Trails, trees and tranquility: the Arnold Arboretum has it all

Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Massachusetts

The Harvard-managed Arnold Arboretum is a park, forest and botanical garden all in one. This Boston landmark is large enough to get lost therein, to find a quiet place or to perform your work-out routine. Park roads, trails and narrow paths connect the points of interest, including the Hunnewell Visitor Center, special gardens and plant selections, research areas, meadows, ponds and hills. Arboretum rules allow climbing the hills, but forbid climbing the trees. The Arnold Arboretum map provides an overview of the arboretum landscape and its sites, which you may want to explore on your own by self-guided tours.

Paperbark maple (Acer griseum), native to Central China

According to the City of Boston website, today's Arboretum displays world renowned collections of maples, crabapples, lilacs and rhododendrons [1]. My TimeOut Boston Guide summarizes [2]:

The arboretum, one of the world's leading centres for plant study, was established in 1872. In a beautiful, 265-acre park setting, this living museum is administered by Harvard University. It provides the opportunity to see more than 15,000 specimens of trees and plants from around the world.

The Arnold Arboretum was the first arboretum in the United States [3,4]. It is named for James Arnold (1781-1868), a whaling merchant of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who transferred a portion of his estate to the President and Fellows of Harvard College to establish an arboretum [4]:

Charles Sprague Sargent (1841-1927) was appointed the Arboretum's first director in 1873 and spent the following 54 years shaping the policies and programs of the Arnold Arboretum. Since its inception, it has served as a model and benchmark for similar institutions, both in North America and elsewhere.

White oak (Quercus alba), native to Eastern North America

Getting to the Arnold Arboretum in south Boston

The Arnold Arboretum is located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale sections of Boston, Massachusetts. A good starting point for your first exploration of the park is the Hunnewell Building, a National Historic Landmark that houses the Arboretum's visitor center. Address: 125 Arborway, Boston, MA. The arboretum is open to the public every day of the year—from sunrise to sunset. There is no admission for the visitor center/museum.
If you plan to come via commuter rail, take the Orange Line south to its terminal Forest Hills MBTA station. Walk to the south-west side of the station past the bus stops and find the Washington Street Gate across Washington Street. This is the beginning of the Blackwell Footpath. This trail traverses Bussey Brook Meadow and ends at the South Street Gate, a central point within the Arboretum. From there, follow northbound trails to get to the Bradley Rosaceous Collection, the Leventritt Shrub & Vine Garden and the visitor center at the northern tip of the park. Follow southwest-bound trails to get to Peters Hill, a 240-feet drumlin, from where you can overlook the park and see the distant Boston's skyline.

Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) in the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection

References  and more to explore
[1] City of Boston: Arnold Arboretum, established in 1872 [www.cityofboston.gov/Parks/emerald/arnold.asp].
[2] TimeOut Boston. Time Out Guides Ltd, London, United Kingdom, 2015; page 154.
[3] The Establishment of Arnold Arboretum [www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/56arnold/56facts1.htm].
[4] The Arnold Arboretum: Our History [www.arboretum.harvard.edu/about/our-history].

On track in urban parks

A group of joggers warming up at a meeting point in the Stadtwald, a forested park in Bremen, Germany

Urban parks brighten cityscapes. They originate as designed gardens or reclaimed city parcels and sometimes they are simply left-over stripes and spots of a once natural landscape. Many parks allow on-trail and off-trail use. On-trail: footpaths, walkways and promenades present themselves for morning or evening runs as well as walks and strolls. Often, a short-cut through a park is the fastest way for the daily commute by bike. Off trail: park greens invite to stretch out or play—the flute, frisbee or football, whatever the park space provides for and inventing visitors may come up with.

Urban parks are meet-up places. On beautiful days, a small city park—even the planted square or triangle at a street corner—is a great place for a lunch break, while a larger park always becomes a recreation hot spot. For example, the Stadtwald in the city of Bremen, Germany, is a popular place for jogging (top picture), outdoor gymnastics and segway tourings. The Stadtwald—literally meaning city forest—is too small to be considered a wilderness forest. But located between Bremen's Bürgerpark and University quarters, the wider Stadtwald area provides an extensive trail network attracting young and old to leave office or home for a work-out among trees and alongside waterways.

Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts

Urban parks are neighborhoods. City parks are public backyards used for many different purposes. In his exploration of urban parks around the world, Ken Otterbourg writes that urban parks are not a substitue for the enormous and often remote parks that protect the most majestic forests, mountains and canyons, we like to visit via distance traveling [1]. They are retreats from the duties and curtailments that modern civilization brings with it. Boston Common (picture above), the oldest park in the United States, is such a place to briefly escape and hang out or recreate between downtown and Beacon Hill. In the past, this park has seen cattle grazing, public hanging, camping of the British troops and deliverance of political speeches. Today, it is the anchor of the Emerald Necklace, a chain of parks winding through and connecting Boston neighborhoods [2].

