Day 202: Connecting Route, Marquette County
Day 202: Wednesday, June 29th, 2022
Total Miles hiked for the day: 5.9; Net Miles 0.0
Location 1: The Connecting Route South of Westfield between the Intersection of Fawn Court and 9th Avenue and the intersection of County J and County M.
5.9 Miles of trail covered
Before you start looking for the route we hiked on the maps, it's not the official recommended route. Nine years ago the recommended route went past Westfield on the east side of I-39, missing the town entirely while traveling on County Road E. The new recommended route now comes south on CH and 6th Court into Westfield, cutting east on 2nd Street and going under the highway on the main access point to town, rather than the quiet Dover Court underpass a couple miles north.
I can understand why they wanted people to have access to the City of Westfield, where there is some amount of commerce available, but I didn't like coming that way before when there was only one mile on County J. Now the recommended route takes hikers 1.4 miles along J and along the very busy 2nd Street exchange, and that's just crazy.
So instead of following the old route east of the highway (which would have been fine), or the new route that goes into Westfield on County J, we chose to cross the I-Road on County M and come into town from the south. County M still has a lot of traffic on it, but we think it's a better option than J.
I traveled the route north to south today, because it was faster getting to the north end of the connecting route. Theresa and I spent the evening as usual, crisscrossing our way south and east. For the first hop, she dropped me off at the place where M become JM to the north, and I went south along M until it went under the highway. That was where I found the car the first time, Theresa having hiked it to the north. Three more hops got us to the end.
First, I continued forward on Elk Road while it bent south towards Ember Drive. After a brief walk east on Ember, I cut south again on 8th Avenue, then west again on Fawn Court until I reached the spot where we left off three nights ago.
This relatively short, direct route on the center of map 54 seemed like the best way through, and I stand by that decision even after hiking it. This is all still along the Eastern Bifurcation, and I look forward to the day very soon when we can get up to map 52 and get off the bifurcation entirely.
As to photos - I'm trying to figure out what happened today. I could have sworn I had taken a bunch of pictures. I know I had my phone with me, because there were three photos when I was done. But what happened to the others?
Obviously, I was so impressed by the stop sign at Elk and Ember I felt the need to take a photo of that spot. One thing I liked about this route is that it wasn't very hilly. There was a bump on M to get over before walking down to cross over Klawitter Creek, then really nothing until I got all the way down to 8th Ave. There was one hill on the north end, then it got just a tiny bit hilly on the south end before the short and enjoyable walk on Fawn Court.
Here's what a photo would have looked like of 8th Ave, had I actually managed to get one. I stole this off of Google Maps Street View.
It was a wonderful, quiet road with nothing but the trees and the breeze for company.
I am really disappointed about Fawn Court because I remember seeing deer on that road, and I thought I got a shot of a doe and her two fawns. Alas, it is not among my saved photos, so it's just one more memory about the trail I'll have to keep only in my head.
I reached the end, then went back to rescue Theresa and bring her back to the end for a photo. The sun had gotten very low in the sky indeed. This was taken at about 8:30 at night.
Eight hikes remaining.
The tally:
- 0 new Snails today
- Converted 5.9 miles of biking to the 'hiked' category
- 63.3 miles to go.
Running Total: 1212.6 miles of trail covered (1073.7 hiked), 369.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 202.
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