When I started this leg I was going to do a 2.5 mile in and out, but on the great perfect New England day, we somehow ended up in downtown Madison (5.8 miles) with hopes of taking that taxi cab back, but that never happened so I walked back and ended up with almost 11 miles: poor Dom and poor knee.
I started at Hammonesset, across the river from where I stopped last time. I have been here only a few times on the few bike bikes here and I droves as far south as I could, then parked the car and started on a bluff like out cropping and then headed north on a nice big beach, which is Hammonasset I think a large west facing beach which was nice walking on a a cool morning.
I could not figure out the many many conflicting "no dogs" "no pets" signs all over and various degrees of dates, Oct 15 or Oct 31 and there were a lot of "dogs on leash only" signs and there were plenty of dog mitt bag dispensers around, just like every coastal town trying to balance everything.
Heading north I cut through a campground and a pair of birders helped me find the new path that paralleled Rte 1-the Shoreline Greenway. today the gate of the chain link fence was locked so we followed a faint path to the end of said fence. After a short time on busy RTE 1 we headed on another section of the greenway, a lovely little "U" on a low buff in woods overlooking a salt marsh with Long island Sound in the distance with those big billowing clouds. This section was carefully graded and the surface was rock similar to RR beds. A set of stone steps on a small rise provided a nice spot for rest and enjoying the views.
after another short stint on Rte 1 we headed west on Liberty St, a house of older houses and big new ones, all bordered by green and a very nice walk. I decided Agana's walking along the shore roads-roads that kind of go along the sound but decided it be better to stick on Liberty, a new road for me.
Ending up in Madison Center, this was also new because I usually take the aforementioned shore route on bike ride. We stopped a bench in the shade and rested and had lunch, a peanut butter and jelly and orange today. I called Linda and she gave me the number for the taxi, which I had thoughts about taking. I had emailed then last winter about taking the dog and had called them on an earlier walk but the delay was too long for me that day. Anyway in Madison I called and got an answering machine....so from the RR station I decided to start walking back until they called, well it was almost 50 minutes before I got that call and I was 2 miles on my way. so much for that idea.
At this time I was running low on water and I guess I could have stopped by and taken the dog into Cumberland Farms or something, but I wasn't in the mood for that. We had water and I gave Dom frequent water breaks, I think that this was already her longest walk and we were adding to it.
Getting back to the campground I found a nice water faucet and we got to replace , it wasn't a hot day but that doesn't matter to me as far as fluids goes.
I tried to dead reckon my way to the car in a maze of parking lots campgrounds and ponds, thought that I could cut out distance but not really. There is bike path, actually a sand path just in from the beach so we traveled that and by this time, 3 PM the small trees provided a lot of shade for dog.
She did good, and was pretty tired but recovered nicely.
My friend Paul gave me a GPS and I used it on this walk, it was good because there is no way to measure this walk on Gmaps....also in real time it gave me clues as to where to go and road map was useful In Madison finding roads.
This had to be the best walk, the open beaches, the short greenway walk along the salt marsh, Liberty St and downtown Madison, another town that time forgot.
Now, have to start thinking where to go from here?
Now, have to start thinking where to go from here?
