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By Sandi Barrett, Contributing Writer
Photo/Sandi Barrett
REGION – Walking, one of the easiest and best exercises for every age and ability, is the perfect way to lift your spirits and commune with nature. You don’t always have to hike through rocky remnants of the Ice Age. A gentle hike also offers trekkers beautiful vistas and physical health benefits.
One of the best parts about a hike is the discovery or reward at the end. When you traverse a mountain, the panoramic view is your reward. Conversely, taking a walking trail around a pretty lake and enjoying the sun dancing off the water is great for your emotional well-being. No matter where your outdoor adventure day takes you, the scenery, fresh air, and physicality will simply make you feel better.
Below is a list of just a few of the many hiking trails across the state of Massachusetts.
The mac daddy of hiking in Massachusetts can be found at Mount Greylock State Reservation in the western part of the state. The 3,491-foot summit is the highest point in Massachusetts. Be sure to visit the Veterans War Memorial Tower when you reach the peak. According to AllTrails.com, there are no less than 47 hiking trails in the reservation.
Six easy rated trails that range from one to two miles long are perfect for the new-to-hiking outdoor enthusiast. The 1.7-mile-long Glen Meadow Loop Trail is a popular option. It offers everything you want from an easy hike; wooden bridges, well-maintained trails, and pretty scenery.
Two dozen hard rated trails include sections of the Appalachian Trail. The 11.6-mile Mount Williams, Mount Fitch, Mount Greylock, and Stony Ledge Trail is a beautiful, albeit challenging, hike to the Greylock summit. It passes by a beautiful waterfall (off the trail) and eventually joins up with the Appalachian Trail.
Princeton is home to the 2,006-foot Wachusett Mountain, offering outdoor adventurers 31 trails traversing 17 miles through dense forests, pretty meadows, and small ponds in Central Massachusetts.
Hop on the Echo Lake Trail via Echo Lake Road for an easy 0.6-mile hike. The reward for this gentle walk is views of beautiful Echo Lake.
A more challenging hike is the Midstate Trail: Princeton Station To Barrett Lane, a difficult 13.8-mile point-to-point trail. Be prepared for uphill scrambling, but your reward are the amazing panoramic views from the summit.
This gorgeous urban green space in the Boston area is a popular respite from the city congestion. Offering scenic views over 125 miles of trails, there is an option for everyone.
The most challenging hike is the 15.2-mile iconic Blue Hills Skyline Trail. Not the trail for novice hikers, it is long and difficult. A gentler option is Tucker Hill Green Dot Trail Loop. The easy and enjoyable walk covers 2.9 miles passing by Houghton’s Pond and Tucker Hill.
In Hingham, Worlds End is a charming 251-acre undeveloped South Shore peninsula spreading out into Hingham Harbor. The gentle rolling coastal drumlins meander through the property providing peeks of the Boston skyline and pretty water views. The property was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in preparation for a residential subdivision that never came to pass.
Advanced parking passes are required on weekends and strongly recommended during the week due to the small parking lot.
If you find yourself vacationing on Cape Cod this summer, spend a little time walking the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT). The 25-mile paved bike and accessible walking path runs from South Dennis to Wellfleet where you pass by charming towns, ponds, fields, and wooded areas.
With parking locations scattered along the trail, there are lots of interesting sections to explore.
Every year more hiking areas have increased accessibility. Whether you are pushing a stroller or require a wheelchair, you can find a list of accessible hiking trails on AllTrails (https://www.alltrails.com/us/massachusetts/ada).
Massachusetts is blessed with a natural beauty. From hiking gentle trails to summiting mountain peaks, you can find a hike perfect for your fitness level all year round.
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BROCKTON, Mass. (WJAR) — Four people were shot on Friday night after hundreds had gathered to watch a World Cup match in Massachusetts.
Police said the shooting happened just before midnight on Main Street in Brockton.
Officers said the victims were taken to the hospital.
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Police have not said if there were any arrests.
BOSTON, (WPRI) — A somerset man has been cited for allegedly causing a deadly wrong-way crash in Boston late Saturday night.
Just before midnight, troopers from the H9 Barracks were called for a report of a multi-vehicle crash on I-93 North before Exit 15A.
A preliminary investigation showed that the driver of a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, identified as 81-year-old Antone Carvalho, of Somerset, entered Route 93 North at Exit 15B and drove southbound in the northbound lanes.
Two vehicles, a Honda Odyssey and an Audi A4, attempted to avoid the Carvalho and crashed into each other.
Four people in the Honda Odyssey, were taken to a Boston-area hospital for evaluation.
Shortly after the initial crash, police say Carvalho collided head-on with a Chevrolet Cruze.
Carvalho and the other driver were taken to Boston-area hospitals for their injuries
The driver of the Chevrolet Cruze, identified as a man in his 20’s from Haverhill, died from his injuries.
Carvalho will be issued a summons to appear in court at a later date.
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Norman Rockwell painted Stockbridge so often that the real Main Street now looks like one of his canvases come to life. That is the trick these Massachusetts towns pull off. A whaling-era cobblestone lane on Nantucket and a Revolutionary common in Concord do the same thing in different accents. Each one packs its best landmarks into a few blocks you can cover on foot. The eight New England streets here all sit under 50,000 residents and earn their reputation the honest way.
Fewer than 2,000 people live in Stockbridge, yet its Main Street may be the most recognizable in the state. Credit Norman Rockwell, who lived here and painted the view down the street so many times it lodged in the national memory. The white clapboard buildings, the old inns, and the big shade trees are all still right where he left them, and people still use them.
