Get to Know the New Mystic Link Trail

From Holt Hill in Andover, the Boston highline looms grey and mysterious in the far distance. What would it be like to walk to Boston through the seemingly vast green forest that spreads below? Not surprisingly, folks have contemplated and tried just that, according to Bruce Shick, who, along with Joy Hartwell, co-leads the Mystic Link Alliance. In 2000 or 2001, Shick said, a few open space advocates, including Alan French of Andover, a primary organizer of the well-known Bay Circuit Trail, along with members of the National Park Service, walked a route from Holt Hill, ending at Constitution Wharf in Boston.  They did it over three or four days, winding through towns including Tewksbury, Woburn and Medford, said Shick, who was not among that original group of hikers.
              
Today the Mystic Link Alliance is working on a somewhat different route than the original one proposed. Planners found that crossing I93 in Tewksbury was not a good option, and some of the original route, on Andover Village Improvement Society (AVIS) lands, does not allow bikes. The Mystic Link is not a route with specific trail markers, but more an information resource that will allow walkers to access information about open spaces all along the route, which admittedly, by necessity, incorporates road walking. Roughly, the route  is a “spoke” of the Bay Circuit Trail, and even starts out on that path in Harold Parker State Forest, connecting then with open spaces in North Reading, Reading, Wakefield (along a golf course) , the Tri-Community Greenway in Stoneham and connecting to the Mystic River Greenway.
              
“The key objective is to identify green spaces in these Merrimack Valley towns worthy of people’s time and attention for use and to protect,” Shick said.
              
The Mystic Link Alliance includes members from various land-use organizations in the towns all along the route, including Andover, Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, Woburn, Burlington. Their work, said Hartwell, entails both driving and walking a possible route to find safest connections between trails, in order to flush out a comprehensive map. But besides determining physical trail connections, the group creates connections among folks along the proposed path by giving talks at town libraries and using social media to get the word out about the Mystic Link Alliance.
              
Among the Alliance's varied goals is the plan to highlight interesting natural or historical features along the route, such as the remnant of the Middlesex Canal, Shick said.
              
Promoting use of open spaces along the route, also helps people connect to the land and care about, so it is less likely to become trash-filled and unsavory, which would deter recreation even more, Hartwell added.
              
The next meeting of Mystic Link Alliance is on December 19 at 6:30 p.m. at 1 Johnson St. in North Andover, Hartwell said. It is not a public meeting, but members of regional land preservation/open space groups are welcome to attend to find out more about Mystic Link Alliance.
              
Upcoming library presentations about the project are slated for Dec. 28, 10-11:30 a.m. at Woburn Public Library and on January 15, 2025 at 7 p.m. at the Reading Public Library.

View the Mystic Link Trail website HERE.