The Shores of Boston Island,
50 Miles for Doug's 50th Birthday

Sunday, September 9, 2001, 10:00 am, Bellevue Hill, Boston

In September 2001, I turned 50, and I thought it would be fun, following John Allen's example several years ago, to do a 50-mile ride to celebrate. As my interests run to urban biking and bike paths, I planned to circumnavigate the island of Boston, a ride I called the "Two Rivers Loop" in my 1994 paper, "A Massachusetts Greenway Network."

Everyone on the massbike e-mail list and the Boston Bicycle Advisory Committee interested in exploring the edges of Boston was invited to join me on Sunday, September 9, starting at 10:00 am at the summit of Bellevue Hill, the highest hill in Boston. Ten of us rode down to the Mother Brook, down the Neponset River, along the Harbor, and up the Charles River to the Mother Brook and back to the start again, following many of my favorite bikepaths as well as the routes of future paths. Luckily, our flat tire and forest fire happened in the first two miles, and the rest of the day went splendidly. We stopped in Waltham for lunch at 3:00 pm, only a couple of hours later than we expected to get there, and lost a few more people with evening committments. After returning to the start, we adjourned to my house, a half-mile down the hill, for cake and ice cream.

This was a fun ride; we stayed together, pretty much following the route on the maps below.

Maps in Adobe Acrobat PDF Format

Five years later, we did it again, five miles longer.

at Bellevue Hill Group before the ride on Bellevue Hill, at the highest point in Boston
On the bridge over the Neponset River which was built by volunteers in 1997. [ Click here for that story] on Neponset River bridge
Picture of finishers Doug, Laurie, George, and Rebecca rode all 51 miles
Doug blew out all 51 candles (one to grow on) with breath to spare. Doug and cake
-Doug Mink