Even in the dead of winter, the Boston Harborwalk is very much alive. It can be the answer to the January Blahs.
Forty years in the making, and 43 miles in length, the Harborwalk is a huge success story. Give it some credit, it links the Boston waterfront together in a way that has never been done.
We’ve come a long way since the dirty water days of Boston Harbor and the parking lots and industrial wasteland and rotted piers that blocked access to the harbor from Dorchester to Chelsea Creek.
Forget the trendy restaurants and cafes of the Seaport. This is one hell of a place to just go for a walk. And walk they do.
Today, people seem to be repenting for breaking their New Year’s resolutions.
“I never keep them,” says Ken Taylor, walking at a brisk pace. “Oh no, the secret is to just get out of the house.”
Kylee Edinger and her 4-year-old dog, Kygo, take a break from their walk and snuggle together on a Seaport bench in matching attire. Her brown scarf and hair matches Kygo’s Australian shepherd’s coat.
“You’ve got to keep your spirits high and get yourself outside. I know it’s cold but you’ve got to get your body moving,” she says.
Shayna Keshian and her son, Zane, took the train from their Prudential Center home to walk and view the Boston skyline from Piers Park in East Boston. She doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions. That way she doesn’t have to break any.
She says the first step is the hardest.
“I think if you overthink it you’re never going to do it. Just put your coat on and go walk outside. The thought of it is more daunting than doing it. ”
Nearby, Monica Valencia is using the outdoor elliptical as she gazes across the harbor toward the Custom House Tower, one of the first skyscrapers in the United States. She is originally from Sonora, Mexico.
“I’m not freezing,” she says. “I love it here. It’s healthy to breathe this air. Cold clean air, I love it.”
A quick, icy wind gust is a reminder that this ain’t San Diego.
“I love the winter but not the wind,” Valencia confesses, retreating from her first statement.
Walking the Boston Harborwalk is never boring. It’s too rich in history. After all, this is where the American colonists dumped the tea in the harbor in 1773.
If the Harborwalk could talk, parts of it could describe what Old Ironsides was like when she was just a baby, launched in the North End in 1797. Or, nearly two centuries later, what Whitey Bulger really said walking around Castle Island in Southie before he went on the run.
In mid-January, the pathways are well maintained and salted after a snow. Still, a man wiped out going down the commuter ferry ramp near the Boston Harbor Hotel.
The surprises are more pleasant around the Seaport section. There are ample public bathrooms around Fan Pier. They are free, clean, and heated in the ground floor of buildings. There are binoculars to watch the boats in the harbor or the planes at Logan. They no longer take a quarter.
But it’s not as welcoming as it needs to be. There are gaps in signage that are puzzling and access that is still not totally continuous. It’s still a work in progress. A footbridge crossing Morrissey Boulevard is not yet open.
However, 43 of the 47 miles of Boston waterfront are linked.
Some of the scenes are surreal.
At the Encore Hotel in Everett, the well-manicured Harborwalk goes from glamor to glum as soon as you leave the property. Visitors park at the underground lot for free, but don’t try cutting through the casino with a camera under your arm. That is verboten and security cameras are everywhere.
On the other side of the harbor, a man sleeps with a blanket under the Neponset River Bridge in Dorchester. Someone has left wool gloves and a knitted cap next to him with the tags still attached. Someone has also brought him a breakfast sandwich and hot chocolate.
On a sunny Friday morning, everyone you meet either smiles or says “Good Morning.” One man in Pope John Paul Park tells a photographer to look out for a pair of hawks, majestically floating in the air.
“It’s really a neighborhood free zone. It’s a public space,” says Kathy Abbott, chief executive officer of Boston Harbor Now, whose mission is to ensure public rights to the waterfront.
“Just remind everybody that this belongs to them. It’s theirs. It’s a wonderful, wonderful way to connect with nature and with other people and enjoy a view of our city that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Stan Grossfeld can be reached at stanley.grossfeld@globe.com.