This entirely on-trail ride begins just steps away from Alewife Station, winding Northwest through the historic town centers of Arlington and Lexington, both rich with Revolutionary War landmarks and local charm, before ending at the old train depot in Bedford.
If you are looking for a longer ride, you can optionally connect to the unpaved Reformatory Branch Trail, which will take you to Concord Center roughly five miles away.
This 10-mile paved trail begins at the Red Line’s Alewife Station, roughly following the route of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride through Arlington and Lexington on its way to Bedford. The trail was built on the former Lexington Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad, which abruptly ceased operation after a major snowstorm in the early 1980s. Opened in 1993 as Massachusetts’ first rail trail, the Minuteman is widely credited with sparking the state’s broader embrace of rail-to-trail conversions. In 2008, the national organization, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, inducted the Minuteman into its Rail-Trail Hall of Fame, making it the fifth member of this prestigious club.
Getting There:
Red Line: The trail begins just feet from the Red Line at Alewife, it doesn’t get better than that!
Getting Back:
MBTA Bus 62: The 62 bus route conveniently stops right at the Northern end of the trail. The bus runs every 30 minutes during the week and every hour on the weekends and takes about 40 minutes to get back to Alewife.
Spy Pond (1.2 miles from start)
Located right along the trail in Arlington, Spy Pond is a great spot to pause your ride, enjoy the view, and take in a moment of quiet along the water. The 100-acre kettle pond is the largest body of water in Arlington and was historically used for ice harvesting. The pond gets its name from a tale that a Revolutionary War-era spy was caught and drowned in the pond, although this story is likely fictional.
Arlington Center (1.4 miles from start)
Arlington Center is a charming walkable downtown with many options to stop for food and drink. The area of present-day Arlington was originally called Menotomy by the Massachusett people, from a word in the Algonquian language family often translated as “a place of swift running water,” a reference to the nearby Mill Brook. English settlers adopted the name when they established the village as part of Cambridge in 1635. The village was the site of the famous Battle of Menotomy in 1775, when local militias ambushed retreating British troops after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The town later became known as West Cambridge in 1807, before being renamed Arlington in 1867 after the Arlington National Cemetery.
Arlington Reservoir (3.6 miles from start) and Arlington Great Meadows (4.5 miles from start)
These two outdoor sites are great places to stop for some extra outdoor activity along your ride. Both have unpaved walking trails through shaded woods, marshes and meadows and are home to a wide range of native wildlife. Arlington Reservoir, known colloquially as “The Res,” was originally created in 1873 as a water supply reservoir, but today is used for recreation, including swimming at the designated beach area.
Lexington Battle Green (6.5 miles from start)
Just off the bikeway in the heart of Lexington, the Battle Green was the site of the famous shot heard round the world in 1775. As 77 Lexington minutemen faced off against 700 British Regular Soldiers on April 19, a shot was fired, probably accidentally, but nonetheless the skirmish that ensued sparked the start of the American War for Independence. Minutemen were specially trained, civilian volunteer members of colonial militias who would be ready to fight at a minutes notice. Many Massachusetts towns at the time had standing lists of Militiamen, and their preparedness was a key part of the early success of colonial resistance against the British.
Minuteman Historical Park and Battle Road (off trail)
If you’d like to learn more about the early battles of the Revolutionary War, you can take a side-excursion to the National Park Service-operated Minuteman Historical Park. You can lock up your bike in Lexington and take MBTA bus 76 to the visitor center, where there is a small exhibit and multimedia film about the Battles of Lexington and Concord. You can also walk along the famous Battle Road, along which British soldiers retreated to Boston while being persistently attacked by awaiting colonial militias.
Bedford Depot Park (10.1 miles from start)
At the Northern end of the trail you’ll find the Bedford Depot, formerly a junction between the Lexington Branch (now the Minuteman), the Reformatory Branch extending West to Concord, and the Middlesex Central Railroad which connected to Billerica and Lowell to the North. Today, the depot’s freight house has been transformed into a visitor center and museum, exhibiting information and artifacts about the railroad’s history. Also at the depot is a restored Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC) formerly used by the Boston and Maine Railroad on the line.
The Minuteman Bikeway is collectively managed and maintained by the towns of Bedford, Lexington, Arlington, and the City of Cambridge. You can learn more at the Minuteman Bikeway website, which also has links to the individual Bicycle (Advisory) Committees for the municipalities.