A small American flag was stuck onto a branch along the trail.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
“Did you read the article in Hometown Weekly about the Walpole Trail Society, where Gary Riggott specifically highlighted the Jarvis Farm Loop?” the woman asked, putting the leash on her dog in the parking lot.
“Of course, that’s what brought me here. Did you?” her friend replied.
“Yes. I found it the perfect mix of informative and entertaining” she answered.
Okay, that didn’t happen. In fact, from the brief snippets of the conversation I could make out on Saturday morning, the couple in front of me at Jarvis Farm was talking about their dog. Still, that doesn’t mean they weren’t here because of my article, in which Gary Riggott said that this, the loop from South Street to Jarvis Farm, was the trail in Walpole he most wanted people to check out. After all, that’s why I was there.
Starting at Jarvis Farm, between buildings fourteen and fifteen, I began my trek around the loop. One of the first things I noticed is that the trail had been decorated in a couple of different ways. Tiny American flags were stuck on the ends of various branches, and painted bricks and stones offered words of encouragement like “be happy,” “shine on” and “strength 2020” along the way. Some of them were tough to spot and others were obvious - but it provided a nice little scavenger hunt along the way.
Because a giant puddle has taken over the path to it, the main boardwalk has a smaller, makeshift boardwalk of planks leading up to it. It’s the only place on the path where social distancing could break down, because it would be an awfully tight squeeze for two people to pass each other on the boards. As a result, I tried to use years of Mario Brothers experience and time my walk across for when nobody was there. A couple of women were coming down the boardwalk as I was approaching it, so rather than grab a stick and go Little John vs. Robin Hood against them, I simply retreated and waited to cross.
When one of the women passed me, she noted the camera (Canon Rebel) slung around my neck and joked that she would have posed on the bridge if she saw me. I said she could pose on the boards, and she did. I took her picture.
It’s weird how quickly you get used to experiences that would have been unthinkable just three months ago. While I was in the woods, there was a group of twenty-somethings with bandanas over their faces that walked past me. It’s crazy how little this, which sounds on its surface like a terrifying situation, scared me. We’ve all become so used to masked people, and I guess I had nothing for them to steal - except my camera.
When I got home, I saw that because of weekend crowds, Massachusetts had to shut down Walden State Park due to overcrowding. It would have been flattering if my article caused overcrowding on that level, but there was enough of a crowd on the Jarvis Farm loop that I felt okay.
I guess I’ll just have to write something as good as whatever brought those people to Walden.
