The Middlesex Fells is a surprise: a large block of rocky, wooded hill, a couple of thousand acres of it, a few kilometres north of Boston, and almost entirely undeveloped. The name comes from an old word for rocky upland, and the land is made of ancient granite and gneiss, scraped by glaciers and left with outcrops, boulders and thin soils that never made good farmland. When the surrounding villages began to grow into suburbs in the nineteenth century, a group of citizens fought to protect it, and in the 1890s the state created one of the first metropolitan park systems in the country, with the Fells at its heart.
Today it is a reservation of forest, ponds and reservoirs, laced with trails and quiet roads. Spot Pond, a large reservoir at the northern end, is edged by woodland and has a small park, and a stone tower on Pine Hill gives a view toward Boston. Rattlesnakes lived on the rocky ledges until the last century, and the trails still have names that recall them. Hawks and owls nest in the woods, and the reservoir fills with ducks in autumn.
For a rider, the Fells are about calm. Roads like the Fellsway run along the edge of the reservation, with trees and rocks close to the verge, and the pace is slow, as the streets are lined with houses and the traffic is thick at the commuter hours. But on a quiet weekend morning, the roads that wind past the ponds are lovely, with a surface that is mostly good and bends that are tight enough to be fun. It is a place to go for a loop after breakfast rather than a day's riding.
Winchester, less than three kilometres to the north, is a handsome suburb with a town centre of old brick buildings, a fine library and a very good bakery. Medford and Melrose, a little over three kilometres away, have the stations and shops. The area has no shortage of fuel or food, but parking can be tight. Autumn is the best time, when the oaks and maples colour up and the ponds turn silver. Weekday mornings are quiet, and on a clear day the tower gives a view of the city, with the Prudential and the Hancock towers standing out on the horizon.