The full length of the East Side Trail in Worcester, Massachusetts goes all the way from Lake Quinsigamond all the way over to Cristoforo Columbus Park on Shrewsbury Street, just under 3.5 miles.
If you begin at Lake Quinsigamond, there are only 2-3 spots of parking immediately against North Lake Ave. The water-edge area is fairly rough with a plaque, an end-of-trail marker, and not much else. Fortunately North Lake Ave is low traffic so it’s easy to cross the street there to the start of the trail. The trail then follows along the Coal Mine Brook.
Unfortunately it’s only about 1/5th of a mile before you then hit Plantation Street which is a BUSY two-lanes-each-way road with tractor trailer traffic. If you walk along the road a ways to the right you get to the 290 offramp. You can try to cross there, to get to the other side of Plantation. Then you have to walk along the road back again to get to the next section of East Side Trail.
I wouldn’t do this myself :). If I wanted to do the ‘complete trail’ I would drive to the Lake Quinsigamond spot like I did, walk this stretch, then drive to a spot on the other side and walk from there.
Here’s the full map on the GWLT site –
Ask with any questions!
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