Pickle Point at Morses Pond, the Guernsey Path along Sabrina Lake and the Esker Trail near Longfellow Pond are among Wellesley’s most beautiful outdoor spaces. Wellesley High School’s Kyle MacKinnon, for his senior project, this weekend will attempt to make those spots even more attractive via a dozen Cypress wood plaques featuring short Robert Frost-style poems that he’s written.
Finding all 12 poems will amount to something of a scavenger hunt for the public, as some of the plaques are right out on the trails and paths, and others are a bit hidden.
“I have always been a big fan of the outdoors and also starting this year I have been writing on my own, mostly poetry, so I wanted to find a project where I could use my passion for both,” says MacKinnon, who following his graduation from WHS will head to Sewanee, The University of the The South, in Tennessee, which has a strong English and liberal arts program.
Back to Wellesley, MacKinnon says Pickle Point at Morses Pond is his favorite outdoor location in town, noting that it reminds him of his summers on Long Island.
The Wellesley Natural Resources Commission approved MacKinnon’s project as a temporary one, though he says he’d love for it to become permanent or at least an annual event to kick off the summer months.
“All the poems are around the common theme of why people go outside,” MacKinnon says. “Some will be about peace, others beauty and escape. The community service aspect of the project is that it will encourage people to get outside and walk along the paths.”
If you’d like to try to spy all 12 poems, we can tell you this much. They can be found at the locations listed below (and the Wellesley Trails Committee’s listing of trails in town might help guide you to areas you might be unfamiliar with):
*The start of the Charles River Path
*Crosstown Trail by Warren Park
*The Esker Trail
*Longfellow Pond
*Centennial Reservation
*Rockridge Pond
*Duck Pond at Town Hall
*Waban Arches
*Guernsey Sanctuary at Sabrina Lake
*Cliffs at Boulder Brook/Rocky Ledges
*Morses Pond trail
*Pickle Point on Morses Pond trail
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