Ellsworth ME, Home Again

Hello All

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This will be the final post for the ECG trek, which ended Thursday, Sept 23, 2010 when I took a commuter train from Rowayton CT into New York City, an hour’s ride and maybe 40 miles, (2 – 3 days of walking) .   The next day, Sept 24, I left NYC and traveled all day by bus to return home to pick up clothes, computer, and car to go visit my friend before sesshin. 

Westport Inn, Westport CT

Well, it's been an interesting morning so far.  I find myself at today's destination and its only 9 am.  This time, the early arrival is due to a proactive decision on my part.  This morning, less than an hour into my walk, I was spooked by the activity in the area in which I was walking, and in particular, by several boys on bikes.  I ducked into a convieience store for a moment and asked the proprieters about the neighborhoods ahead.  Their answer was to suggest I take the bus that passed right in front of their store.  As I turned around to leave, there the bus came, and instant decision, I hustled to join the other 2 people boarding.  As we got moving, I asked the driver about where the bus went and he asked about where I wanted to go, and in exchanging information, we found out he went right by the Westport Inn, exactly where I was headed.  I took this as Universe's invitation to use today as a zero day, (hips, feet and legs are cheering in the background :) which is probably a good thing as tomorrow's hike to Stamford will be a longish one.

Later

New Stratford Motor Lodge, Stratford CT

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Today has been a long day and the legs, hips and feet are now having meetings about going out on strike.  I can hear them in the back room of my being discussing the pros and cons  :)   Really though, it was a long day on very hard concrete which led through many interesting areas. 

The early morning's walk took me right down to the water's edge in West Haven, (where I kept looking for the dock where Bilbo and Frodo left with the last of the elves of Middle Earth ), and kept me there pretty much all day.  The beaches were sometimes public and sometimes private, sometimes redish sand and sometimes golden.  Areas along the coast were sometimes cityscape, sometimes residential and often, empty-feeling post season vacation towns.  There were salt marshes galore, (which I love), and a treasure of a State Park, Silver Sands, in Milford, the long stretched out area between West Haven and Stratford.  (Milford will be going on my coming back to see more list.)

Super 8 Motel, West Haven CT

Lots of Greenway today as I followed the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail to its endpoint on the Yale Campus in New Haven /Hamden CT   I think it will be the last corridor of "forest" I will walk during this trip. 

{vsig}walkingnow/Terzano/sep20{/vsig} The trail began to change character as I entered the city and became a series of small parks linked together by this path.  Posts with emergency lights and call buttons in each of these parks made me suspect I was in a troubled part of town. 

I had to leave the greenway a bit before its end as another construction project on the Yale campus closed it off to foot traffic.  Took me a little bit to get my bearings, but when I got oriented, I had a short but delightful walk through part of the Yale campus.  I must have hit the area just as classes were letting out for that hour and was engulfed by young people talking about friends, boyfriends, clothes, parties and homework, to which I shamlessly eavesdropped  :)  Then, suddenly, I was on the other side of town looking for the Vision Trail. This took me through an interesting older section of town where I found the Smoothie Foundation Garment Factory in an old red brick building which seemd to still be in operation.  I don't really know why it caught my fancy, maybe It was remembering ads for this company in my Mom's old McCall's magazine.  Anyway, right after the factory I found the Vision Trail.  Poor old thing!  First bit of it makes one think they are entering onto a set for a movie being made about a longtime abandoned city, some post apocalyptic tale  :)  However, it pops one out behind a new IKEA store and takes you down by the waterside where there is a beautiful park which has several war memorials at one end and many, many food vendors.