Leg 25 April 7 2009

Leg 25

Well today is notable for a few things, first of all it was the 25th hike and gee i sure am not making much east west progress for that many hikes. This was only my second point to point walk: the rest have been loops or in and outs. Today was also the first use of a train.

The walk was pretty simple, park at Old Saybrook RR station, walk the Post road to Westbrook and then take the train back. Not the best of roads, I scouted it out last week to look for some scenic shore roads- all i found were signs. History wise, walking this road was interesting I guess.

Rte 1 is Rte 1, a few pinch points where I had to carry Dom across a few short bridges. she does OK with the traffic but hates bridges with metal guardrail and she also hates those sewer grate things.

The road just west of the station is built up with a couple of shopping centers and strip malls. most of these had some green grass to walk on. the first narrow part was over a little marsh and we caught sight of an egret.

Except for s short section on Old post rd, we stuck right on the post road. I overestimated the time to the train and would have arrived at the station an hour and half early. We slowed down a bit and headed down one of the roads to the sound-from a hill-Ryley hill to be exact, Walking south we caught glimpses of the sound's whitecaps, the road ended at a T and the left was signed, the right was signed dead end- it went on for few houses and we came to some condo land(Ryley road was bordered by huge condos that looked like big college dorms- yech.

Killing time in Westbrook was easy, I got a meatball grinder from a pizza place on the Green and threw the ball for Domino. It was pretty cool-the temps were in the 40s but a stiff breeze and lack of activity made it seem colder. We sat on the steps of a gazebo looking at the old library and next to and old stone water trough.

We headed up to the RR station on a crappy road for walkers, (Rte 153) no shoulder heavy traffic, grates-one grate was full of cat litter-someone was simply disposing of cat litter in the sewer grate-so much cat litter that it was almost overflowing and it stank a lot.

The Westbrook RR station is small: simply some decking with a few benches enclosed in clear plastic, a nice warm and windless place to wait, this was an experiment for us, on shoreline East trains you can take dogs in a crate. I brought a little dog carrier and this was out first time using it. It was too small for Domino so just her head stuck out. We got on the train and she got real scared,even a little shaking. I knew that she nervous because she would not eat a treat!

After going up and down the stairs from the far side tracks, she calmed down a bit, I am sure that she would rather stay home and just throw the ball in the yard,

Despite and old road walk, the best part was Old post road-a quiet little road with a few colonial houses and maybe a much older house.