Nice account of the BFRT, and photos. Thank you.

Re: Your statement – Leaving the center and heading south, you’ll see the streams that (I believe…) feed into the Middlesex canal in the center of town. The canal is kind of hidden — but if you walk near the Fishbones restaurant in the center of town you’ll get a little peep of the canal.

I don’t know the names of the streams that flow through Chelmsford Center, but they are not part of the Middlesex Canal.

The north branch of the canal route does cross the northern end of the BFRT, on the Crosspoint Tower side of Route 3, on its way between the Merrimack River, at Middlesex Village, and the Concord River Crossing in North Billerica.

Also, streams did not feed the M’sex Canal. The Concord River was the sole source of water for the north branch.

It should be possible to link portions of the canal towpath (e.g., Canal Road in Chelmsford, McLannan Way and Lowell Street in North Billerica) to the BFRT to extend its length and provide a generally traffic-free link to North Billerica (e.g., to the commuter rail station); the ‘Friends’ of the BFRT are aware of this.

More information about the canal can be found at .

HTH,

Bill Gerber
President, Middlesex Canal Association

Actually it was the “Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail” that chopped up the tree, the police came by while we were cutting and helped with traffic as the trail was busy.

-ken