Metacomet Trail: Section 5

Section 5: This Hike Was All Business
Edgewood Road Roadwalk, 1.4 miles
June 14, 2007

Note: This page and “section” is totally ridiculous, however, the trail description is accurate. This was written in 2007, so please forgive me. If you want to start at the beginning of the trail, go the Metacomet Intro here.

This little bit of connecting road between the quite nice Hanging Hills section and just-as-nice Ragged Mountain section of the Metacomet is like a bad half-time show at an excellent football game. A necessary interlude between the real reason you’re there. One and a half miles along a straight and flat road isn’t exactly a “hike” per se, nor is it something Hoang or I looked forward to doing. But we simply had to do it; so why not make it an event rather than a chore?

Since we work relatively close to Edgewood Road in Berlin, why not pick a day to take our lunch together and work off a few calories? I often walk around the building while reading the latest Newsweek or a book, so this was nothing odd for me. I would guess, however, that it was a bit odd for the cars and residents we passed who saw an attractive young woman walking down their street in a skirt and heels with a guy taking pictures of her every now and then.

The weather wasn’t too hot for our trek and I specifically sprung the idea to Hoang on a day that she wore 4 inch heels. Hey, if you want to call 1.4 miles a “hike,” you’ve got to at least make it challenging, right? Hey, hiking in a skirt is far more comfortable than pants, so Hoang made out.

We parked and walked. Nearly due north up Edgewood Road. “Ooh, look! A nice house!” We walked some more. Cars passed us rather infrequently, though we did get strange looks. Time for a break with some trail mix.

We kept walking. “Hey Hoang, how are your feet holding up?” “Fine!” I don’t know how women do it.

We kept walking. There were no hills at all or really any defining geologic feature at all. Heck, I don’t even remember any rocks. Well, there was a nice little pond (to Hoang’s right).

While at the pond and taking the picture, an entire family poured out of their house to yell, “Is that your beagle?! Is that your lost dog?!” What was weird was that we literally had a mom, a dad, a few kids, grandma (doing the yelling), grandpa, and an aunt and uncle or two thrown in asking us about the mystery dog, all walking towards us in lockstep. It was actually pretty freaky, like they were zombies about to kill us for our brains.

Hoang noted, “That was really weird.” I reminded her that two well dressed 30-somethings were walking down their road taking a picture in front of their pond. My guess is that they returned to their house and one mentioned, “That was really weird.” And they’d have had a point, just as we did.

We kept walking.

Finally, after about 35 minutes, we reached the end of the section, snapped a shot of me and my sweaty brow, hopped in the car and hit the road. There are several more road walks left, but none quite so long and I’m fairly confident none quite so boring. At any rate, I know the next section is one of the best on the whole trail as it contains Ragged Mountain.

Continue on to the much more exciting Section 6: Running Ragged

CFPA Trails Map
CTMQ’s Metacomet Trail Intro