‘Tis true, my friendly Westonians; today is the last day of summer 2021. Tomorrow is the Autumn Equinox and open season for mums, pumpkins and raking (RAKING! Not leaf blowing, Weston, don’t make me crazy). So today is your last chance to play hooky and head outside this summer…and I have your plan right here. Don’t worry, it’s not an all-day thing, but rather a nice walk in the woods, an apple orchard and a go ‘Cats moment.

Here’s the deal. Today at 4:15 pm, the Wildcats cross country teams (girls and boys) take on our frenemy, Wayland. If you are new to Weston, you may not know that sometimes we like Wayland and sometimes we don’t. Actually, to be truthful, we always like Wayland, we just try to hide it when needed. They are our best competitors always. And I will forever love them for the Wayland students who came out to the Class of 2020 graduation car parade and cheered on the seniors who lost their chance at a Town Green graduation. You rule for that. Except not today. Yeah, okay, even today. Frenemies, as I say.

You may not know this except if you read the Boston Globe article on our cross country team, and senior Julie Hohenberg, but we have one of the most scenic (and possibly treacherous) cross country courses in the area. It begins at Burchard Park–where the start and finish is on grass, but the main part is in the woods where many a root lies in wait. As of this morning, the race course is set up with mile markers and cones, and so it’s time to go for a walk and a root…not that rooting, the other rooting. Pay attention.

This afternoon at 3:45 pm, I would say park your car in one of three locations: 1. Burchard Park, 2. Concord Road side of road (just west of 212 Concord Street there are turnouts for a few cars) or 3. Community Gardens on Merriam Street across from Leaftopia Take a little walk to the apple orchard where the apples, though really ugly, are delicious. There is even an apple picking device available to get those ones at the top. Don’t eat them all–there is a WFTA volunteer who needs an apple every morning or she gets cranky. I haven’t told any people about the apple orchard being full of apples yet because some wise guys pick all the dang apples every single year.

You can even set up a folding chair in the orchard grass–don’t block the field trails–the runners will come down and up those trails. If you want a new cool place to hang out, go see what the boy scouts have done so far to clear the walls of Merriam Barn! It’s incredible and just at the 1-mile marker (trail next to leaftopia and onion field), so you can now sit on the wall and watch and cheer the runners, all without being taken prisoner by Audrey the evil buckthorn beast. Be sure to get fully off the trail as the runners come by. Cheer on Weston. Oh, all right, cheer on the Warriors as well–they dress for fall at all times in their orange and black.

After (or before) the race, take a nice walk in the College Pond conservation area. It really is incredible–and lots of people are involved in making it better. Conservation, WFTA, Boy Scouts, Recreation and Fields (DPW) are all working hard — new bog bridges, glass shard clean-up, signage, invasives removal…it’s all happening here. Get outside. It’s your last chance this summer. Sorry, was that mean?

And go ‘cats!