I haven’t been caching recently, but I did go out a few times in May and forgot to write about them. So starting with this post, I’m going to start catching up!
On Tuesday, May 8th, I went to Silver Sands State Park in Milford. I planned to walk to Charles Island, which is an island about a mile off the coast that is accessible from a sandbar that stretches across the water when the tide is low enough. There are a couple caches there, and the island itself has a really cool history. The pirate Captain Kidd once buried treasure on Charles Island, there are stories about it being haunted, and it’s also a designated Natural Area Preserve for the local bird population of herons and egrets. Unfortunately, I didn’t do my research and when I got there, the tide wasn’t low enough for me to walk across. Fortunately, I was still in a beautiful place!
I’d never been to Silver Sands, and I quickly fell in love with it. My favorite thing about it is that not only is there beach, but there’s a marshy area and woods with trails. Being from California, I’m used to a beach being just a beach. I was amazed that I could stand by the ocean, look behind me, and see huge green trees.
I parked near the marsh:
There’s a long boardwalk that stretches across the marsh and leads to the beach:
You can easily see Charles Island from Silver Sands:
The tide was low enough that I was able to sit at the very beginning of the sandbar and dangle my feet in the water. Charles Island can be seen in the background:
Sitting on the sandbar made me both happy and sad. I closed my eyes and listened to the little waves crashing against the rocks. I could smell the ocean, and for just a minute, it felt no different from a beach in California. It was like I was home, and I was overcome with homesickness and nostalgia. I had a hard time leaving, but I wanted to explore the wooded area too.
There were a ton of birds along this trail into the woods:
I found a cache hidden in the trees, kept walking, and ended up on an old road that is no longer used:
The road led back to the parking lot, where I decided to leave in search of more caches in the area. I ended up stopping for one at a Dunkin Donuts, as well as a Mystery Cache hidden along a trail in another wooded area:
On the way home, I stopped for Chicago-style pizza at Uno. I’d never been there and would rather have had New Haven-style pizza, but it was Easter and most places were closed. I’m only mentioning Uno in this post because I want to say: um, it’s disgusting. Never go there. :]
One Crafty Bean 