Scenic Gold Coast Old Greenwich Walk from a Park Inland to a Park at Waterfront

NOTE: This is the same walk that I led on Sunday, April 20. I am leading this walk on Monday, April 28 before one of these parks will start charging entrance fees from May 1 to October 31. Unfortunately, this scenic and popular waterfront park will be very crowded on the last free weekend of April 26-27, so I decided to schedule this walk instead on Monday, April 28.

Old Greenwich, which is a quaint mostly seaside neighborhood in the southeastern section of the town of Greenwich, has been consistently ranked very high on Bloomberg's annual report on "America's 100 Richest Places."

We'll first walk around a lovely 33-acre park that has easy meandering walking trails, stone bridges, a gazebo, and shallow ponds with ducks happily gliding around and snapping turtles sometimes sunbathing on top of the rocks or lumber.

At the age of 8, future Olympian Dorothy Hamill, received her first pair of ice skates as a Christmas gift, and started to practice ice skating on a small pond behind her grandparents house in the town of Greenwich. As she improved, Dorothy Hamill began to practice her figure skating with more complicated maneuvers on the larger ponds in this park.

After this park, we'll walk through Old Greenwich's business district and go through some non-private streets with Victorian houses on our way to a second park. Similar to other streets or areas in the town of Greenwich, we'll occasionally encounter private streets or gated communities that are off-limits to the general public. According to the Greenwich Times, the town of Greenwich has well over 50 of these private communities.

The second park, about 147-acres surrounded by water on three sides, is a peninsula. This park will have panoramic views of Long Island Sound and historic buildings from a former estate there. However, in the 1960s, the main waterfront mansion of this former estate was torn down because it was considered too costly to repair and maintain.

Cost: $5 fee per person paid (in cash) at start of this event.

I'll occasionally comment at points of interest, but you will have plenty of time to socialize with others.

7 3/4 circular miles. Moderate (not slow) pace. You have to be able to do length of this walk & keep up with moderate (not slow) pace of group to attend this event.

NO DOGS, please.

Terrain:

THE majority of the time we'll be walking on paved streets, paved sidewalks and paved walking trails. The rest of the time, we'll be walking on easy dirt/small pebbled trails with small ups and downs, well- trimmed grass along sides of roads, and on sandy beaches.

Other important Notes:

BRING LUNCH/PLENTY OF WATER. No place to buy lunch/water at our lunch spot.

RESTROOMS, either portable potties or inside of a building, will be available not too far from RR train station.
Later, more restrooms, either portable potties or inside of a building, will also be available.

DEFINITELY BRING EXTRA LAYERS OF CLOTHING, AS WEATHER COULD CHANGE QUICKLY DURING THIS WALK.

WE WILL BE WALKING LATER NEAR LONG ISLAND SOUND WHERE WEATHER MIGHT FEEL COOLER.

Bring sun protection.

IF YOU REGISTER & LATER CAN NOT GO TO EVENT, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR RESPONSE TO "NOT GOING" AS I TAKE "NO SHOWS" VERY SERIOUSLY!

There is no need to post why you can't make hike/walk.

Have question, contact John (Host) thru his private direct message Meetup account or jrcpjohn@yahoo.com

Train Riders:

Take 9:38 AM Metro-North New Haven Line LOCAL (Stamford) train from Grand Central, arriving at Old Greenwich, CT 10:39 AM. (Note: This is a weekday morning off-peak train.)

Reg. Fare: $10.50 one way. You have to buy ticket before boarding the train or you will pay penalty (extra fare) on board train.

Senior Fare: $7.00 one way. You can buy ticket before boarding train or buy ticket on train, using credit card or cash, without paying penalty (extra fare) on train.

Drivers:

According to the town of Greenwich, there is a flat parking fee of $7 in designated areas at the Old Greenwich railroad station from Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Only park in areas designated for Day Parking. According to the town of Greenwich, you will need to use the Park Mobile App or parking meter.

If you plan to come by car, I strongly suggest to call Greenwich's Town Hall at 203-618-3060, Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM - 3:00 PM to be sure about these parking rules.

Bad weather (very windy conditions, rainy conditions) cancels. If Monday's forecast calls for bad weather, I'll send cancellation email sometime before 6:00 PM Sunday. If I don't send cancellation email, I plan to be there.