Day 1: Delaware City to Historic New Castle

Mild weather rolled in the last week of December, so we decided to take advantage and kick off our adventure a tad early.  A foggy - but rain free - Sunday morning proved to be just the ticket, as this first day was almost entirely road walking, along a busy stretch of highway between Delaware City and Old New Castle, and we hoped for lighter traffic.  We got up before the chickens and had our cars parked by sunrise.

To be honest, we were both somewhat anxious about this day.  We haven't done any concerted long-distance walking in the past few years, and our hips and knees haven't been getting any younger in the meantime.   I mean, we knew we could walk the requisite ten miles - that wasn't an issue - the question is how much discomfort might be involved.  I also had some concerns that it was just going to be a slog along a boring, busy highway, which might leave a pall over the adventure right off the bat.  Fortunately, none of those concerns realized.  All body parts held up their end of the bargain, and the section turned out to be surprisingly interesting.  It restored my faith in our ability to find adventure just about anywhere.

We launched from Delaware City, which is on the Delaware River at the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.  The canal connects the Delaware and Chesapeake bays and provides a shortcut for shipping between Baltimore and Philadelphia.  Delaware City's other claim to fame is a historic Civil War prison, located in the middle of the river on Pea Patch Island.  

About two miles up the road brought us to the Delaware City Refinery.  The winds were favorable, so air quality wasn't too bad.  What was surprising was the amount of wildlife we saw while walking through the refinery.  White-tailed deer were grazing in the grassy areas around the storage tanks, flocks of geese honked their way overhead, and various hawks and falcons hunted over the fields and marshes.  A peregrine falcon even flew right over my head, which was incredible.  The equipment and workings of the refinery made for some interesting photographs in the foggy morning.  We were stopping to shoot pictures so often that I was convinced we'd get a visit from some sort of law enforcement or security, but thankfully, no.

Much of this area is marshy (typical of the Delaware Bay shore), which means you're often walking through stands of phragmites taller than you, and that's all you can see.  It was in one of these sections that we happened upon a alcove carved into the reeds, where a memorial had been constructed to a young man who I assume had perished in a car accident along the road.  Everyone has seen those roadside memorials where people leave teddy bears and candles and balloons, and so on, but this particular memorial was next level - a Madonna shrine with solar lighting, seating, a fire pit, and a carefully arranged collection of model cars, beer bottles and votive lights.  In total, I think we walked by four roadside memorials along this stretch, which is a bit sobering.

After three-plus hours of steady walking, we arrived at Old New Castle, one of the original colonial towns in the mid Atlantic, and where William Penn first landed on American soil.  As much as we wanted to stroll casually through the historic streets and take photographs at our leisure, we ended up bustling through at a rude pace, trying unsuccessfully to get away from an oddly dapper older gentleman who adopted us on sight, apparently thinking that we needed a history lecture at every photo op.  Just when I thought we had lost him, I ducked into a promising bakery, only to have him show up a minute later, and proceed to tell me about the croissant selection of the day.  I took my bag of goodies and ran for the door, but Rene got trapped, and had to weather a lecture about the tea room in the back.  We took off at full speed down the brick sidewalks toward our parking spot, me trying to snag a last few photographs of a historic pub on the run, as I hear his voice calling out behind me, "Sir! Sir! That establishment is not open on Sunday..."

Today's Mileage: 10.2 

Cumulative Mileage: 10.2

Bird of the Day:  Peregrine Falcon, hunting over the Delaware City Refinery

About This Blog

 Most people associate "adventure-walking" with a determined trek into a deep, sun-dappled wood, or across the scree slopes of an alpine range.  A reasonable take, and one that thirty-years ago, I would have certainly agreed with.   But the onset of maturity brings a rather different perspective.  Nowadays, just pottering about my own backyard I frequently stop to observe things I have long overlooked, and wonder how that is so.  A walk through the neighborhood reveals even more surprises, and the local state park is a veritable treasure trove of discoveries that had eluded my younger self.  So my definition of adventure walking has changed.  It is not about the miles invested, or the newness of the experience, or the remoteness of the locale, or the ruggedness of the terrain.  For me, it's now about being present in a place, absorbing all that I can with fresh and inquisitive senses as I pass through on foot.  It could be a woodland, sure, but it could also be a gritty urban street that I've driven down a thousand times without noticing.  

Which brings us to this walk, and this blog.  My wife, Rene, and I live near the East Coast Greenway, which is an admirable (and enormous) effort to string together a walkable/rideable route the length of the East Coast.  In one of those "hey why not?" moments that I periodically live to regret, I suggested to Rene that it might be fun to walk from our house to New York City on the greenway.  She gave me a winced, tepid okay, picturing the miles of road walking in store, but also lured in by the promise of great bakeries and Italian restaurants along the way (adventure eating is another one of our passions).

The plan calls for 13 days of walking , at a comfortable 10 to 18 miles per day, plus one final day just exploring around New York City.  Total mileage is around 170, not counting the NYC day. We'll walk it in sections, here and there as time and weather permit.  Rather than starting from our front door, we're going to begin the adventure in Delaware City, about ten miles "off trail".  The alliteration of "Delaware City to New York City" just sounded funner, if that's a word (and it should be).