We wanted to update with a few pictures and a little advice.

As mentioned in the post the other day, the park is part of the Green Belt Trail that goes from North to South on the island and in this park, it goes under railroad tracks to continue on into the Connetquot Preserve.

Now, this is all part of the trail that leads across a highway and continues on into Connetquot State Park and on and on. However, we decided we wanted to get adventurous and explore and access road. This only lasted about a hundred yards before it was an obstacle course blocked by downed trees every dozen yards or so.

We did not want to battle that and fortunately there was a path that led North about a quarter mile and then you can go left or right. We decided right as it led back in the direction of the path to the trestle.

Walking about three quarters of a mile or so with minimal trees in the path, we were happy until miraculously the path got narrower and narrower until it disappeared.

We were in disbelief and so pushed through some brush thinking we had to be missing something. After falling in some mud and caught on thorns, we reluctantly admitted we had to return the way we came and back on the marked trail.

You would think it would end here. However, because we decided to take the adventure on the unmarked trail, on our way back from dead end back to the North/South random path off of the access road, we took another random path that we thought was our desired one. Foolishly we let our hope get the better of us and traversed some obstacles around trees; you know in case magically we found another way back. In all fairness to us, there were other random paths we had seen on our way in that shot off of the marked path and so maybe this was one of them.

Nevertheless, what we found instead was another dead end before turning around, walking another hundred yards on the original dead end path and heading back.

The lesson to learn here, and the advice from us, is to stay in the marked paths and avoid the loss of time, energy, and pride 🤦‍♂️.

We joke as sometimes venturing off the beaten path is rewarding. Though, usually the paths are there for a reason and the others are not due to dead ends or safety concerns.

We hope you learned something and as always, get out there and enjoy nature.

-Chris & Ola