Sculptured ways near Groningen's central station

Urban parks are connectors. Bremen's Stadtwald/Bürgerpark pairing and Boston's Emerald Necklace are just two examples of how urban parks interconnect city districts and their people. Another is the Davis-Covell Greenbelt in the city of Davis, California, featuring a loop trail with charming bronze sculptures and nature side walks. In some locations, parks shrink to connectors, which are vital in providing walking, hiking and bicycling options by avoiding frequent encountering and crossing of motorized routes. Even when barely any trees are around, such ways promote relaxation, calm and an overall easier-going life style.
For example, a broad walk & bike way connects the central station in the Dutch city of Groningen with other parts of that city (picture above).
Elevated walkways such as those in Hamburg's Speicherstadt are smart and scenic solutions to pedestrian flow, heightening travelers three-dimensional city experience.
A straight promenade under trees, which connects the Idlewood Park in Reno, Nevada, with Wingfield Park island, squeezes in between the Truckee River and Riverside Drive (picture below), adding an illusion of infinity to occasionally confining city life.
Ask the park designer in you what park features are special about your city and what you would improve? In some years your ideas may have become reality.

Snowy Truckee River walk in Reno

From urban parks to green and enlightened cities. The future of urban parks looks bright. As cities are turning from mere places of commerce and work into inspiringly designed living & learning centers and attractive playgrounds competing for visitors, cities grow into urban parkscapes with more and more non-motorized tracks to enhance outdoor time for active and adventuring urbanites. Urbi et urbi!

Keywords: recreation, cityscaping, urban planning, urbanistics, urban geography.

References
[1] Ken Otterbourg: Urban Parks. National Geographic April 2016, 229 (4), 86-107.
[2] Boston Common: http://www.cityofboston.gov/freedomtrail/bostoncommon.asp.

Stage Coach Trail

Hidden under patches of snow (Feb. 11, 2016): Stage Coach Trail near its intersection with Nortons Toll Road

The Stage Coach Trail is a 1.87-mile-long trail within the Peavine Trails network in the lower Peavine foothill area northwest of Reno, Nevada. This trail is open to hiking, mountain bicycling and horseback riding. Together with a section of the Total Recall Trail, Stage Coach Trail combines to a nice single-track loop northeast of Round Top.

I am not sure how this trail got its name, since it is does not meet conditions suitable for stage coach travel. However, it intersects with various older four-wheel-fitting dirt roads, including Nortons Toll Road (USFS RT 662).

At Trail Marker 1871 next to Hoge Road, Stage Coach Trail veers northwest through a sagebrush landscape. Every other half-mile, it crosses an unpaved road. These intersections are identified by Trail Markers 1872, 1973 and 1874. From the 1874 crossing of Nortons Toll Road, Stage Coach Trail climbs to the Rock Pile point at Trail Marker 65, its junction with Total Recall Trail. Turning right on the latter, you will head west—with Peavine Mountain always in view— towards Bobsled Trail, Colpo Canyon Trail, Three Trees Trail, Scrub Brush Trail, Over Easy Trail and Bacon Strip Trail. I anticipate this list to grow in the future.

Northeast-facing slopes of Round Top

If you decide to take Total Recall Trail back to Marker 1871, the Stage Coach/Total Recall junction is the highest elevation point of your loop travel. Return by following the downhill path of Total Recall Trail—skirting the northeast slopes of Round Top.  At its junction with Halo Trail, continue on Total Recall Trail. In case, you parked your vehicle at the Hoge Road Trailhead, you now should be able to see it and may find your final route by sight.

The Peavine Trails network provides various options to integrate the Stage Coach/Total Recall loop into more advanced tours. For example, this loop makes for a great extension of a hiking or biking trip along Keystone Canyon Trail and Poedunk Trail. Find your path by consulting the Peavine Trail Map.

Getting to the Hoge Road/Stage Coach Trail Y-junction
From the North McCarran Boulevard/Virginia Street intersection northwest of the University of Nevada/Reno go north on North Virginia Street. Pass its intersection with Vista Rafael and Parr Boulvard and turn left on Hoge Road. Follow Hoge Road, westward, to the end of its paved section and continue on the unpaved Hoge Road, which briefly turns south and then continues west again. The parking area of the Hoge Road Trailhead is to your right in front of the radio towers near the high radio frequency facility. Walk or ride on Hoge Road past this facility until you arrive at Trail Marker 1871.

