Page 160 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015
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wetland, this three thousand-acre haven for ducks, wading birds, deer and smaller animals is
one of many lands left behind by time on the Eastern Shore. Lands that will be submerged
under rising sea levels.
I can see no practical way to embark on a walk like this. Using Google Earth, I gauge the
perimeter of the watershed to be a rugged line through valleys and mountains, cities, suburbs
and farm fields, measuring approximately seventeen hundred miles. By comparison, the famed
Pilgrimage Route (Camino) of Santiago de Compostela winds its way across Northern Spain for
five hundred miles. People embark on this walk with motivations varying from spiritual to
sporting. It’s usually done in thirty to forty days, for an average of twelve to seventeen miles per
day—roughly half the daily distance of most of the Water Walks. This is the granularity with
which such adventures must be considered. People have been walking this route since the
Middle Ages, staying in quaint Albergues and Refugios, gorging on local food and basking in the
scenery of ancient landscapes and villages. Probably not how a Bay Watershed Walk would go.
The Appalachian Trail also comes to mind. It runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount
Katahdin in Maine, and measures about twenty-two hundred miles. Every year, “thru-hikers”
attempt to walk it in a single season, usually from south to north to follow the weather as it
warms. This takes at least six months, not to mention the training and preparation beforehand.
Some avid long-distance hikers go for the “Triple Crown” of hiking, completing the Continental
Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, which measure thirty-one hundred and two thousand six
hundred and sixty three miles respectively. Seeing those numbers makes me think this might be
possible.
Until I remember that none of my walk would be on public trails, maintained by parks
departments, nonprofit environmental groups and scout troops. I had hoped that the
! ! )!