Towns of New England: Explore Lowell's canal waterfront

We will explore the waterfront of Lowell, MA. There are a lot of artificial canal branches of the Concord river before it merges into the Merrimack river. A few years ago, this was all abandoned factory buildings, but the city has started a vigorous construction program to fill up the empty lots.

There are new streets not yet visible on Google Maps, but a lot of canal views of old brick buildings, lovely reflections, decaying as well as brand new pedestrian bridges, and a lot of single, left-over exhaust stacks in odd places. Stark contrasts for black & white and smooth water reflections for color. It will be interesting to see how this area has changed since we last went there in the 2012/2013 time frame.

The suggested walking route is 1-1.5 miles long if you want to go all the way to the MassMills at the Merrimack river (shown above), for a roughly 2 mile round trip (see photo section for the map). Shorter if you skip the latter. A zoom lens in the 24-70 range will do very well here. Wear good walking boots and bring a light rain jacket in case we get some sprinkles.

Please be on time, the group will start on time and spread out quickly. Vaccinated people only, no guests, as always.