September 3, 2018
Today’s walk was truly a winding down to the finish. It looked like we had finally walked ourselves out of the rock outcrops that had given us our views and our callouses. The trail skirted bouldery hills, simply following old roads between them. We were low on water and the marked stream in the guidebook was dry. At Rt 80, after walking through Cockaponset State Forest, we decided to take a chance on getting water from upcoming Upper Guliford Lake Reiter than walk a half mile down the road, off-trail, to get water from a hotel.
It was a good choice. Though Brown with tannins, the lake water was easy to get, and mostly clear. We were satisfied with it!
Our walk took us through woods and streams with quaint names – The Genesee, Cockaponset State Forest, Timberland Preserve, But Plain Woods, and East River Preserve. Finally, we came to the end of the forest – and the rock ledges. We did notice, however, that just before turning into our roadwalk into Guilford, the blue-blazed trail took a round about turn up just one more rock outcrop! It was a small one, but a rock outcrop to be sure!
Thad last roadwalk in Clapboard Hill Road was tense, with no shoulder and uncut vegetation on the side. We kept a sharp eye and eat out and made it to a side road, Tanner Marsh, safely. Soon, just after crossing over Interstate 95, we saw our hotel, Tower Inn! It was early, just 3 p.m. The proprietor said she could have a room ready in 30 minutes. Sigh. Our sweaty selves wanted to clean up now! We tried Comfort Inn next door. More than we wanted to pay. So, we went back to Tower Inn and waited.
Quick showers freshened us a bit. We still had 2.8 miles to walk to the southern terminus!
Again, the roadwalk was frustratingly bad, with narrow shoulders. There were some sidewalks.
We stopped at Dairy Queen for an ice cream sandwich for John. We especially loved seeing the Whitfield House, built in 1639! We were baffled at the Amtrak Station until we discovered that the route over the tracks is now through the station itself! Next, we met Laura who lives at 1 Seaside Avenue, the very last street before Chittenden Park and the boardwalk to the water. Laura congratulated us on our accomplishment and lamented that more people don’t get the direness of the current environmental crises in the world today.
We made our final approach, explaining to some Bocci players at the official Bocci court that we had just walked from Mt Monadnock.
The boardwalk!
The ocean!
We did it!
Loved following your journey on this trail! Best wishes wherever you wander next!
Congratulations! I’m glad you each have each other to hike with.