An unexpected jewel

It is easy to dismiss the tag-end of autumn as that boring, wet period in between peak foliage and first snow. Especially in a year such as this, when there is cold rain and drizzle day after day and a glance out the window is entirely uninspiring. I've been waiting none too patiently for the rain to break for more than a few days at a time so that trails could dry out, but it seems it is not to be. So I decided to stop letting the rain stop me from doing what I wanted, laced up and struck out for the Cambridge Community trails yesterday.

I've been wanting to explore these trails since moving here a couple months ago, but between weather, other obligations and training for my first half-marathon, I hadn't done more than note the location of the trailheads.  Based on what little I could see from the road, I expected a tangle of soggy woodland tracks little better than game trails, much like any number of community “trail systems” back in my home state of Maine. In my terribly limited experience, small collections of trails that aren't even on any Web site that I could find after hours of searching generally are not well built or maintained. After all, if it's not on the Web, it's not worth bothering with, right? Sometimes I love being wrong.

Starting from the trailhead parking lot at the junction of Canyon and West Farm roads, I opted to start with West Farm Trail. It was not an auspicious beginning as I slogged and slipped my way up the short but steep hill that starts the trail off. It was no better than I'd expected, a waterlogged clay soil topped with wet leaves, a singletrack that is constantly being widened by people trying to find their way around the muddiest bits. But it seems that you can judge a trail by its trailhead no more than you can judge a book by its cover.

The rest of the trail was a series of branching roads, presumably old logging roads, with proper ditches and culverts. For several of the miles of trail that I ran, the corridor could easily accommodate horses, and the tread surface was clearly hard-packed under its current carpet of leaves. Several spots had simple log bridges in place, clarifying that these are real trails and not just a collection of wilderness tracks that the town didn't know what else to do with. At one point, the trail swings north and connects to Brewster River Gorge park, providing another access point and an opportunity to explore the covered bridge on Canyon Road.

The terrain on this trail was positively brilliant, from a trail running perspective. The topography included everything I wanted from short, steep hills to long relatively level stretches, and a few bigger climbs as well. The main trail is wide and clear of any brush or long grass, and side trails provided some brilliant dodge-and-weave along narrower tracks that follow the river a little tighter. Despite the last few weeks of fairly steady rain, there were only a few puddles on the trail, and those were easily negotiated without even having to break stride. And best of all, it is quiet. Though I started out with music playing, it wasn't long before the earbuds were tucked away. There was no traffic, no human noise beyond my own, and the rushing of the river kept a steady melody while the rain on leaves played counterpoint.

I can hardly wait for my next chance to go exploring in my new favorite backyard spot.