Hi fellow Hiveians,
Today
Rail Trail
The area around Newburyport has been one of our favorite locations to go and explore over the years, with our son. It's got some awesome stuff and scenery but what's cool is that we haven't explored the railroad turned into walking and biking trail until recently. It's a long trail and full of some awesome stuff!
To start the day out, we were treated with the first time seeing them pick up one of the giant boats and bring it into the water. We've seen the boats and the giant crane things but never them operating it so that was fun!
The trail is full of cool areas and lots of space to spend time, benches to sit on and areas to just hang out and enjoy the scenery. There are lots of bridges around that the trail travels under and it's a lot of water scenery. I was enjoying the stroll around the area, and the opportunity to try and explore the whole trail was great!
There were some interesting spots along the route. This one was full of lots of artists paintings, secured in some stuff of course to keep them from getting destroyed. There was also a giant crane type thing there, not sure what that thing was lol
The paintings were really cool! I have a personal passion for anything nautical or beach related for types of paintings and there were quite a bit of these. I didn't happen to get more pictures of them but this one was cool. These are some guys digging clams in the mud around the corner from here on Plum Island sound. The clams were and still are a very important part of the local economy, it's been something that people have been buying here for (I think) hundreds of years. I had a professor that had family land in the area and they allowed people to farm the clams from their river, it was very interesting to hear! They hated the soft shell crabs that were in the area because they ruined the mud and stuff for the clams so they had giant wooden boxes sitting out in the sun and would catch crabs in traps and just leave them in there to die. It was brutal but at the same time I get it lol
There are lots of these really cool bridges and underpasses all over the place. The trail has some nice intertwining loops that show how important the railroad was for the people back in the day. Above most of these underpasses were important roads through the area or just adjacent to the important roads which shows how key railroads were.
Leading up to the above underpass was quite nice, the long path had some nice benches and trees and stuff but the fish were pretty awesome to see.
The fish are important for the local economy. I think the different fish here are tuna, salmon, trout and some others that I'm not sure of but it shows how important fishing in the ocean is to the local people in the area. It's been one of the most important things for the New England area, for the Native Americans for many thousands of years and the colonists that came over in the 1600's but one thing is for certain, fishing has left it's mark!
Another cool bridge/underpass towards the end of the walking path. What was cool is this one had some fun art in it!
Inside the underpass were these really cool metal sculptures, lights and stuff for ocean-related things. What I think is great is the people who built these things were local residents, I think ones from the Newburyport area at the least but definitely local Massachusetts folks. I think it's important to help keep people employed locally! Our son liked the wall art but when he saw the giant fish he was a little scared lol we had to leave the area which was okay.
What I enjoyed looking at were these signs posted along the trail, it helped bring me back and see how things were a hundred or two years ago for the local residents. Shipping has always been a huge thing for the Boston area, it's been a major shipping port for the East Coast but what you don't think of sometimes is the importance of the smaller pieces of the shipping industry like rope! Rope making was and probably still is, quite an art form. If you think of how big the ropes are that hold these ships together, it's incredible to think of making that rope on your own. The giant buildings dedicated to making rope, described a bit in the picture, were incredible to look at. I think one or two may still stand but thinking of working in a rope factory sunrise to sunset, making rope all day long, is a testament to how people dedicated their lives to doing a job and doing it well. We don't love some of the work we do but these jobs that we consider foolish or below us, are often jobs that need to be done for one reason or another when you think about it.
The history of the railroad and maritime industry in the area is challenging to look at sometimes but I think it's interesting nonetheless. Thinking of an area like Newburyport, as beautiful as it is now, a hundred or so years ago I'm sure it was a much different looking city. The wharfs, buildings lining the water and the industrialization of the waterfront wasn't a clean process for sure but I find it fascinating. It's hard to describe I guess but I like to see the historical component of what the area looked like at one point.
There was one really cool spot here, it was an area dedicated to butterflies and different pollinators. There were birdhouses, lots of flowers and plenty of space for the little things to spend time and do what they do best: pollinate our food!
The last piece of the trail that I found interesting were the metal sculptures dotted around the trail. This cool looking hawk here, right next to the water, was probably a local artist. I liked seeing the effort they took to not only make the trail look nice but also add some interesting elements to it by adding some nice art.
Not sure what this giant thing was about but I liked it. Behind it was one hell of an interesting looking mountain biking trail and area. You can kind of see the trail coming down from the top right of the picture, there are people with some balls who will fly down that type of trail! I am definitely not one of those people lol.
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