West Washacum Pond is a 120-acre great pond located off of Gates Road in Sterling. The pond bottom is comprised of rocks and gravel with areas of mud and aquatic vegetation common along the shoreline and shallow shoals. The shores of West Waushacum Pond lie within the Department of Conservation and Recreation water supply protection lands and are free from development.

There is a car-top dirt-ramp boat launch alongside the road. There is roadside parking only at the launch. A gravel parking lot for the Central Mass Rail Trail is a short distance across the street from the pond.

An intrepid adventure traveler can still find traces of it in the wilderness. A 104-mile railroad line was shattered by a hurricane in 1938. The line once stretched from downtown Boston at North Station to Union Station in Northampton, Mass. Calvin Coolidge used to ride this train to the State House each day when he was the Governor right after WWI.

Now, over 80 years later, dedicated volunteers, local property owners, state government agencies, and business partners in 25 communities are working to open it up as a linear park. Instead of trains, there will be tourists and locals, bed & breakfast inns, cross-country skiers, bicyclists, hikers, joggers, babies in baby carriages, and people in wheelchairs.

The Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) will provide an east-west counterpart to the existing Appalachian Trail, and connections between the existing north-south New England Scenic, Mid-state, and Bay Circuit Trails. Near Boston, the MCRT will provide connections to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, the Assabet River Rail Trail, and the Minuteman Rail Trail, and other projects close to Boston will connect directly with the MCRT. Sixteen hiking or multi-use trails will connect directly with the MCRT.