, the
wide river is spanned by the Science Museum, Longfellow, and Harvard bridges. Eight miles
upstream, the Charles is narrower and crossed by the tiny Thompson Footbridge and the
Bridge Street Bridge in Watertown.
Contact: Boston Running Club, http://www.brc.org,
or call 617-964-7802
Bike
The Minute Man Bike Path: While cyclists are common on the Emerald Necklace and
Charles River paths, the most famous bike path in Boston is the newest: the 13-mile Minute
Man, just four years old. Starting in Davis Square in Somerville (the town north
of Cambridge), this popular biker and skater freeway heads northwest to the towns of
Lexington and Bedford. Although flat and easy, it is a dazzling journey into history.
The Minute Man passes through neighborhoods of colonial mansions, inns, and ornate wooden
churches that look remarkably unchanged from 230 years ago, when the Revolutionary War
began. The route is situated just a block from Massachusetts Avenue, where Paul Revere
made his Midnight Ride and the British fired “the shot heard ’round the world”
that started the war.
In Lexington, where that shot was fired on April 19, 1775, you can branch off the bike path
and head to famed Walden Pond, which draws huge summertime crowds to its beaches and
swimmable (but not drinkable) waters. Ambitious riders can tackle the area’s rolling
rural roads and short, nasty climbs. If you end your Minute Man ride back in Somerville,
you’ll have the opportunity to experience a unique Boston cycling tradition: Redbones
Restaurant in Davis Square. Redbones is the home of 24 kinds of beers, four types of
Southern-barbecued ribs, and the world’s only valet bicycle parking. How’s
that for a Revolution?
Contact: Belmont Wheelworks, 617-489-3577; Mass Bike 617-542-2453 (maps only: 617-625-2067);
Redbones Restaurant, 55 Chester St., Somerville, 617-628-2200
Assault on Mt. Greylock: There are no mountains in or near Boston, so if you want
some hard-core climbing, you have to drive two hours west. The payoff: Relentless hills
capped by an extremely hard climb up 3,491-foot Mt. Greylock, the highest point in
Massachusetts.
Directions: For a tough 70-miler, park in the town of Greenfield and pedal northwest on
wide-shouldered Route 2. Dubbed the “Mohawk Trail” in honor of the long-departed
natives, it passes through green, rolling terrain peppered with broken-down dairy farms
and depopulated mill towns. A 4-mile, 1,500-foot climb and descent eventually lead to
North Adams, the gateway to Mt. Greylock. Then, be prepared for a shock.
The locals call it the “Head Wall,” a 6-mile climb that initially ascends nearly
700 feet per mile. The pitch is a lung-wheezing, quad-swelling 12 percent that mellows
to a mere 8 percent—“typical New England,” they say. Nestled in a deep
green tunnel of pine, maple, and oak, the road offers no real view until the top, when the
grade flattens and a 360-degree panorama unfolds. At the summit is Bascomb Lodge, a
concession stand, and a stunning view of the Berkshire Hills.
|
