Pucker Street, Columbia to Mackey's Parking Lot, Willimantic Leg

 

This one took me a few days to write up, because of the large number of photos to upload and *other things* I needed to address (you'll know it when you see it below).  BUT ANYWAY, I first need to thank this beautiful human, the original Fluffy Muffin Mama, my friend (and muffin dealer) Lea, for dropping the girl child and I off in a random hole by the side of the road so we could thru-hike a nice big hunk of trail last Friday morning.  Thanks to her, we logged 3.5 miles of new-to-us trail, so every step we took counted towards our total!

Above, from Pucker Street we successfully descended this sketchy access trail and hopped aboard the East Coast Greenway/Hop River Trail at the exact location, below, that we turned around the day before, to continue our venture towards Williantic (and ultimately Maine).

Above, you see that little angular blue "on road" portion of today's trail segment?  Keep that in mind for later.

Below, gas pipeline? Buried electrical wires?  I'm unsure, but the edge it created was pretty!

Above, the Hop River continuing its lazy meanderings.

Below, the trail approaches and passes under Route 6 and the junction with Route 66 in Columbia.

Above and below, there were a quantity of migrating songbirds throughout the trail, especially along this powerline cut.

Above and below, the girl child checks out some developing maple keys (she kept saying she was finding trinkets) while walking through a rock railway cut.

Above, the trail crosses Kings Road here.  Or does it?

Below, confusing signage.  We could see where the railbed went, but where was the trail?  "Road closed", but to traffic or foot traffic? We followed the undeveloped trail down the railbed to investigate.

Above and below, we figured out pretty quick that it's closed to foot traffic.  I'm not sure why this part of the trail hasn't been developed yet, lack of funds or time or both?  Or legal dispute with neighboring landowners?  And I realized that I had misunderstood where that "on road" segment on the map was. (I had made the poor assumption that it just wasn't updated yet to indicate a new bridge further along the trail.  Silly me!)

Above, my confusion came about because the google maps map of this area clearly shows the rail trail (indicated in green) going through contiguously.  However, I now realize that the green merely indicates the state-owned right-of-way, not an actual developed/open Trail.  From now on, I will trust the greenway trail map more than google maps for telling me the real story.  (In general the on-road portions that we have done so far have been confusing and not well marked.)

Below, here's where the official East Coast Greenway actually goes, turning left on and following Kings Road.  Note the lack of abundant shoulder, but at least it's not an extremely busy road.

Above and below, at the end of King's Road, the trail turns right onto busy Flanders River Road, with the shoulder all but disappearing entirely.  Neither the girl child nor I were too excited about this turn of events,  and we endeavored to get through it as quickly as possible.

Above, the lack of shoulder turned into none whatsoever over this alarmingly narrow bridge.  We sprinted across it when no cars were coming and were much relieved to find a connector trail back to the greenway as soon as we were across.  It had been an absolutely perfect walk up to this point, and this was a very unwelcomed point of stress, but I learned a valuable lesson that will serve us well going forward on our adventure.

Above, the point of trail closure at the other end, a closed tunnel running under Flanders River Road.

Below, it was such a relief to get back onto a safe, developed, off-road trail!

Above and for 2 photos below, the newer trail bridge crossing the lovely Willimantic River.

Above, our end in sight!

Below, relaxing at the trailhead before driving home.

Other than the on-road hiccup, I think this was our best day on the trail yet.  We feel ready to up our game and plan longer trail segments.  We also have decided that unless we know an on-road segment has developed sidewalks, we are going to drive that portion of the trail rather than walk it.  It means we won't be on foot for the entire 3000 miles, but we will still traverse the entire thing one way or another.  Safety (especially since I'm doing this with a kid!) is WAY more important than accomplishing our original goal to the T, and with over 1/3 of the trail safely off-road, there will still be plenty of it to walk, and we will see it all!  (And will still keep a running tally of how many miles of the trail we've walked, but will also add a "traversed" category  when it becomes appropriate.)

26 miles walked, 2974 miles to go!