Doug Cornelius .com

My most memorable visit to Wachusett Mountain was on a bike. The Charles River Wheelmen run The Climb to the Clouds each summer. The ride is sixty miles, starting at Nashoba Regional High School, climbing up Mt. Wachusett and back to Bolton.

The highlight of the ride is the steady 9% grade from the ski lodge to the Visitors Center at the State Park. It’s a lung-busting, thigh-burning, unrelenting climb. Finally, at the Visitors Center, you get a brief rest of flat roads. Then its a charge to the summit. That stretch to the summit is more undulating, but still up and up and up.

In the picture at the summit of Mt. Wachusetts, that’s Action Dave on the left, me on the right, Pete and the back and another Kosmic Karma team rider in the front as part of the 2004 ride.

The view at the top is tremendous. At least once my vision came back after the dismounting from my bike and finally being able to breathe.

After the climb, the ride down is a bit sketchy, flying over switchbacks and tight turns. It really opens up after you get past the visitor center and ride wide, straight roads back down to the flats. I hit 42 MPH according to a traffic radar sign sitting on the side of the road.

Mt. Wachusett State Park is yet another of the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts I have visited.

The golden dome of the Massachusetts’ State House gleams in the Boston skyline. The legislative and executive branches of the state government call it home. The State House is one of the several stops on Boston’s Freedom Trail and has a well-deserved listing in the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts.

In 1713 the seat of the Massachusetts government was the Old State House. After kicking out the British American Revolution, state leaders wanted a new home to reflect the new government. They selected a site close to the summit of Beacon Hill, overlooking Boston Common and the Back Bay that had originally served as a cow pasture for John Hancock.

The “new” State House was completed on January 11, 1798 leaving it as the oldest building on Beacon Hill. There have been several additions to the building since then.

The original wood dome was covered with copper in 1802 by Paul Revere’s company. It was then gilded with gold leaf in 1874. During WWII, the dome was painted black to protect the city and building from potential bombing attacks.

Here is what I have so far on 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts:

• Neponset River Greenway
• Old North Church
• Ames Nowell State Park
• Mary Baker Eddy Historic House
• Sullivan's on Castle Island
• Castle Island
• Borderland State Park
• Ames Free Library
• The Children's Museum of Easton
• Higgins Armory Museum
• Standing on Top of the Hub at the Prudential’s Skywalk
• Gravestone Peeping at Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Historic Franklin Town Common
• Wondering about Holliston's Arch Bridge
• Central Square
• Harvard Square
• Looking at Lookout Farm
• Climbing the Maze at Boston Children's Museum
• You Can't Park Your Car in Harvard Yard
• Davis Mega Maze
• Wachusett Dam
• Bacon Free Library
• Bounding Down the Boardwalk at Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary
• Rebecca Nurse Homestead
• Peabody Institute Library
• Glen Magna Estate
• Chomping on Corn at Connors Farm
• The Esplanade
• Strolling Through Boston’s Public Garden
• My Lunchtime Walk to Paul Revere's House
• Driving Through D.W. Field Park
• The Ponkapoag Pond Trails
• Hiking up to the Blue Hills Observatory
• Blue Hills Trailside Museum
• Snacking on Dinner Rolls at the Parker House
• Hanover Street, in the North End
• Boston’s Athenaeum
• Boston Common
• Russells Mills
• Aquinnah Gay Head Cliffs
• Cuttyhunk Island
• Padanaram Village
• Wachusett Mountain and the Climb to the Clouds
• State House
• Longfellow Bridge (x2)
• Dr. Paul Dudley White Bicycle Path
• Wayside Inn’s Grist Mill
• U.S.S. Constitution, Charlestown Navy Yard, Constitution Museum, and the U.S.S. Cassin Young
• Cheers – Does Anyone Know Your Name?
• Old South Meeting House
• Discovery Museums in Acton
• Boston's Old City Hall
• Freedom Trail
• Old State House Museum
• Ye Olde Union Oyster House
• Boston Massacre Site
• Haymarket - Continuing My Quest
• Faneuil Hall
• Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway
• Battleship Cove
• More on the Son's First Visit to the Red Sox
• The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show at the Museum of Science
• A Visit to the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation
• Paddling in Hemlock Gorge
• Thomas the Tank Engine at Edaville Railroad
• Apple Picking at Honey Pot Hill
• Muddy Buddy Boston in Myles Standish Park

A bridge so nice, they named it twice to the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. It’s listed under Boston as “Longfellow Bridge” and “The Longfellow Bridge.” My Librarian friends would be horrified to see how many items on the list are alphabetized using “The.”

