Today, Mrs. Trashpedaller and I visited the area where, about 400 years ago, we most likley would have found the great sachem of the Massachusetts people, Nanepashemet enjoying a late summer day in his favorite locale. We had started our bike ride in Swampscott where we entered the Marblehead Rail Trail. After pedalling up to the Marblehead Post Office, we diverged from the trail and followed Ocean Avenue to the tip of Marblehead Neck. Ocean Ave offers travelers many scenic vistas including the rocks that were once named for the sachem...
At the tip of the neck is Marblehead Light...
The plaque at its base provides a brief history...
We then backtracked to the rail trail and followed it over to where it crosses the Forest River in Salem. Because of being higher up and it being low tide, I could get a better look at the Lafayette Street bridge than I got from the water last Monday...
The portals are clearly open in this photo and it appears there are three motor-driven gates on the upstream side of the bridge. This leaves me to wonder if passage under the bridge is navigable at only low to mid-tide. Are the gates in use daily or just for flood control purposes?
Continuing down the rail trail brought us behind Salem State College and the trail's end near Canal Street. Here we continued along Canal St. and soon found ourselves viewing the schooner Friendship from a terrestrial perspective...
Another mile brought us to Winter Island Park and a short visit to Waikiki Beach before beginning the journey back to Swampscott. On our return trip we found a plastic Market Basket bag and it was soon filled with 18 pieces of trash found along the rail trail in Marblehead...
YTD total 4405.
A refreshing breeze coming in off the water made our visit to the area once known as Naumkeag most enjoyable!
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