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The Midstate Trail is a scenic footpath which runs through Worcester County, Massachusetts, from the Rhode Island border to the New Hampshire border, approximately west of Boston. The trail is considered highly accessible, scenic, and remarkably rural despite its proximity to urban Boston. The trail includes the summits of Mount Wachusett and Mount Watatic, as well as many interesting geologic, historic, and natural features.〔''The Midstate Trail Guide'', 5th edition (2006). Worcester, Massachusetts:The Midstate Trail Committee.〕 ==Trail description== The northern terminus of the Midstate Trail is located on the New Hampshire border on the Ashburnham/ Ashby, Massachusetts town line just north of the summit of Mount Watatic; the southern terminus is located on the Rhode Island border in Douglas, Massachusetts in Douglas State Forest. In Ashburnham, the Midstate Trail meets the Wapack Trail, which runs north into New Hampshire for an additional . Where the Midstate Trail terminates on the Rhode Island border, the North-South Trail continues south to the Atlantic Ocean. The Southern New England Trunkline Trail, a converted rail trail, intersects the Midstate Trail in Douglas, Massachusetts, and there is a significant network of interconnecting shorter trails on Mount Wachusett and in the Ware River Watershed area maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Worcester Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the nonprofit organization Wachusett Greenways.〔''Massachusetts and Rhode Island Trail Guide'' (1989). Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club.〕 The Midstate Trail corridor includes woodland, lake shores, ledges, swamp borders, small mountains, agricultural land, meadows, brooks, as well as a few classic New England hamlet commons. Suburban areas abut the trail in places. The highest point on the Midstate Trail is the 2006-foot (611m) summit of Mount Wachusett from which the Boston skyline, away, is visible in clear weather. The cliffs of Mount Watatic and the Crow Hills are considered particularly scenic. The damp woodlands throughout the trail corridor are scattered with stone walls, a reminder that the forest was farmland in the 19th century. Common on the trail are huge boulders, several of them balanced in unlikely positions, called glacial erratics; two noteworthy examples are Balanced Rock on Mount Wachusett and Samson's Pebble in Oakham, Massachusetts.〔〔Cronin, William. ''Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England'' (2003). New York: Hill and Wang.〕 Notable features that are on or are easily accessible from the trail route include Wallum Lake, the French River (Massachusetts), Hodges Village Dam, Buffumville Lake and dam, the historic Ryder Tavern, Moose Hill, Sampson's Pebble, the ruins of an early 20th-century work camp for prisoners with tuberculosis, Barre Falls Dam, the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wachusett Meadows and Burncoat Pond sanctuaries, Mount Wachusett (the most prominent peak in eastern Massachusetts), the Crow Hills (a popular rock climbing destination), Muddy Pond (an attractive, remote, and undeveloped glacial pond), and Mount Watatic, the southernmost prominent summit in the Wapack Range of mountains (sometimes referred to as the Pack Monadnock Range).〔 Although the trail is most often used for hiking and occasionally snowshoeing and backpacking, portions of it are suitable for, and are used for, mountain biking and cross country skiing. Site-specific activities such as downhill skiing (on Mount Wachusett), horseback riding, swimming, fishing, hunting, rock climbing, bouldering, and disc golf (there are courses at Buffumville Dam and Barre Falls Dam) are enjoyed on the trail corridor as well.〔(Department of Conservation and Recreation (Massachusetts) ). Retrieved November 20, 2007.〕〔(United States Army Corps of Engineers. ) Retrieved December 7, 2007〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Midstate Trail (Massachusetts)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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