sandhawke's bday gathering this evening, and since it was a relatively nice (if hot) day, I decided I'd walk. totient was good enough to provide me a map of bike paths in the area, which was helpful, as my original thought was to take the minuteman bike trail to Lexington and then walk down into Waltham from there. That was obviously not the most direct route, but I thought it would be better than roads. With the help of the map, I found a better route, which, by my rough calculations, saved me about a mile and a half.Anyway, I left the house around 1, wandered through Art Beat for a bit and then struck out for the western 'burbs via the bike path to Alewife, and then a very nifty little unpaved path from there to Belmont, and from there on local roads: Blanchard -> Concord -> Clark -> Thomas -> Beech (somewhere along Beech there was a really nice little shop with tasty gelato) -> Burnham -> Sycamore -> Belmont -> Beaver -> Lexington -> Bacon.
All told, my rough measure off the map gives it as just over 8.5 miles, which isn't too shabby, and about 4 hours. I did bring enough water, but I could have used more sunscreen. Happily, I brought a sunhat, at least.
I felt pretty wiped out when I got there, but sitting in the a/c and drinking more water perked me up, and then I gave myself a short shower with the hose (note to self: next time, bring a change of clothes) and now it's 12:30AM, and I'm still awake! But not for long...
The party was nice, almost all people I didn't know, but who were fun to meet and chat with. And one of the other guests was kind enough to give me a ride home, so I didn't have to retrace my steps in the dark! :)
