Day 6 June 7th 2008

Parked at intersection of Rte 201 and Al Harvey Rd in Stonington. ( a new town for this trip)

This was a loop consisting of four paved roads and the last part(Rte 201) of my missed leg last week. It rained.

It was really foggy when I got up and I tried to balance fog, and early start because of predicted heat and traffic.

I headed east on rte 201 which I know well from bicycling but never walked it. It had a narrow to nonexistent shoulder and several pinch points with no where to go if cars came by. the wetness in the air made the knee high roadside grass wet. Again this would have been decent leg if not for traffic, even 7 AM Saturday traffic. Started by an active (now turkey) farm and then a little climb to a field bare hill. Cool.

Condensation on the leaves from air moisture made it "rain" under the canopy.

The second road on this square loop was Jeremy Hill Rd, a quiet road that, living up to to it's name, had a nice hill climb, the top of which was another farm site, only this one's latest crop was big houses, really big houses.

The third road was Route 184, AKA as the New London Providence Turnpike. I know this well from frequent bicycle commutes to work but realized that I have never walked on any of it. Even though it was recently paved, it is a raised road bed so it had a lot of cable traffic barriers and the metal kind as well, producing for someone walking a dog prolonged shoulder narrowing. Despite this, it is a great section and quite by chance, it had three spots where I used to stop at and rest on my bike commutes. One was at the top of big climb(same hill but from east on 184) there used to be a sheep farm and I would stop and watch them. There are now two huge houses on those field and no sheep. The second place was across from a farm-a working farm with cows, ageless grazing fields full of rocks and trees. The third place was just a quiet spot near a vernal pond.

The last road was AL Harvey road, which has to be one of the nicest roads around. Except for the part near 184, it has few houses on it and the rest is all woods and fields. Traffic was light. Two old farms with grand old houses and barns. The first one had a barn that looked like it was made of wax and melting fast.

Some of the fields near these farms haven't been abandoned for long, and full of cedars and rose bushes. On these roads I try to imagine other abandoned farms on woods roads in the middle of nowhere and try to picture what they were like in years past.

We stooped to rest near a grazing cow with a nearby bull frog entertaining us.

At one of the corners near the other house, I heard a droning sound and thought that it was an approaching truck coming around the corner. But, the truck never showed and the louder the noise got until I realized that it was the sound of a swarm of bees. Looking up in a big tree that overhung the road, I saw this huge swarm of bees. Scary, but cool.

Near the end, Domino was acting funny, maybe because these are unfamiliar roads, maybe because we had to stop frequently and wait for cars to go by, maybe it was all of the pinch points(she hates bridges and thinks guardrails, cuts into hillsides, are bridges, she gets frightened by those drain grates which to my surprise there quite a few of them on these roads. and at one house we were surprised by a big Shepard who barked suddenly.

Today's distance walked: 5.5 miles ( gmaps)

East west into CT: about 7 miles

Next leg: Tom Wheeler/Pequot Trail to Old Mystic