Page 160 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015
P. 160








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

! ! )!








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