2014

This is my first post in quite a spell (almost a year) and I hope that will be the last time I write those words. On the way to Yale I stopped and did this this very short section, as I had to turn back in my  last leg last year and missed the distance between where I stopped and the river to the west.

I decided to walk along the shore and for the fourth time did not cross a bridge but went to both sides on opposite sides of a  river. The alternative was to go on straight on rte 1 to 146 and while that was passable it wasn't really as nice as this route.

The place I choose to park was a parking lot a fishing area and I was going to walk back to the Madison/Guilford town line and go as far west as I could get. The dirt road top the parking lot was marked "road floods at high tide" and the puddles full of water proved the point. I parked just before the signs there, walked back to the town line and headed along a road that soon ended at the shore with a sign "PRIVATE right of way only"  Not exactly sure what that meant.

We walked along a shore that was part sandy and part salt march mud to the water. It was filled with shells- clams, scallops, oysters and those little tiny ones.  The place was thick with shells. Someone had placed conch shells on the limbs of a bare shrub, similar to  that movie "Blair Witch" but not like that.

It was only about 3/4 of a mile and we came to and unusual house-weathered and neglected as it was-and I am sure that it has a story associated with it.

Across the way was downtown Guilford,  the far shore was close enough to swim……

Distance 1.47 miles

Miles to start:  about 54

Temp 38º

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.

Hammonasset to Madison RR Station

Well if you draw a line across the southern part of this state and divide it by half, this is about the half way point-I don't think that  this straight line relates accurately  to this walk or all the in and outs and that is what  this walk has become?

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?

 

 

Clinton Green to end of Pratt Rd ( and return)

Haven't been out here in a while....it was a  45 mile drive today. Didn't realize it was going to be in the 90s today or else I would have started earlier. I decided at the last minute to see how far I could get on side roads and skip the way I had planned-Rte 1 and all its crapiness.

Parked at the Clinton Green which is on a quiet stretch of the Post Road and pretty small and quiet-very nice. A Civil War monument soldier stands guard over this patch of green.

We walked down to the town beach where I last walked on this trek, a nice in and out. The road is lined with old houses and few others in between. The beach is reached by a small bridge going over a salt creek. A cannonade was placed here.

After a short stretch on Rte 1 I noticed what a nice town this is, the nicest thing is that there ain't alot here but antique shops and historical buildings and historical stuff like plaques, but the very nicest thing is all the benches and places all over  to rest, they are all over and we saw about 3 gazebos for shade too.

We followed side roads and came across this bell, the date of which was 1870.

Not knowing how far this Pratt Rd would take me I keep walking and was pleasantly surprised that the road kept going until a dead end at a salt marsh,the Hammonasett River. Like the Thames and Connecticut Rivers, I will take this as part of the hike and give up my purist thinking against actually walking over water.

On the turn around stopped at small veggie stand and got some beans onions Yukon golds a cuke and some baby pumpkins, it will make a nice soup. This little road was pretty cool, it was on a long point surrounded  by water, to the south was the sound and a ship yard full of yachts and to the north was a narrow waterway with woods on the other side. The houses showed great variety, some looked like regal estates and others looked like the Jedd Clampants Hillbilly house in the hills.

It was getting pretty hot on the way back for the dog so we stopped frequently to lay in the cool grass and drink water and enjoy shade. she did good.  Our lunch stop was at the intersection of Commerce and Post road at a bunch of benches.

 

It was a slow walk back; we walked back on the north side of the road and checked out the Congregational Church, the old school and these strange things


This was first trip using GPS

4.97 miles

Time 2:10:19

Travel miles 45

Gas $3.88/gal

Clinton

Today was the shortest walk so far, I drove here intending to use a taxi for a point to point walk but got delayed and fatigued by an AM ortho visit. I was hoping to walk end of last walk, corner of Shore Rd and Beach Park Rd. and walk to the Madison green. But time was short and this taxi was delayed so I just parked at Clinton town beach and walked back and forth.

It was an unusually warm day for February but an ever so slight breeze from the water did not make it seem the the temperature it was.

This leg was notable for two things, one, it was perhaps the most scenic along this part of the shore and unlike other parts where one is walled off from even viewing the shore most of the time here we walked right along Long Island sound for ever so short a time and on a surface other than pavement! Two, I wasn't sure if I could even go this was way. It looked good on the map but I have learned that what looks good on a map down here is not true in reality.

But to my surprise, this little path bordered by Spartina had no signs at all. It was short and sweet.

After an uneventful in and out we returned to the car. I entertained thought of walking farther west to downtown Clinton, but wasn't ready for it plus I didn't want to stress the knee, the recipient of a needle aspiration that morning.
+++++
Distance- (gmaps) 2.32
Time about an hour
Gas 3.75

Westbrook to Clinton Leg 27

Today was an excellent day to return to this walk. Knee still sucks but better.

I parked at Frankies restaurant and headed east on route 1 to meet up at bridge where I stopped last year. It was a fine day, a remarkable day for mid winter with forecasts for 50 degrees. there was a light west wind today. I arrived with printed maps that I somehow cropped out part of the beginning, no problem.

We headed west and down Indian trail and Mail then Grovewayall the way to Beach Park Rd and back. This was a route I knew from bike rides and I have to say it was nice today. We even got a chance to walk along a beach where we have been forbidden to go in season, worse with dog.

Groveway is along what I would call a barrier beach, only this ridge had a salt marsh behind it and it was much higher and had normal vegetation on it, (trees)at least compared to RI shorelines beaches, the road was on the landward side, as houses occupied the top, providing few views, at least until it flattened a bit and the sound could be seen between houses,

Traffic was very light.

After riding I scouted out next walk a bit as I had some questions.

Distance 6.6 (obtained form Gmaps pedometer)

Time: 2:48

gas: $3.58 gallon