Minute Man Campground near Boston

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Minute Man Campground near Boston

Postby Tom&Shelly » Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:29 am

Earlier in September, we stayed at a commercial campsite, Minute Man Campground, about as close to Boston as I'd care to take our tear.

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Interesting effect in the second photo--looks like the tree is smoking, possibly on fire, but in fact as the sun hit it, the moisture formed a fog around it.

A very nice site (especially for a commercial campground, which we usually shy away from). Central shower and restroom, but we were not too far away. Lots of trees, including a few between sites, not too much traffic noise, and only about ten minutes from a commuter train stop into Boston, which, of course, was our objective.

(Incidentally, Massachusetts state park and forest campsites seem to be particularly pricy, which is one reason we chose a commercial site that time.)

The train to Boston takes about an hour each way, and we "commuted in" for two days. Took a "trolley" tour of the city, which is something I probably swore once I'd never do, and a boat tour of the harbor. Saw a few of the interesting ships in the harbor including a WW II destroyer that had been hit by a kamikaze during the war, and "Old Ironsides", the USS Constitution.

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The harbor cruise was the first day, and the second we got off the trolley and toured both of those ships. Unfortunately, it was raining, and the interior of the destroyer was closed off, so we didn't see much new there, but we did get to see the Constitution and talk with the Navy crew who were preparing her for a sail around the harbor on September 11 in honor of the victims of the terrorists. Oh, the Constitution is still a commissioned Navy ship, hence the Navy crew. I asked one seaman how he got the duty and he said he was lucky (no sarcasm detected) and the school for his career field was full so he is assigned to the Constitution for a few months.

Our campsite was close enough to Concord that we drove there. I'd been there before and was looking forward to showing Shelly, but, unfortunately, she had problems with her feet and so sat down while I took a ranger tour. Here is the bridge where the Colonial militia met the British troops coming to take their arms. Neither side was supposed to shoot, but someone goofed, and so this was where "the shot heard around the world" started the revolution

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This, of course, should not be confused with Russia's space launch site in Kazakhstan, where, to demonstrate their heavy lift capabilities in the early 1960's, they put two cows into orbit: the "herd shot around the world."

The Concord area has some literary tradition. Louisa May Alcott, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Harriot Lothrop all lived in this house at different times.

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Waldon Pond is also in the area, and is a Massachusetts state park (no camping that I am aware of). Our commuter train went right by it, which I believe may be the same train route Thoreau mentioned in Waldon. I stopped by Waldon Pond in April 2003 and there were some Boston College students on the beach, evidently, for the first time that year. (Speaking now as one of them) it's amazing just how white skin can be.

Tom
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