Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum to Ash Street, Willimantic Leg

 Summer-like temperatures this weekend had us waiting until evening yesterday to get our walking in.  The girl child and I took advantage of The Map Man's availability to walk a piece of trail that I was more comfortable traversing with a male companion.  A special hat tip to my twin-brother-from-another-mother, Matt, for the shuttle service to our starting location so we didn't have to walk it in both directions.  This was a 2 mile section of the trail (including a brief On Road section) through the heart of Willimantic, connecting up a couple of other sections we've already walked.  We started at the parking lot of the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum, which was our turn-around point during an out-and-back walk a few weeks ago, and headed east.

Everything is suddenly SO green -- there were barely any leaves on the trees at all just a couple weeks ago when we were last here!  We rushed through this portion of the trail, which features not only the Willimantic White Water Park, but also a well-known encampment of homeless people.

The trail goes On Road before it crosses Bridge Street, following Riverside Drive for its entire length.  The next several photos are from this stretch, which was very quiet on a Sunday evening despite being just steps from Main Street.

Above and for the next several photos, from the end of Riverside Drive, the trail follows Main Street east to the famous Frog Bridge.

Above, at the Frog Bridge the trail takes a left turn across Main Street onto Jackson Street for a short distance, before joining a developed rail trail again at the corner of Union Street, below.

Above, the trail runs Northeast, crossing Milk Street and Taylor Street shortly thereafter, below.

And that put us on this pretty wooded section of trail through a residential area that should have been a pleasant stroll to where we parked our car on Ash Street.  And so it was, until we were about half way there, when a couple of young boys on motor bikes passed us several times.  They were about the same age as the girl child, and were delighted to find that she was uncomfortable with them speeding by.  They spent the rest of our walk buzzing by at increasing speeds as close to her as they could drive.  We tucked her safely between us and fantasized about sticking an arm out as they passed, but they were kids, afterall, and we didn't *really* wish any harm upon them.  But you can definitely see the relief in all of our faces as we hurridly reached the end of our walk.

Despite being our least favorite leg so far, it was still a *mostly* enjoyable walk, and I'm happy to have this section of trail out of the way so we can get on to some more relaxing parts!

30.5 miles walked, 2969.5 miles to go!