Towns 1-2: Chelmsford & Billerica

Friday, January 1, 2021

In our feral youth, we neighborhood kids spent our time outside. Climbing trees, building forts, riding bikes, playing tennis in the street and kickball in the yard. Down the street was an entrance to The Trail—a mysterious portal to another land…or just Billerica.

For my first run of this new project, I visited this trail for the first time in decades, knowing I could easily cover at least a mile in both Chelmsford and Billerica.

I remembered the trail as wild and a bit scary. Spans of overgrown wooded trails were interrupted by sandy clearings with construction debris and spent shell casings. The trails were wild but the clearings dangerous, as if they lived another life when we weren’t there.

I thought all the land was protected. I thought it was all town forest. I expected a modicum of discomfort as I headed down the trail alone. But the wildness was gone. Housing developments had taken its place.