Apparently, the Cambridge side of the Longfellow Bridge was not great enough to make the list.

The bridge spans nearly one-half mile across the Charles River. It consists of eleven steel arch spans supported on ten masonry piers and two massive abutments. The the shape of its central towers earned it the “Salt- and-Pepper-Shaker Bridge” nickname. The Longfellow Bridge is a vital link between Boston and Cambridge, with cars, walkers, runners, cyclists, and MBTA riders using its great span. Since it opened to traffic over 100 years ago, the bridge is showing its age. It’s steel is rusting and it’s stone is crumbling. To counter the decay, the state is beginning a six-year, $300 million rehabilitation.

The bridge is named for the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He regularly walked the earlier West Boston Bridge which was replaced by the bridge now named after him. In 1845 Longfellow published “The Bridge’’ a poem inspired by those crossings of the earlier West Boston Bridge.

The Boston Globe put together this great collection of the Longfellow Bridge through the Years and the video below.

Here is what I have so far on 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts:

• Neponset River Greenway
• Old North Church
• Ames Nowell State Park
• Mary Baker Eddy Historic House
• Sullivan's on Castle Island
• Castle Island
• Borderland State Park
• Ames Free Library
• The Children's Museum of Easton
• Higgins Armory Museum
• Standing on Top of the Hub at the Prudential’s Skywalk
• Gravestone Peeping at Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Historic Franklin Town Common
• Wondering about Holliston's Arch Bridge
• Central Square
• Harvard Square
• Looking at Lookout Farm
• Climbing the Maze at Boston Children's Museum
• You Can't Park Your Car in Harvard Yard
• Davis Mega Maze
• Wachusett Dam
• Bacon Free Library
• Bounding Down the Boardwalk at Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary
• Rebecca Nurse Homestead
• Peabody Institute Library
• Glen Magna Estate
• Chomping on Corn at Connors Farm
• The Esplanade
• Strolling Through Boston’s Public Garden
• My Lunchtime Walk to Paul Revere's House
• Driving Through D.W. Field Park
• The Ponkapoag Pond Trails
• Hiking up to the Blue Hills Observatory
• Blue Hills Trailside Museum
• Snacking on Dinner Rolls at the Parker House
• Hanover Street, in the North End
• Boston’s Athenaeum
• Boston Common
• Russells Mills
• Aquinnah Gay Head Cliffs
• Cuttyhunk Island
• Padanaram Village
• Wachusett Mountain and the Climb to the Clouds
• State House
• Longfellow Bridge (x2)
• Dr. Paul Dudley White Bicycle Path
• Wayside Inn’s Grist Mill
• U.S.S. Constitution, Charlestown Navy Yard, Constitution Museum, and the U.S.S. Cassin Young
• Cheers – Does Anyone Know Your Name?
• Old South Meeting House
• Discovery Museums in Acton
• Boston's Old City Hall
• Freedom Trail
• Old State House Museum
• Ye Olde Union Oyster House
• Boston Massacre Site
• Haymarket - Continuing My Quest
• Faneuil Hall
• Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway
• Battleship Cove
• More on the Son's First Visit to the Red Sox
• The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show at the Museum of Science
• A Visit to the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation
• Paddling in Hemlock Gorge
• Thomas the Tank Engine at Edaville Railroad
• Apple Picking at Honey Pot Hill
• Muddy Buddy Boston in Myles Standish Park

Top image is of Longfellow Cambridgeside is by ECM85.

Only Cambridge takes credit for the Dr. Paul Dudley White Bike Path in the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. Watertown, Newton and Boston failed to take credit for the portions of the 17 mile bike path that loops around the Charles River Basin. It stretches on both sides of the river from the Museum of Science to Watertown Square.

As one of the many defects in the published list of 1,000 Great Places(.pdf), the place is identified as the “Dr. Paul W. White Bike Path” in Cambridge. I suppose “W.” and “Dudley” sound similar.

Who was Dr. White?

He was an international famous cardiologist. He was probably most famous for acting as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s physician following his heart attack in 1955. He was one of the founders of the American Heart Association and became the organization’s president in 1941.

Dr. White was a staunch advocate of exercise, diet, and weight control in the prevention of heart disease. It’s no surprise that he was a bicycle enthusiast

“We must establish more bike path and trails throughout the country. I’d like to see everyone on a bike – not just once in a while, but regularly as a routine. The bicycle should become a superb resource for the whole family to enjoy the beauties of nature, whether in our national parks, along our seacoasts, or simply in our beautiful woods and fields the country over.” American Cycling, August 1968, 200,000 Miles of Bikeways!(.pdf)

In riding the path, I only found one small sign (pictured) that indicated it was the Dr. Paul Dudley White Bicycle Path. That was in the Boston section, at about where Exeter Street would intersect with the bike path.

