A Journey of 3000 Miles

  (Continued from Part 1) The next part of our trip had us start with a short driving leg from south Putnam to Dayville (which the Girl Child was apparently salty about for some reason I can't remember -- this is why I really need to post about these things as I do them!  Also, why does she look exactly like my sister in this photo?? And no, it's not the expression! Although it might be her height 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I crack myself up.....)   ANYWAY, below is a reminder of where we're at and what we're doing.  This part includes the green square in Dayville (2nd square from the top), as well as a tiny piece of trail in downtown Danielson that you can't even see on this map, and all the on-road pieces before and after those. The day was hot and the trail was sunny, paved, way too close to the road, climbed up a big hill, and was extremely neglected.  All in all, not our favorite piece of trail. This part of Connecticut is (was?) experiencing a severe drought (as we are...

  Over the past week,  the Girl Child and I have been camping and walking (and driving) Connecticut's Eastern-most portions of The East Coast Greenway.  Beginning in Pomfret, Connecticut at the end of the Northern Airline Trail, we drove the on-road portions and walked the off-road legs until we reached the off-road trailhead in Coventry, Rhode Island, for a contiguous total of 35 miles traversed, 7.25 of them walking.  Because of my knee, we had to take them in tiny bits, and we missed 2 full days due to torrential downpours.  But we still got it done!  The Map Man joined us for most of it, but there were a few little pieces we did on our own.  This first post summarizes our first 2 days, where we covered the driving segment from Pomfret (the Girl Child pointing our way at the start above!) to the end of the 1.5 mile walking segment in downtown Putnam (that first green segment on the map below). Above, an outrageously cool sculpture near the trailhead...

Still playing catch-up, but my next post will be a compilation of all the walks from Putnam, CT, to the Rhode Island border (we've been walking pretty much every day for the past week and a half and hope to continue that trend through this week as well).  But there was one more walk to document first, which extended our contiguous path on the East Coast Greenway towards Canada by 2.5 miles.  The Girl Child and I walked this leg with wonderful friends on Tuesday, 8/16, leaving from the trailhead parking on route 203 in North Windham and heading northeast.   As part of the Rail Trail system, this was an easy, enjoyable stroll, flat, straight and shaded. Towards the end of our leg.  As with all things involving great friends and great fun, despite this being our longest leg recently, I didn't take nearly enough photos because I was just too busy living in the moment.  As it should be. 43.25 miles walked, 58.25 miles traversed, 2941.75 miles to go! Next up, some urb...

I continue to fall farther and farther behind with my posts.  Which I suppose is a direct effect of spending more time on the trails and less time on line!!  I think I'll need to do a great big post incorporating a bunch of connected legs when all is said and done and the Girl Child and I return to civilization (right now we are calling a tent "home"), but this is not the time for that!  This was a 1.5 mile leg that I'd been looking forward to ever since we started this adventure -- the East Coast Greenway goes directly through and connects many of the major East Coast cities,  and THIS leg cuts right through the heart of our state capital -- Hartford, Connecticut!!  I finally found the right combination of weather, availability, and leg health the evening of Monday, August 15th to venture forth and explore what the trail has to offer our city. We started out from The Map Man's office on East River Drive in East Hartford and followed the trail west across the Fo...