13th Leg, July 5th 2008

We parked at Bluff Point and went west to the corner of meridian and Rte 1. Length about 5 miles round trip.

I knew that this walk would be on the worst section of road that I had yet encountered- the main shopping drag of rte 1 with one side full of fast food joints and strip malls and the other side a series of three shopping centers. Well, it wasn't the best walking but there was cool stuff. I was again surprised and again learned that walking in urban areas has wonderful qualities.

One thing i should mention about Domino is that she is a great walking companion but she has some peculiarities , she hates bridges and those traffic grates scare her really bad. The Rte 1 section walked today had many grates and before I got used to them myself, she would suddenly balk or veer away suddenly like towards the traffic. scary.

Anyway, the walk started nice enough going long a cove on the gravel road that is used to drive to the park. It was a lousy day with cloudiness and in fact a rainy morning delayed my start a bit, which I was hoping to do earlier to avoid busy traffic.

Once under the RR tracks there is nice boardwalk along the water, I was afraid that D would freak out with the boardwalk but she loved it. In one frame of the camera that I do not have, I saw an egret, a cormorant sunning its outspread wings and family of swans.

The boardwalk ended at Rte 1 and as I was heading west I saw a sign for the "Avery/Morgan Cemetery" that interested me because I had just this past winter did some family genealogy and learned a Satterlee, many generation earlier had married a Groton Avery and so I went to the cemetery which was up the road a bit. There were many old graves here and as if on demand, i saw a small grass trail heading back to avoid backtracking and sure enough this trail ended back at rte 1. That cemetery probably holds within its earth the remains of my great great(I don't know how many great) parents

Rte 1 soon passed Poquoncok Rd and I remembered that there was a house site of another Avery, the grandfather of the woman who married into the Satterlee line. I didn't remember where, but sure enough it was very close to rte and on the way back I checked it out. It has a g high stone post with the names of the generations of Averys who lived there.

Next walk, I hope to finally get to the Thames River.

Total distance walked: about 68 miles (some trails I don't know exact distances) and east west into Connecticut as the crow flies, about 13.5, about 5 miles for every mile across the state?