Madison

Untitled by cdale56 at Garmin Connect - Details

Two legs in one week, WOW. This walk  is turning into a series of in and outs with a loop in there somewhere if I am lucky.

Today's walk- to a dead end-was too long for one day (in this new world of mine) but too short for 2 walks, so we will see.

 I started at the park where I turned around last time (Lowry Park, Madison)and headed down Rte 1 and Neck Rd. I  decided to just go the East River and then pick it up the other side. So I am skipping a bridge farther north, but I am also skipping a crappy walk on a section of route 1 and 146 while staying close to the shore with better shoreline views* and less traffic* (* at least in theory)

A  cool day with 42 at home and 50 at start. A steady easterly wind made it seem cooler esp along water with no trees. I like it, Dom likes it.

Neck Rd, where I rode the bike years ago and remember little about it, is a nice road along a peninsula that goes west from mainland and ends at a marsh/boat ramp type place. hard to see what it would be like from looking at map.

Neck rd starts as a straight as an arrow rd with abunch of those  little streets left towards the sound, with all too familiar patch of water in the distance and the all too familiar "private" signs with all that stuff.

The road turns a bit and into some wooded sides and then views of the salt marsh north and to the west appear. After a 90 degree turn south and then another 90 to the west, the sound was in full view, in fact one of the rare places where you can walk along it unobstructed by houses.

A little turn and the road goes right long it. Today it was choppy. and it is here that the fury of the storms is evident, 6 foot high mounds of sand border the road, house are in various stages of disrepair and there are hour lot size gaps between standing houses.

I was doing pretty good (I should  take Aleve more often)but didn't want to press it, so we stopped for snack and water and turned around. This was at the Madison Guilford town lie/ It was probably only a mile or so to the actually turn around point-where water would let us go no farther west, but I didn't want to push it today.

Stats 4.3 miles.  time 1:52. car drive: about 50 miles each way. gas 3.43

Madison

Dom ready to go

It has been so long since I did any of this walk. My knee has been getting worse and and worse and  in fact today was my longest walk in months, as this failed knee replacement is taking its toll on most other joints. Anyway today was a swell day, 70s, clear shies and- and-if only for a day-a great reminder what great spring days are like.

I was  going to Yale but at least minute change gave me a chance to  go for this walk, the goal being to go  further than I went last September. I had no map, no real plans and the plan was just going to dead reckon from the Madison RR station to down by the shore where I have been a few times on the bike.

After a cobb salad and chowda at Orourke's I parked at RR station

Madison RR Station

and took back roads to the green, cutting thru walks to and from this church

The Madison green is really nice and it was only green, but also yellow, as forsythia, daffodils, dandy lions and a new flower to me- were all over the place.

Madison Green

We did a short walk on busy Rte 1 and then West Wharf to the park, was tempted to go along the beach but had wrong shoes, so we followed the parking lots-a lot of  other folk were on the way to the shore this day too.

We found a nature sign, a sign indicating it was a Boy Scout Project that lead over this bridge to the other side of a marsh, to a series of ball fields.

Boardwalk across marsh

I saw another nature trail with blue blazes, we followed that to more fields that lead back to Rte 1.

It was on this last trail that I tripped over a little tiny cedar stump and let me tell you, when I trip on a root or  too small and  hard to see stump, it kills me. I doubled over on this nearby boulder wondering if I could walk more or maybe have to call 911 but it got better. Not that I need reaffirmation-to quote a good friend-but it was reminder of how things are.

The stump

Church on the green

We got back to Rte 1 and walked back. it was late afternoon traffic but still nice, cut thru the green and thru a garden walk near a Parson Graves house (don't quote me on name). It was nice to be back on this quest and I hope to do a few more legs of this walk before the surgery and hopefully do many many more after that.