Meet the first Boston Boundless Trail finishers

Dear Greater Boston ramblers,

On this lovely, temperate, mid-August afternoon, I have some exciting news to share.

Just two months after its launch, the Boston Boundless Trail has been successfully completed by two local adventurers! In fact, the reports came in during the same week! The first respondent walked the entire trail, and the second responder ran it.

Our first walking-speed finisher is Alex Slive of Cambridge, who started hiking the BBT on June 7th and finished on July 28th. Alex completed the 90.9-mile loop in 9 segmental hikes. As you’ll see below, Alex got creative with choosing the start and finishing points for each hike; a reminder that you can divide the trail into however many sections you want, irrespective of how the 12 “official” sections are outlined.

Here is the trajectory of Alex’s odyssey:

- Carson Beach to North Quincy Red Line station (Sec 1 + 2)
- North Quincy Red Line station to Randolph Avenue in the Blue Hills (Sec 2 + 3)
- Randolph Avenue in the Blue Hills to Readville commuter rail station (Sec 3 + 4)
- Readville commuter rail station to Waban Green Line station (Sec 4 + 5)
- Waban Green Line station to Brooks Street near Oak Square (Sec 6)
- Brooks Street to Gore Street in East Cambridge at Gold Star Mothers Park (Sec 7 + 8)
- Gore Street to Alford Street near Sullivan Square Orange Line Station (Sec 8 + 9)
- Alford Street to Orient Heights Blue Line station (Sec 9 + 10 + 11 + 12)
- Orient Heights Blue Line station to Carson Beach (Sec 12 + 1)

"The only bummer now is I finished,” Alex wrote to me in his victory email. “I’ll have to find something else to do—maybe head up to the mountains!” Sounds like a good idea to me. After perambulating Boston, the Presidential Range should be a cake walk.

And now, let’s meet our first running-pace finisher of the Boston Boundless Trail: Katie Metzger of Jamaica Plain, who ran all 90.9 miles of the BBT in 10 segments. Being a runner, Katie also tracked the amount of time that it took her to traverse the BBT—about 25 hours, with 190,000 steps. Also, getting to and from the trail from the city, she rode all 4 color lines of the MBTA (Orange, Red, Blue, and Green), along with 4 bus lines and the climatic MBTA water taxi from East Boston to Long Wharf North.

Here’s how Katie broke up the BBT point by point from June 13th to August 13th:

- Long Wharf North to North Quincy Red Line station (Sec 1 + 2)
- East Milton Square to Blue Hills Trailside Museum (Sec 3)
- Readville commuter rail station to Blue Hills Trailside Museum (Sec 4)
- Readville commuter rail station to Waban Green Line station (Sec 4 + 5)
- Waban Green Line station to Davis Square (Sec 6 + 7)
- Davis Square to Village Landing Park (Sec 8 + 9)
- North Quincy Red Line station to East Milton Square (Sec 2)
- Village Landing Park to Revere Beach (Sec 9 + 10)
- Revere Beach to Beachmont Blue Line station (Sec 11)
- Beachmont Blue Line station to Lewis Mall Wharf (Sec 12)

Again, as you can see with Katie’s quest, traversing the entire Boston Boundless Trail can be done in whatever order or configuration makes the most sense for you. Katie tackled much of the trail in its official sections, but she also combined a few. And in one instance, she completed a section hike in the opposite direction of the all others. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to: In both cases, Alex and Katie finished all 90.9 miles of the BBT!

Now, here’s some extra motivation for those of you aspiring to finish the whole trail in the weeks or months ahead. For runners, the Boston Boundless Trail now has its first FKT (Fastest Known Time) and that honor can be claimed by anyone who finishes the trail faster. The current FKT time is 25 hours, 9 minutes, and 28 seconds. Good luck.

But on a broader level, I have some news that I’ve been looking forward to sharing for a long time. Starting this October, anyone who finishes the Boston Boundless Trail will be able to claim a free finisher’s patch modeled from the trail logo! It’s a carbon copy of the patch program we’ve run for the Walking City Trail (nearly 100 finishers have claimed their patches for the WCT), and we will be extending the program to the City On The Hills Trail too! Once the claim forms for the new patches are online in October, you will find out via the newsletter. So if you’ve completed the BBT or the CHT….or if you’re close to finishing either…squirrel those victories away and when the time arrives, you can fill out the requisite forms and watch the mail for your prize(s).

More news on that front soon, but for now, please join me in giving a Walking City Trails cheer and salute to Alex and Katie; the first Boston Boundles Trail finishers!

~Miles Howard

PS: Our next group hike on the Boston Boundless Trail is going down this Saturday morning and there’s still plenty of time to sign up, which you can do by clicking here.

The Walking City Trails are 100% community powered. Simply put, these urban trails would not exist without the enthusiasm and generosity of Boston explorers like you. If you would like to support our efforts to connect more people with the great *local* outdoors, CLICK HERE.