Boston, I’ll keep this short and simple. A few late-breaking news items just dropped and I wanted to share them before many of us log off for the push to New Year’s Eve.
- For anyone seeking a cool way to spend New Year’s Day, here’s an idea: Consider joining the Seafarers’ Island Holiday. Organized by Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands, this boat voyage to Stone Island will offer banger views of the harbor and a more close-up experience with the “meadows, forests, beaches and 40-acre salt marsh” found on the island itself (with insights into Stone Island’s history too.) If all of this sounds right up your alley, then reserve your spot(s) ASAP by clicking here.
- We’ve just received a field report from the City On The Hills Trail with important findings. Two of the featured green spaces on Section 3 (Allston/Brighton to Mission Hill) are now fully closed for renovation projects. Those green spaces are Ringer Park and Amory’s Playground/Hall’s Pond Sanctuary. They’re expected to reopen by next summer, but for now, detours have been established and added to the trail directions and the Google Map of the Walking City Trails network. The differences for mileage and elevation gain are tiny, but we will look forward to being able to encourage CHT hikers to visit these great parks next year. (For now, you can at least gaze into them.)
This report (thank you, Alex!) also indicated that during a recent buildup of ice on the ground, Kevin W. Fitzgerald Park in Mission Hill was temporarily gated and closed. This was the first time I had heard about something like this, BUT each year has the potential to yield changes in how parks are managed during winter weather events. If you venture out onto either trail during winter, keep in mind that a brief, unexpected park closure can occasionally happen. (Really, it can happen in any month of the year.)
- Finally, for those of you who have been in touch with me at miles@bostontrails.org, I’ve decided to revert back to our original Gmail address, walkingcitytrail@gmail.com as of today. I’ve set up forwarding so that any messages sent to the discotinued email address will get redirected to the “new” one and I’ve imported all contacts and emails that were acquired under the discontinued address. So ideally, this should be seamless.
But if you find yourself waiting prolongedly for a response to an email that you sent me, I would try two things. Check your SPAM folder (or your Promotions folder, if you use Gmail), since your email platform might initially miscategorize a message from our Gmail address. And if a reply from me isn’t in either of those, try re-sending the message to walkingcitytrail@gmail.com. Thanks in advance for your patience here.
Alright, that’s it! Resume eating, cozying up, and savoring the frosty twilight of 2025.
Cheers,
Miles
