Metacomet Land Trust

Mountain Bike Weather

Yesterday, the weather was nice enough for a bike ride. However the roads are all sandy and gritty and the cold-hot-cold cycles have created some major pot-holes already. Plus, I have just recently given my road bike a thorough cleaning (though I still haven't gotten around to waxing it yet) I decided to take my mountain bike out for a ride. So I rode to explore.

I headed south on Lincoln street towards a trailhead I knew about. First, I checked out the giant, new playground at Dacey Fields. Nice Playground. Now off to the trailhead. The trailhead is just past the entrance to Winterberry Estates just before the Swanp and the climb up to the Keller-Sullivan School. From what I gather, it is part of the Metacomet Land Trust.

Metacomet Land Trust

The Metacomet Land Trust is:

"A non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the protection of open space and natural resources in South Central Massachusetts."

Apparentlly they own and manage roughly 42 acres of land between Lincoln and Maple Streets. It is nice and sceninc. The trails also connect a lot of various neighborhoods as it either crosses roads or bumps up against various cul-de-sacs. I was able to go from the trailhead off of Lincoln Street all the way to the Dean College Athletic Fields via a network of trails. Here's what I saw along the way:

A nice bridge at 42° 6'25.92"N, 71°24'10.36"W

Me looking out at the "Wetland" from where I took the picture of the bridge.

Stone crossing at 42° 6'13.55"N, 71°24'9.57"W

A Bench at 42° 6'2.93"N, 71°24'7.29"W

Getting Lost

How does one get lost is a tiny patch of woods in a densely populated area WITH a GPS device? I don't know, but I managed to do it. In the Motionbased map below, all the dense red squiggly line cluster in the center of the forest is me spending about 15 minutes looking for the trail on my way back. I finally gave up and bailed out into somebody's back yard. The further south and away from the Dean College Fields you go, the thinner and narrower the trails get until eventually they just disappear.