Spy Pond (Arlington MA)

When We Went:

We went to Spy pond many times over the spring, summer, and fall of 2003. It was a great after work location. It was convenient to Rt 2 and located just off of Mass Ave in Arlington, MA.

Description:

Spy pond is the perfect size. You can take your time and get around the entire lake in a hour and 1/2. There is a parking lot, very nice playground, picnic tables and a good size parking lot. The Spy pond park area is along the old railroad tracks (never built, but that's unrelated) that are now the Arlington bike path.

The lake is mostly surrounded by houses, but one section of it is next to Route 2. The cars on Rt 2 can actually be pretty loud as they zoom past that section of the lake, but it's a good encouragement to go quickly along that section.

This is actually the place where we took our Kayaks for a test drive before buying them. We've seen quite a few other Kayakers there. We've also seen kayak water polo being played there. The people playing all had the smaller white water kayaks. It was very entertaining to watch.

This is a great lake to take people on if they are just learning. Wild Women Outfitters used to be just a few streets away, but we recently heard they were closing. It is really too bad, they were very helpful.

Web Link:

Spy Pond Web Site

Put-in Details:

The put-in we've used a number of times is on Pong Lane just off of Mass Ave. If you are coming south it's a right turn just after the light by the fire station (at Franklin Street). There is another parking area in the same park area off of Linwood Street.

Link to Map:

http://tinyurl.com/9spca