Site of the
future rail trail in Townsend. Started at the plaza and went east almost to the Cooperage, then on the way back I took a little detour to avoid a spot with poor drainage. Construction hasn't started yet, so the rails and ties are still there, and the path is next to them, occasionally switching sides. I was pleased to see that the encroaching abutters, including the auto body shop, have moved their stuff off the right-of-way. Although I spent some time loitering in this area as a teenager, I'd never gone down the railroad line (it did still have active trains in those days). West from the plaza wasn't so interesting, except that I did visit the trestle, which was a popular swimming hole back in the day (kids would jump off the trestle), but which I had somehow never been to. The structure itself is barricaded now, with police warning signs (though it's easy enough to walk around the chain link fence), but you can still go down to the river. Any question of whether the rail trail could continue across the river there were answered when I saw that the trestle no longer reaches the west bank.