The Red Lion Inn has welcomed guests on this corner since 1773, and its long front porch is the street’s anchor in every sense. A short walk away, the Norman Rockwell Museum holds the largest collection of his work and even his relocated studio. Naumkeag adds a Gilded Age cottage with terraced gardens climbing the hillside. Come December, the town recreates Rockwell’s famous “Main Street at Christmas” scene with vintage cars parked along the curb, which is about as close as a real place gets to stepping into a painting.
Edith Wharton built her dream house just outside Lenox, and the writer’s eye for proportion seems to have rubbed off on the whole town. The center is small enough to park once and walk, with bookshops, cafes, and galleries shoulder to shoulder under the trees. Under 10,000 people live here, and the place wears its Berkshire elegance lightly.
The Mount, Wharton’s 1902 estate, runs as a house museum and public garden and hosts readings and outdoor events all summer. Ventfort Hall, a Jacobean-style mansion built for a sister of J.P. Morgan, fills in more of the Gilded Age story. Just up the road, Tanglewood draws crowds every July and August as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, so a quiet shopping street can be ten minutes from a world-famous concert lawn. Few towns this size balance that kind of culture against that little traffic.
On April 19, 1775, the shot heard round the world was fired a short walk from where Concord shoppers now buy their morning coffee. That is the strange gift of this town. Its pretty village center sits below 20,000 residents, and its old houses, churches, and civic buildings look calm until you remember what happened among them.
Minute Man National Historical Park preserves the battle road and the fields where colonial militia turned back British regulars. Old North Bridge marks the spot itself, with Daniel Chester French’s Minute Man statue standing guard. Concord also raised more than its share of writers, and Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, where she wrote “Little Women,” still opens for tours. Two miles south, Walden Pond holds the woods Thoreau made famous, an easy swim or walk that closes the loop between the town’s history and its quieter ideas.
The streets in Marblehead’s Old Town were laid out for foot traffic and fishing nets, not cars, so they bend and narrow and dead-end at the water. The town tops 20,000 residents now, but the historic core feels far older and more intimate. Washington Street and the lanes around it run past brick sidewalks and preserved houses, with the harbor flashing into view between rooftops.
The Jeremiah Lee Mansion, a grand Georgian house built in 1768 for the wealthiest merchant in colonial Massachusetts, still keeps its original hand-painted English wallpaper. Old Burial Hill rises above town with weathered colonial gravestones and one of the best harbor views around. Abbot Hall, the brick town hall with the clock tower, houses the original “Spirit of ’76” painting. Walk the waterfront and the reason for the whole town becomes obvious. Marblehead grew up facing the sea, and it never turned away.
Federal-era sea captains built their fortunes at the mouth of the Merrimack, and their three-story brick blocks still line the streets of downtown Newburyport. The Main Street feeling here spreads across several streets rather than one. Under 20,000 residents keep the center humming, with shops and restaurants filling old facades right down to the riverbank.
Market Square and State Street form the heart of it, a tight grid of brick that survived a great fire and a wave of 1970s urban renewal to come out the other side intact. The Custom House Maritime Museum, set in a granite 1835 building, tells the port’s seafaring story. Waterfront Park gives you a bench and a view of the boats. A few miles out on Plum Island, the Parker River refuge at Joppa Flats turns the same trip into prime birdwatching, so a downtown afternoon can end with herons instead of storefronts.
A plain red fishing shack on a granite pier may be the most painted building in America, and it sits right in Rockport’s harbor. Locals call it Motif No. 1, after an art teacher who got tired of seeing his students paint it. The town runs under 10,000 residents and folds its best parts into a few tight blocks by the water.
Main Street leads to Bearskin Neck, a skinny peninsula crammed with galleries, candy shops, and lobster shacks that ends with the open Atlantic. Front Beach puts sand and water within a short stroll of the shops. The Shalin Liu Performance Center, opened in 2010, built a concert hall with a wall of glass behind the stage, so the ocean becomes the backdrop for a string quartet. You can wander from a storefront to a harbor view to a gallery without ever breaking stride.
Great Barrington wired the first downtown in the world lit entirely by alternating current, back in 1886, and the place has kept that forward lean ever since. Under 10,000 residents fill a center that feels genuinely busy, with restaurants, bookstores, and galleries spread along Main Street and Railroad Street. It looks like an old Berkshire town and behaves like a young one.
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, a restored 1905 theater, books films, concerts, and live broadcasts year-round. The Housatonic River Walk threads a half-mile greenway along the water right behind Main Street, the work of volunteers who spent decades clearing a once-polluted bank. Just outside town, Monument Mountain offers a short climb to a quartzite ridge and a long view over the Housatonic River valley, the same trail Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne hiked together in 1850.
Whaling money built Nantucket’s Main Street, and the cobblestones laid to keep wagon wheels out of the mud are still there to rattle your suitcase. The island stays well under 50,000 year-round residents even at the height of summer. Brick sidewalks, weathered shingles, and window boxes give the downtown the texture of an old port rather than a new outdoor mall.
The Whaling Museum, set in an 1847 candle factory, explains how a small island once lit the lamps of the world, right down to a full sperm whale skeleton. Brant Point Lighthouse marks the harbor entrance and ranks among the most photographed beacons in New England. Straight Wharf keeps the working waterfront within steps of the shops, and the Oldest House, built in 1686, anchors the streetscape in the island’s first century. Every detail down to the gray shingles seems to point back to the same seafaring story.
What ties these eight together is not a shared look but a shared honesty. Stockbridge and Lenox lean on Berkshire culture, Concord carries the weight of 1775, and Great Barrington keeps reinventing itself. Marblehead, Newburyport, Rockport, and Nantucket all grew up facing salt water and never lost the habit. The best Main Streets here are not stage sets. They are working downtowns that happen to be worth a long, slow look.
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