The volunteer trail builders of the Harvard Conservation Trust have been at it again, creating another well-marked trail on the Eastern Greenway, this time on the central portion. The new trailhead is marked by a yardarm on the left-hand side of Stow Road coming from Route 111, before the intersection with Codman Hill Road. Be on the lookout for poison ivy along the roadside where you park and begin the walk..
The central portion of the Eastern Greenway is very well marked with fresh blazes and logs in some spots. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
When I walked the trail recently, I felt I was meandering under the lush green canopy of a hardwood forest. From Stow Road this undulating trail rolls comfortably over consistently uphill terrain; looks down on a ravine, wetlands, and three vernal pools, which are dry for now; and cuts through picturesque gateways in the stone walls, reminding me of illustrations by Beatrix Potter.
In a little over half a mile from Stow Road, after passing through the third “gate” in one of the many stone walls that crisscross the property, I arrived at a T intersection. The trail to the right ends at a tower enclosed by security fencing. The trail to the left will soon intersect with one that will lead onto the Burgess-Brown land. Walking past the trail to Burgess-Brown, the new trail continues on to the trails on Great Elms and Brehm lands.
And that is what is so great about this new trail: I can walk a long loop, which could include Burgess-Brown Land and its magnificent glacial boulder, or bypass the Burgess-Brown trail to different loops, even a possible figure-eight loop, through and around Great Elms and Brehm land.
For example, if time and energy are limited, an approximately 1.5-mile loop is possible with the new trail. At the T intersection just mentioned, take a left at the next three-trail intersection. Go a short distance to a link trail on the left, marked by a pink ribbon on a tree branch, which leads back to the new trail. At the intersection, take a right back to Stow Road.
But if you miss the link with the pink ribbon, continue walking straight on the trail (marked with blue spray paint, not the blue tags nailed on trees) and you will be led back to Stow Road at a point just about 20 feet from the yardarm.
By presenting the options of a variety of loop walks, this new trail adds to my opportunities to see the familiar trails and landscape from different directions and angles. Instead of letting my mind wander as I walk, I intend to pay attention to the weather and wind, the sun and shadows, the terrain and landforms, the sounds and scents, the trees and plants, the established trail bed and route markings.
Deep down, I enjoy that feeling of being slightly turned around and then suddenly recognizing something in the land’s features, because seeing the familiar scene anew is a bit thrilling. Meeting up with those witch hazel bushes, or that particular rock pile, or the overhanging branch with a weird right angle bend to its arm gives me the sense that every walk may lead to a new view of known places.
Not that a simple out and back trail won’t also provide surprises since the trail always looks different from the opposite direction. On one of my early explorations up this new Eastern Greenway (Central) trail, I had stopped in the early morning sunlight to take in a view of a sparkling wetland visible through dark leafy foliage. On the way back down, the sun was now higher in the sky, and the shadows were shallow and disappearing. There, near the spot where I had stood earlier, emerging from tall blades of grass as I walked toward it, was a solid dark shape. Momentarily disoriented by this incongruous shape, I began to realize that what I hadn’t seen on the way up the trail but now saw on the way down was, lodged against a tree, an old black car.
For more information
See descriptions and graphics describing the locations, features, and importance of the three sections of the Eastern Greenway at https://harvardconservationtrust.org/eastern-greenway.
In the story, “Conservation groups face March deadline for purchase of ‘highest priority’ property,” in the Jan. 21, 2022, edition of The Harvard Press, Marty Green reported on the background, description, and importance of the Eastern Greenway. Included in the article is a graphic illustrating the locations of the three parcels. Available to logged-in Press subscribers.
