So, every month, Runner's World Magazine does a highlight of a running location called the "Rave Run." The places they highlight are all over the world, so when I saw one pop up in Andover, MA in last month's issue, I decided that I needed to check it out. After all, how often are these places in any kind of driving distance? (This month's Rave Run is out in Idaho though, which is an odd coincidence..) In the nasty weather that we've been having this week, my ever-gracious brother agreed to make the trip out to Andover and seek out the place depicted in the article.
To see the full RW write up of the run, click
here. Under the heading, the brief description reads as follows:
"Roughly 25 miles north of Boston, Harold Parker State Forest in Andover, Mass. has a 1,000-foot boardwalk that cuts through the Mary French Reservation." The description continues with a brief history, a bit about the park, and directions. Now, the problem that we encountered is that the Mary French Reservation (and it's 1,000 foot boardwalk) is NOT a part of the Harold Parker State Forest. It is pretty much right across the street, but is a different system of trails. Consequently, when Dave and I got to the main office and asked the woman at the desk about the location of the boardwalk, she was thoroughly confused. She had just started back with the park for the summer and hadn't heard anything about the article. We got some suggestions on where the boardwalk might be and headed off.
While the magazine told us the run was in Harold Parker, we actually didn't do anything more than drive through the park. Dave and I ran on the trails through the Skug River Reservation, and finding no boardwalk (that really was the focal point for us), crossed the street to the Mary French Reservation. After running a little ways into the woods, WE FOUND IT... but it was across the swamp. Some more navigating and extra jogging, and we made it there, and it was just as fun as we had hoped. The boards are a bit more decayed than the picture in the article shows, and the mosquitoes certainly were not mentioned, but it was pretty neat to run over the swamp.
Overall, the place was great for a trail run. While we didn't actually go through the Harold Parker trails, there is an extensive and well-mapped system that we would have continued onto if we weren't being eaten alive. After reassessing the article, I did find the information for both trail systems, but the directions to the location described were indeed confusing.
I'd like to give a general mention of love for the state parks in Massachusetts, we really have some pretty fantastic places to go explore for little to no dollars. There is this awesome program I discovered a few years ago that is run by the DCR- it's a park passport program designed to motivate kids to get outside and see the parks. Each state park has a box with a combination lock and an individual stamp inside. There are little blue booklets that you can get with spaces for stamps, and the point is to collect them all. It's a really fantastic idea, and I will admit to being twenty-two and being in possession of one of these passports myself. And don't worry, I got my stamp from Harold Parker State Forest today.
Harold Parker State Forest
Andover Trails Committee- Mary French Reservation
Here's to some sunshine tomorrow-
R.
To see the full RW write up of the run, click here. Under the heading, the brief description reads as follows: 
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