Freedom Trail, barefoot

Bare footprints across the Charles River bridge A small group of barefooters hiked the Boston Freedom Trail on a chilly and somewhat wet afternoon.

[Images here are linked to larger copies.]
Panhandler with a (sadly) funny premise A panhandler with an amusingly scary premise, leaning up against the Old State House.

Cranking the glass harp Cranking the glass harp for the player in Paul Revere Mall.  This area is heavily enclosed by trees and holds humidity and a lot of leaf detritus; the bricks were positively slimy.

Heading toward Zakim Heading up past Copp's Hill toward the Charlestown bridge, which the Zakim looms over.  We didn't walk around either of the burying grounds, which would be fun someday when they're less thronged by tourists.

Steaming up Monument St toward Bunker Hill We diverged from the Trail a little toward Bunker Hill, as the view up Monument St is much more impressive than along where the Trail goes.

Stairway up Bunker Hill monument The Monument was open!  Of course we were going to walk up; I never did this before.  The stairway inside is spiral, not square, and rather narrow, and today quite full of people despite the sub-optimal tourism weather.

Down Bunker Hill monument ventilation shaft On reaching the top 200 feet higher, one can stand on top of the ventilation shaft and look straight down to the light in the bottom.  Not for the leery of heights, by any means.

All of our feet over the 200 ft shaft We all arrived and managed to crowd in for our "barefooter money shot".

Impaired view out monument windows Not much view was available out the windows, with lots of milling people in the way.  The small space at the top was quite humid.

Decrepitude around Charles River locks Another deviation from the Trail brought us back through Paul Revere Park and across the Charles River locks instead, which are much more interesting.  The grilles to keep debris out of the workings are *quite* rusty.

One lock open carrying the walkway with it One of the locks was about to open just as we reached it, so we got to see how it carries the walkway completely away on top of it.  There used to be rubber tires on these rollers...

Railroad bridge out of North Station A loud siren drew our attention over to the open railroad drawbridge out of North Station, which then lowered to let trains rumble across.

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