To the editor:
Let's talk about this "Olde Rockport Road" that some think could be a new right-of-way for automobile traffic in and out of Rockport by clear cutting a wide path through the woods of Gloucester.
It is not a road. It is a beautiful but narrow trail starting next to the entrance to Blackburn Industrial Park and ending in Rockport near the VFW Club on Route 127.
It is a very long and beautiful trail through the silent woodlands, far away from the traffic and noise that bring people to suggest tearing a paved two-lane road through this forest to alleviate (maybe) their commute in and out of Rockport.
The trail is only the width of a one-car driveway. Using the word "road" to describe a path through the woods was OK in the 1700s, but a misdirection in the year 2012.
The Old Rockport Road is historic. It is a nature trail. It is teaming with beautiful vegetation and wildlife (as only a trail through the woods could do).
There is a beaver dam just off this trail that holds back a water supply for all sorts of inhabitants of this "nature" park. You have to walk over, under and around some fallen trees, but that is OK. Fallen trees support all kinds of wildlife. Clear-ctting all trees on either side of this path would be harmful to the flora and fauna in this quiet forest.
You listen to every sound that nature makes in this area because you can!
The brooks gurgle, the birds sing above and below, and the plants are so different.
Horses, wagons and walkers used this trail to get to Rockport. It was never a road in the modern sense.
The trail starts on the wooded left side of the first parking lot at Blackburn Industrial Park. Look around and you will spot the small paths that get you to the trail. When you get to the end — Route 127 — you can walk back to Blackburn or get picked up at Pond Street down the hill a bit on the same side as the trail.
Gil McCarthy
Rockport
