Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

I’ve walked a few trails in New York and Florida, and wish we had more in my home counties on Long Island. I was pleasantly surprised to stumble onto this trail near our hotel. We’d been visiting the Lowell area and I thought I’d get some exercise one evening, heading to the local stores. Saw the wood fence and signs and started walking north. Didn’t venture far the first day but returned twice– first going south through a magnificent section with a babbling brook, and then north again, this time to the trailhead at Cross Point. What a contrast between the quiet wooded sections and then to plunge beneath I-​495, and rte. 3. I ventured beyond the parking lot and found an unimproved part with ripped-​up rails, weeds, graffiti etc. I don’t recommend it.
In Chelmsford there is a porta-​potty and a kiosk with the trail newsletter. Not sure exactly where the new sections they are working on are– no map included!
But I was curious about Ginger Ale Plaza so I looked it up– and we brought back a 12-​pack of Market Basket’s Chelmsford Ginger Ale!

Beautiful trail. nice and level. Can’t wait for the planned extensions

I am sooo glad that my hometown finally built this bike trail. Before, we would have to drive to Nashua, NH or Bedford, MA for the nearest bike trail. The more scenic routes are away from Chelmsford towards Westford. The Lowell direction is not as scenic. Perfect place to park would be at the Ginger Ale Plaza in Chelmsford. It has the Java place which is nice and Bertucci’s which has a great brick-​oven pizza.

Overall, this is a good trail. The Lowell end of the trail is a bit hard to find, you’re in the Crosspoint parking lot thinking this can’t be right. But then you see the VERY distinctive beginning of the trail, a tunnel that looks like a large storm drain and there you are.
The other end of the trail is equally odd being that it just ends… no parking lot or place to chill, not even a good place to turn around.
There are two things that keep this trail from getting more stars. One is the crossing at Chelmsford St. which is poorly conceived and poorly executed, there is a lack of signage and the fact that you have to ride on a sidewalk for even a short portion encourages the notion that is where a bicycle belongs.
The other thing that caused this trail to get less stars is the complete and utter lack of trail etiquette, seriously folks the place to stop and have a chat is not the middle of the trail. Also parking your entire families bikes in the middle of trail is also uncool. This is not rocket science people, the trail is 10′ wide if you take up 9.5′ of it you are probably detracting from others enjoyment of the trail. And no in my present incarnation as a cyclist I am not a speed demon intent completing the trail in a personal record time, I am just someone who wants to use the trail and not have to squeeze by on the shoulder of the trail.
So in conclusion, this is an overall good trail with a few issues that need to be addressed.

I’m into rail trails lately, so I was excited to learn there was one right in Concord. It’s impossible to figure out where to park, even from the website. So you don’t have the same problem my husband and I did, here is where authorized parking for the trail is available:
* Old Town Hall, 1A North Rd. (Rt. 4), Chelmsford
* Municipal lot behind Sovereign Bank, 5 Billerica Rd, Chelmsford
* Byam School (off school hours), 25 Maple Rd, Chelmsford
* Town Land, 2 Pond St., Chelmsford
When we finally did park (in the lot behind the Sovereign Bank– bonus, no meters so parking is free) we set off on the trail. The trail itself is beautiful if a bit short. It seems to just stop at the end which is confusing if you’ve never been there before. We actually had to stop and ask another cyclist to make sure we were at the end, since Google Maps says the trail goes about a mile and a half further than the actual end of the trail.
There are far fewer people here than on the Minuteman. Even on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we had most of the trail to ourselves. The trail is a bit narrow– it’s 10 feet wide, which is the minimum for a rail trail. It can get tight in those places where there are other cyclists or rollerbladers, especially when there are parents teaching their children to ride a bike.
Bruce Freeman is a beautiful trail and if you live nearby I would definitely suggest trying it out.

This bike trail took the town of Chelmsford 25 years to complete — it opened just shy of my 26^th birthday, and I grew up in this town, so yes, they’ve been working on this trail since I was *BORN.*
The wait was worth it. This fantastic trail is a very worthy addition to Massachusetts’ wonderful array of rail trails. While the Chelmsford section is just one of (hopefully!!) three sections of the entire Freeman trail, it’s only 6 miles or so, it takes the walker/​jogger/​biker/​skater through some gorgeous wetland and woodland scenery that I didn’t even know EXISTED in my quiet hometown.
One trailhead is at the Crosspoint building (formerly known as the Wang tower) in Lowell, and the other is on the Chelmsford/​Carlisle border. I recommend approaching from Carlisle and making your way north, as close to the Lowell trailhead you go through Chelmsford center, a convenient pitstop.
Not to mention, as you go north from Carlisle, the landscape changes from woods into open wetlands that then feed into more and more streams until suddenly the path parallels a large, gushing stream that feeds into the Middlesex canal. My jaw dropped when I saw the amount of water that was flowing (just barely half a mile from Chelmsford center) around swathes of trees and giant boulders, like a scene from some storybook idyll that seems like it totally, definitely shouldn’t be in Chelmsford. But it is!
As of this writing the trail is barely a week old, so yeah, it’s a little crowded, but that should dissipate with time.
For people not from around the Chelmsford area — please note the High Street crossing and be VERY CAUTIOUS. Local drivers go notoriously way too fast on High street, and while the bike path crossing there is well-​marked, old habits die hard. Experienced bikers might be tempted to pull a rolling stop at this intersection but I recommend vigilance at this crossing, especially since drivers are coming around a curve and a down a hill when they get to the intersection.