Snow Terraces Trail

Snow Terraces with Peavine mountain, Washoe County, Nevada

The short Snow Terraces Trail is part of the Peavine Trails network spanning a sagebrush-landscape northwest of Reno, Washoe County, Nevada. This trail connects the lower Poedunk Trail with the higher Halo Trail. The Snow Terraces Trail is used by hikers and mountain bicyclists to get—via Keystone Canyon Trail and Fisticuffs Trail—to the Halo and Bacon Strip Trail. Snowshoers enjoy this trail on those rare winter days on which the snow cover holds from the Snow Terraces all the way down to the Truckee river.

From the Snow Terraces Trail's junction with Poedunk Trail at Trail Marker 37, the single-track trail traces its uphill path along a few switchbacks. The higher you get, the more spectacular becomes the panoramic vista including the Red Hills, Reno and the Virginia Range further southeast. Also, the northern end of the Carson Range with Mt. Rose is coming into better view. Once you have passed the ridge, marked by an inclining dirt road, you will see the other side of the recreational Peavine landscape: the background scenery of Peavine Peak concludes the wavy topography of hills, ridges and canyons. The north-northeast-facing Snow Terraces are just a few steps away. Climbing the “terraces” (actually, it looks more like a stepped hillside) by following the switchbacks, you will soon find yourself on the Halo Trail—at Trail Marker 47. 

I am still waiting for the day, on which to observe a halo from this location; but in 2012 I found it to be a great spot for watching the solar eclipse. 

Peavine mountain in winter, seen from the Snow Terraces

Poedunk Trail, west of Keystone Canyon Trail

Poedunk Trail traversing a typical Washoe County winter landscape with a half & half pattern—a northeast-facing, snowy slope next to a south-facing, snowfree hillside

The Poedunk Trail runs roughly parallel to the Keystone Canyon Trail. Connected via the Rancho Connector Trail (RCT), Fisticuffs Trail and Total Recall Trail, those two hiking and mountain biking trails form the major north-south axis of the current Peavine Trails network, which is projected to further grow westward onto the upper Peavine Mountain hills.

The Poedunk Trail, a single-track trail, is also open to horseback riding. This trail is named after the Poedunks (poedunk.org), a trail club affiliated with the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA). According to the Poedunk website, the Reno-based Poedunks build and maintain non-motorized trails on Peavine in partnership with Washoe County Parks, the U.S. Forest Service, the City of Reno and other Peavine user groups. Let's congratulate them for what they have achieved so far!

All year round, you will come across mountain, snow or mud bicyclists on Peavine trails. I am also frequently meeting hikers and runners, but have never seen anyone horse riding within this open-space neighborhood northwest of Reno.

To get to the south-side “Poedunk Trailhead,” you may either start from the East Keystone Trailhead (see “Getting to the Keystone Canyon Trailhead” in my previous post “Keystone Canyon Trail”) or from the Middle Keystone Access area, just north of the Leadership Parkway. From East Keystone, follow the RCT northwestward, from Middle Keystone, follow the RCT northward: the Poedunk Trailhead is the RCT/Poedunk Trail junction at Trail Marker 34. Go north-northwest on Poedunk Trail. Very soon, you are going to arrive at what looks like a five-trail junction, marked by Trail Marker 35. The steep, dirt-road incline to your left is a non-recommended short-cut to the Halo Trail's Stonehendge section. The two trails to the right are inofficial connections with the Keystone Canyon Trail.

Bullet craters in mapped Peavine landscape

Continuing north on Poedunk Trail for about one mile, you will get to its junction with the Fisticuffs Trail at Marker 36. Further uphill, you will find a vista bench with views of the Truckee Meadows, Huffaker Hills and horizonal Virgina Range. Nearby on this saddle is Marker 37, from where the Snow Terraces Trail winds uphill to the Snow Terraces and Halo Trail. Continuing downhill on Poedunk Trail for about half a mile, you will come to its intersection with dirt road 21535—at Trail Marker 38, next to a former staging area, which was used as a target shooting platform. Now, this is a declared “Congested Area” and the discharge of firearms is prohibited. But bullet holes in the displayed map of prohibited and restricted areas in the Peavine foothills indicate some recent discharge. One bullet almost punched through the “You Are Here” point. From here, Poedunk Trail winds further downhill, passes a small pine grove and continues alongside a creek until it ends at its junction with the Total Recall Trail—at Trail Marker 39.

The east-side branch of Total Recall Trail connects with Keystone Canyon Trail. If you are ready for a larger loop, climb northwest on Total Recall Trail to Trail Marker 49, from where you can return to marker 37 via many switchbacks along Halo Trail and then Snow Terrace Trail. 

