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2009 Fells Event Calendar
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Opening Day
Wednesday, 4/15
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60°
Fog
Winds N
8 MPH
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Humidity:
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96% |
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Feels Like:
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60° |
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Dew Point:
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59° |
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Barometer:
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29.79" |
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Visibility:
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0.2 Miles |
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UV Index:
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0 Low |
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Sunset:
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8:25 PM |
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THU
59°
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FRI
76°
61°
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SAT
73°
57°
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SUN
76°
60°
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MON
76°
60°
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 Did you know the Charles River Conservancy & the DCR are planning on building a huge skate park underneath the Rt 93 & Rt 1 connector? Please help support what will be the country's biggest skate park, and donate if you can.
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Weather by weather.com
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Welcome to FellsBiker.com. This is a web site for the many people that enjoy mountain biking, hiking, running, horse back riding, and more in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The Woods are approximately 2,075 acres in size, located just a few miles North of Boston. The Woods take up space in five towns: Stoneham, Medford, Winchester, Melrose and just a little bit of Malden.
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May 10th, 2009
As I reported last month, the Friends of the Fells are being evicted out of their current office space. For years, the DCR has provided this space to the fof free of charge. In a normal situation where a friends group looks out for the interest of the park and all of it's users, this would be a nice gesture. But the fof is an extremely biased organization. They periodically send reports to the DCR suggesting that mountain biking should be completely banned from the Fells. They block mountain bikers from doing trail maintenance, and then they perform their own token trail work that often times leaves the trails worse off than they were before - but their work makes the trails worse to bike on, which seems to be their primary goal.
The Friends of the Fells have encouraged their members to write letters to the state, to make the DCR reverse it's decision and let the fof stay in their free office space. As a tax payer, I find it extremely offensive that my tax dollars are used to attempt to BAN ME from this great urban park.
I encourage everyone to write your own letter to the state, in support of the DCR's original decision to EVICT the Friends of the Fells out of their free office space. Tell them it is unfair to use taxpayer dollars to support the Friends of the Fells. Tell them the Friends of the Fells are extremely biased and shouldn't be allowed to influence DCR policy making in the Fells. The Friends of the Fells are not looking out for all of the users of the park, or the park's purpose as recreational use land. Tell them you want the Friends of the Fells OUT of their free office space.
Direct your letters (and/or phone calls) to:
Governor Deval Patrick: constituent.services@state.ma.us (617) 725 - 4005
Environment Secretary Ian Bowles: ian.bowles@state.ma.us (617) 626 - 1000
DCR Commissioner Richard Sullivan: rick.sullivan@state.ma.us (617) 626 - 1250
Representative Paul Donato: rep.pauldonato@hou.state.ma.us (617) 722 - 2960
Representative Katherine Clark: rep.katherineclark@hou.state.ma (617) 722 - 2220
Representative Jason Lewis: rep.jasonlewis@hou.state.ma.us (617) 722 - 2060
Representative Carl Sciortino: rep.carlsciortino@hou.state.ma.us (617) 722 - 2400
Representative Chris Fallon: rep.christopherfallon@hou.state.ma.us (617) 722 - 2430
Senator Richard Tisei: richard.tisei@state.ma.us (617) 722 - 1206
Senator Patricia Jehlen: patricia.jehlen@state.ma.us (617) 722 - 1578
For years, the voice of the fof is the only voice the state has heard. It's time for bikers and other trail users to step up to the plate and be heard. |
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April 30th, 2009
The Fof are at it again. Saturday the 25th, there was supposed to be a very large trail maintenance day in the Fells. I say "supposed to be" because it was fully approved by the DCR. A large section of the Mountain Bike loop was going to be rerouted to singletrack. The day before the trail work, the Fof put up a big stink and got the huge event cancelled the day before. 'Cancelled' or just 'Postponed'? That remains to be seen. If the Fof have anything to do with it, it will be cancelled forever. That's the point of the Fof, they really don't care about improving the trails, they're only concern seems to be banning bike, maintaining existing bans, and getting more bans. Meanwhile the Fof does they're own trail maintenance that is very detrimental to the trails. It's mostly cheap, fast, token trail work so that bike groups aren't the only ones doing trail work. None of their anti-bike arguments hold any water, and hopefully this latest slap in the face is enough to finally rally mountain bikers together and fight back. The mountain biker tactics of the last . . .8+ years has been to simply grin and bear it. This has gotten mountain bikers almost nothing. We need to step up and fight for access rights we deserve. Someone needs to step up and lead this movement. |
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April 24th, 2009
For years now, the DCR has provided the Friends of the Fells with free working space in one of the DCR buildings. This was actually pretty unfair considering one of the primary goals of the Fells is to antagonize mountain bikers, which are either the biggest, or second biggest user group in the Fells. The letter sent to the Friends of the Fells cites the economy as the reason. It could be that, or it could be that the DCR is sick of the Friends of the Fells acting like THEY are the ones in charge. Either way, it put a smile on my face.Fof Letter |
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February 20th, 2009
"On Monday, Land Court Judge Keith C. Long prohibited the City of Melrose, environmental group the Friends of the Fells, and ten taxpayers from advocating on behalf of the state during court proceedings over the Commonwealth’s right to require an environmental impact report for the mixed-use redevelopment.Last week, the same judge tossed-out a separate lawsuit filed by the same parties against the Gutierrez Company that sought to block the proposed housing and office space development from moving further due to potential harm the project may cause to the surrounding Middlesex Fells Reservation." Read The Full Article Here |
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November 17th, 2008
So for the past 4 years, our downloadable Fells map has had a font problem. I've known about it, I just haven't had time to fix it. It was a result of upgrading to a newer version of Adobe Illustrator (CS1 to CS2 I believe). Well I finally got around to fixing it, the fonts are now all nice and evenly spaced. So click on Maps and download a fresh one! |
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September 12th, 2008
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17448133/detail.html "Hundreds of feet of decorative, cast-iron trim from the Longfellow Bridge taken from a Stoneham labor yard was sold and melted down after being stolen by two state workers, officials said Thursday." So Dick Stewart, one of the two people arrested, was the main guy in charge of the Fells. I had a few meetings with him a few years back about the state of the Fells, and how the rules of the Fells were being unfairly controlled by the "Friends" of the Fells, aka the bike-hating extremists. But in the end the DCR chose not to work with us thanks to NEMBA completely throwing us under the bus. Thanks for that. So at this point the biking situation in the fells has pretty much reset itself. The Fells DCR guy is in jail, NEMBA would rather trash other bikers than share what they perceive as "political power", and the absurd anti-biking rules the "Friends" of the Fells helped put in place decades ago remain unchanged. So if you were hoping for some political changes in the Fells, don't hold your breath.
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