Spencer St to Forbes St (East Hartford) Leg

 

We took advantage of the lovely spring weather, perhaps the last before the bugs start hatching, to knock another 1.5 miles off our walk from Canada to Key West.  This Connecticut leg of the East Coast Greenway runs between Spencer Street on the Manchester/East Harford line and Forbes Street, East Hartford.  Since it's a work day for The Map Man, we parked in the commuter lot at exit 1 of Route I-384 and walked the trail in both direction (so 3 miles on the trail, and another 1/2 mile getting to and from our car, for a total of 3.5 miles of walking.  We'll see how my knee feels about that tomorrow.)  Phoebe served as security detail.

Above, the start of our walk at the Spencer Street end of the trail. 

Below, Phoebe and the girl child set out with tails a'waggin'.

Above, the culvert through which passes the trail to Wickham Park in Manchester.

Below, a big Tom wild turkey crossed our path, I managed to catch a horrible photo of him as he disappeared into the woods.  Guess I'm not going to make it as a professional wildlife photographer.

Above, a good part of this portion of the trail runs alongside a lovely oak/hickory/beech woods.

Below, coming around a bend, we were greeted to a nice view of Hartford in the distance.  The highway sound barrier walls provided a nice break from traffic noise along several stretches.

Here a bike trail to Hartford (or "Fartford" as the vandals would have us think) branches off to the right, while the Greenway takes a left turn on Forbes Street ahead, marking the end of today's leg and our turn-around point to do the whole thing again the opposite way!

5 miles down, 2995 to go!!