Bonus, I guess.

One Wendesday I actually took 3 different walks, the third was unplanned. As I was parking to go shopping in Putnam I heard the fire siren go off and saw smoke in the distance. Being a fire engine chaser I walked to see what was up. Somebody had set a fire in an abandoned mill and the Putnam Fire Department responded to the call. Nothing big, but after a snapped a picture or two I left and let the firemen do their job. I imagine that this was good practice for the department, but I am also sure they would rather not have had to bother.

The End of Part 1 of the Airline

I have now finished the airline from the Massachusetts boarder to the Willimantic River, one of my early goals. At the river is a railroad museum in the town of Willimantic.

This begins the start of the second "airline" goal. The Connecticut river. In the picture above you can see a station in the distance. It is actually the old station that was in Chaplin, CT and moved to this location some years ago.

At the corner of Rhode Island

Sometimes my walks take me to unexpected places. What I wanted to do was walk the airline trail to the Massachusetts' boarder. After I had gotten there I started to walk back and was seduced by a blue blazed trail (I am like a moth to flame). After a short hike I saw this obelisk with the letter Conn on it. Since I had already walked to the Mass boarder I thought I had doubled back and reached the boarder on a different route. When I looked around the stone I saw that one side had Conn, one side had Mass 1883, one side was blank, and then I saw RI 1888. I was surprised to be at the corner of Rhodes Island.
A wonderful bonus to a fun walk/hike. This trail is rather rugged and I would rate it a 6 or 7. The walk to this trail is relatively short and easy.

Markers

As mentioned below this walk took me to the Mass/CT boarder. Also on the way is the site of the world's only 4 train crack up. Oh sure, other countries have their spectacular train wrecks, but it takes a truly engineering and scheduling screw up to wreck FOUR trains at once. Makes one proud to be an American. Although I found the markers, I am not exactly sure where the crash was, though I do have two suspected places about 1/4 mile apart. The total round trip walk is an easy 4 miles. Because the rail bed undulates the walk is occasionally annoying. For that reason alone I am going to rate this walk as a 3.

Bridge to nowhere

One walk walk I really looked forward to was completing the airline trail to the Mass. boarder. One of the oddities on this trail is this bridge over the old railroad. Once there must have been a good solid bridge here, the stonework below tells that story. Later it was replaced by a flimsy wooden structure that is now failing apart. What is most interesting is there are no remains of a road that once must have been there. This bridge is literally in the middle of nowhere and on both sides it leads to nothing. Getting to this bridge is a relatively short easy walk, less than 2 miles round trip. If you are willing to walk close to 4 miles you can walk to the boarder.