jere7my | The last good day

I'm still free. The icicle bars of winter haven't yet slammed shut, though recently another cyclist called out at an intersection: "It's the last good day!" That didn't quite turn out to be true, but I can see a long icy gray stretch of bus-riding and slush on the horizon.

That encounter was two Tuesdays ago, when I used the unseasonable warmth to bike to Lynn Woods (here's my GPS trace), enticed by names that could have come from a D&D map: Dungeon Rock, the Stone Tower, Pirate Boulder, the Wolf Pits! I spent a couple of hours hiking a loop of the southern half of the park, hitting Dungeon Rock, the Stone and Steel Towers, Walden Pond (not that one), Penny Bridge. It's an easy hike, with stone or wooden stairs taking you up and down slopes, and in mid-autumn an exceptionally pretty one, with red-orange-yellow-green foliage reflecting from mirror-still ponds. Off the main carriage roads, I only saw three other people the whole time. (Friendly dog-walkers abounded on the roads.)

Dungeon Rock and the Stone Tower are sometimes open, but not while I was there, alas. I'm told that Dungeon Rock descends 135 feet into the bowels of a stony hill; shining my flashlight around the cracks in the door, I saw a staircase plunging steeply into blackness. Gotta go back when I can convince the ranger to let me in!

I highly recommend Lynn Woods for low-impact hiking and nature appreciation. I found it more varied and welcoming than the Fells, for all that the Fells are a bit bigger (2600 acres vs. 2200). I took quite a few photos, and I'm very happy with the way this set turned out — do check it out.

Your intrepid explorer.

Breed's Pond.

The Steel Tower, rusting away.

This might be my new favorite shot of the Boston skyline.

Reflections in a temporary pool.

Through this unassuming cleft in the rocks you'll find...

...the door to Dungeon Rock!

Unearthly lichen.

The Stone Tower was crawling with hundreds of ladybugs.

Walden Pond. Spot the cormorant in the last picture!

The full set is here. I've also put together a collection of all my Boston-area park explorations, to encourage people to explore the green we've got.

I had such a nice time that I forgot that night drops like a guillotine at this time of year — half of my 18-mile return trip was in the dark, which was a bit of a knuckle-biter. What's more, Google Maps sent me into a nest of short streets and big box stores with fenced-off lots, which got me a little turned around. By the time I was approaching Harvard Square, I was anxious and distracted enough that I caught my tire on the lip of a concrete apron that wasn't quite flush with the asphalt, and took a tumble. I escaped injury, but my rear wheel was bent out of true; happily, Ace was able to fix it in half an hour for $20.