Poedunk Trail near its junction with Total Recall Trail

Keystone Canyon Trail, Reno, Nevada

Peavine Mountain foothills with Keystone Canyon Trail

The Keystone Canyon Trail connects the East Keystone Trailhead next to the Leadership Parkway in north Reno with the Hoge Road Trailhead, located further north, east of the Lower Radio Towers. This is a hiking, running and mountain bicycling trail, including a trail-side rock outcrop for rock climbing beginners. The Keystone Canyon Trail is the gateway to various single-track trails over the foothills and through the canyons of Peavine Mountain. It also makes for a great snowshoeing trail on those rare winter days during which fresh snow cover does not instantly melt away.

Keystone Canyon stretches north-south, roughly dividing the lower-elevation regions east of Peavine Mountain into the steep West-Keystone hills and the eastern hills of the Rancho San Rafael Park landscape. At the beginning of the Keystone Canyon Trail you will pass junctions, from where trails connect with the western Keystone Canyon Recreation Area and with Coyote Canyon and Evans Creek in Rancho San Rafael Park. Find informative panels on the right side of the trail briefly describing northern Nevada's Sierra/Peavine geology, reflecting on the local human history, and highlighting the local flora, fauna and restoration efforts.

After half a mile or so along the gravel-road section of the trail you will get to Trail Marker 25, where the Fisticufss Trail (spelling at marker) branches off to the left, inviting you to venture uphill towards Poedunk Trail and to the Snow Terraces and Halo Trail. If you continue through the now narrowing canyon for another half-mile, you will reach Trail Marker 60, where the Recall Ridge Trail branches off on your left and becomes Total Recall Trail further northwest. Along the canyon trail, you will soon get to Trail Marker 26, where the right-side UNR DH Trail provides you with various loop option to return to the Keystone Canyon Trailhead via Rancho San Rafael paths.


Getting to the Keystone Canyon Trailhead (East Keystone)
From the intersection of North McCarran Boulevard and North Virginia Street, drive west for one mile and turn right on Leadership Parkway. Continue westward on Leadership Pkwy below the painted water tank for about half a mile. Turn right at the upright stone displaying the trailhead name in all-uppercase letters:  KEYSTONE CANYON TRAILHEAD. At the end of the parking area is a kiosk showing a trail map and other information of interest.
A Peavine multiuse trail map is available at the Poedunk web site at www.poedunk.org/poeville-89503/peavine-trail-maps.

Keystone Canyon Trail Map: this is a section 
of an older map displayed at the trailhead and 
not showing the now-open Poedunk Trail

Once added to the edge of North America

Mastodon sketch along Keystone Canyon Trail

The Peavine Mountain and its foothills northwest of Reno, Washoe County, Nevada, are today a popular recreation landscape, where locals and visitors come for hiking, horseback riding as well as mountain and dirt biking adventures. Since the area is mostly devoid of trees, great views of the Truckee Meadows, Red Hills, Virginia Range and Mount Rose Wilderness can be enjoyed.

Traveling Keystone Canyon Trail, you will pass a mastodon sketched on an informative panel, which explains in brief how the Peavine area and northwest Nevada was formed geologically:

About 200 million years ago, the rocks you see to the west were at the ocean floor. The North American continent was to the east. Underneath the surface, tension was mounting as the oceanic crust converged with the continental crust of the North American plate.

The ocean plate was forced down, under the western edge of the continental plate, turning the peaceful landscape into a chaotic jumble of activity. For millions of years the plates converged, scraping off oceanic rock onto the edge of the continent, and melting some of the oceanic crust that was forced deep into earth. As the shoreline extended westward, rocks that now form the Sierra Nevada Range and Peavine Mountain were beeing added to the edge of the continent.

About 20 million years ago, the region east of the Sierras began to be stretched apart, breaking up the crust into blocks. More recently, probably starting less than 5 million years ago, much of the Carson Range was uplifted.

Fossil discoveries indicate that Nevada was once home to large mammals such as elephantlike mastodons. The panel says:

2.5 million years ago the land of this region was flatter - lush and green, with plenty of lakes, and active volcanoes. It was a different world - not recognizable as the Peavine Mountain we know today. Many of the plants and animals would be strange to us - like the large furry, elephant-size MASTODONS that foraged on the lush vegetation.

About 10 years ago, the Peavine foothills were still cluttered with car wrecks. They were removed from hillsides and canyons. Corroding metal assemblies would be strange to us now. Steep, hillside-eroding dirt roads are getting replaced by switchbacking single-track trails. Non-motorized recreation activities are extending westward, building a recreational trail network from Reno to Verdi and into California all the way to the edge of the continent.