Musings on a Bike Path

Five years ago it was a dirt path running alongside the train tracks. A few people used it; not many. In 2013 Belmont won the battle to pave the path and create a useful space alongside the Alewife Brook Reservation.

These days, I’m back riding my bike. Along the way, I see a microcosm of our community.

I often see the same people, day after day—the group of 3 South Asian men (Indian? Bangladeshi?) walking slowly, heads bent toward each other in conversation. 

I pass the older cool cat who works at the hardware store, walking to work (sometimes running if it’s close to 8:30) or back again at the end of the day. Always rocking tunes on his Beats, always raising two fingers in a salute hello.

The Chinese couple walking their granddaughter; the wife often jogging out in front, her husband pushing the stroller. 

The Eastern European woman, whom I’ve noticed on the bus to Harvard Square as long as I’ve been on this commute (16 years) with her flaming red hair, always on the phone. Even walking the path she’s on the phone. In fact, I think I’ve only ever seen her NOT talking on her phone just once.

The South Asian elderly couple; she’s always 5 steps behind him. No conversation there, just exercise.

The parents on bikes with a child in the baby seat or pulled behind; the guys in a rush, aglow in bright spandex whizzing by.

Since several large apartment blocks and office buildings gave gone in, now we have more suits and tech geeks looking cool emerging from behind a fence, half way down the path.

Sunset over the Alewife Brook Reservation

On the ride home at night, some of the same folks and the families are out. Kids testing their biking skills, older siblings showing how it’s done, strutting their stuff.

And I’m the happy fool saying “good morning!” to anyone who catches my eye. Glad to be outside. Glad the bike path is there and well-used. Happy to be alive, particularly on a warm October morning.