He would be disappointed in the current condition of the bike path that carries his name. (Maybe that’s why there are so few signs.) The quality varies from nice wide cycling boulevards with center stripes to narrow stretches of broken asphalt with dangerous drops at the edges. In some places it is barely wide enough for one bicycle to pass another safely.

The road intersections are particularly poor. The intersections largely ignore the bike path, forcing you into some dangerous traffic interactions. I find (1) the Boston intersection with Western Avenue, (2) the Boston intersection with Arsenal Street, and (3) the intersections with North Beacon Street in Boston and Watertown to be dangerous. Not just for bikes. Pedestrians also dread these intersections.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation extended the path into the Auburndale section of Newton, weaving back and forth across the many road intersections and bridges that cross the Charles River.

Here is what I have so far on 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts:

• Neponset River Greenway
• Old North Church
• Ames Nowell State Park
• Mary Baker Eddy Historic House
• Sullivan's on Castle Island
• Castle Island
• Borderland State Park
• Ames Free Library
• The Children's Museum of Easton
• Higgins Armory Museum
• Standing on Top of the Hub at the Prudential’s Skywalk
• Gravestone Peeping at Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Historic Franklin Town Common
• Wondering about Holliston's Arch Bridge
• Central Square
• Harvard Square
• Looking at Lookout Farm
• Climbing the Maze at Boston Children's Museum
• You Can't Park Your Car in Harvard Yard
• Davis Mega Maze
• Wachusett Dam
• Bacon Free Library
• Bounding Down the Boardwalk at Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary
• Rebecca Nurse Homestead
• Peabody Institute Library
• Glen Magna Estate
• Chomping on Corn at Connors Farm
• The Esplanade
• Strolling Through Boston’s Public Garden
• My Lunchtime Walk to Paul Revere's House
• Driving Through D.W. Field Park
• The Ponkapoag Pond Trails
• Hiking up to the Blue Hills Observatory
• Blue Hills Trailside Museum
• Snacking on Dinner Rolls at the Parker House
• Hanover Street, in the North End
• Boston’s Athenaeum
• Boston Common
• Russells Mills
• Aquinnah Gay Head Cliffs
• Cuttyhunk Island
• Padanaram Village
• Wachusett Mountain and the Climb to the Clouds
• State House
• Longfellow Bridge (x2)
• Dr. Paul Dudley White Bicycle Path
• Wayside Inn’s Grist Mill
• U.S.S. Constitution, Charlestown Navy Yard, Constitution Museum, and the U.S.S. Cassin Young
• Cheers – Does Anyone Know Your Name?
• Old South Meeting House
• Discovery Museums in Acton
• Boston's Old City Hall
• Freedom Trail
• Old State House Museum
• Ye Olde Union Oyster House
• Boston Massacre Site
• Haymarket - Continuing My Quest
• Faneuil Hall
• Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway
• Battleship Cove
• More on the Son's First Visit to the Red Sox
• The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show at the Museum of Science
• A Visit to the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation
• Paddling in Hemlock Gorge
• Thomas the Tank Engine at Edaville Railroad
• Apple Picking at Honey Pot Hill
• Muddy Buddy Boston in Myles Standish Park

Henry Ford built a replica and fully working grist mill just down the street from the Wayside Inn. (Yes, that Henry Ford.) He also owned the Wayside Inn at the time.

The Grist Mill was built in 1929 by hydraulic engineer J.B. Campbell. The Wayside Inn Grist Mill produces approximately 5 tons of flour per year. The Grist Mill was used by Pepperidge Farm as a full-time production facility from 1952-1967. They liked it so much, they apparently made it the basis for their company logo.

They run the mill and have grinding demonstrations on the weekends. Make sure to catch one. Seeing the mill operate is very impressive.

I dragged the kids over to the Charlestown Navy Yard in my continuing quest to visit and write about each of the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. That list has a separate entry for:

• U.S.S. Constitution
• Charlestown Navy Yard
• Constitution Museum and the U.S.S. Cassin Young

It was odd to have three separate entries. I’m not sure why the Constitution Museum and the U.S.S. Cassin Young are lumped together since there is no obvious connection, except that they are near each other. I just chalk it up as yet another defect of the list.