Breaking The Sound Barrier

Kerry Sherck/for The Advocate

Reporter Jeff Morganteen and I walked along the water–as much as we could–from Seabreeze Place in Norwalk to Bayley Beach in Rowayton. Not a lot of water access, but we saw a few nice neighborhoods like Harborview and Village Creek that still feel community oriented. The only downside was a massive rainstorm about three-quarters of the way through our trip. So we arrived to Bayley Beach soaking wet, but happy to have finished the trek.

We made it. After soldiering through a torrential downpour and the maze of flooded streets and locked gates that is Rowayton, Kerry and I are lounging at Bayley Beach. Access to Long Island Sound was spotty at best on this leg of the series. It degraded as the property values increased.

Now it’s time for some fried seafood, then a serious deadline crunch.

Just made it out of Wilson Point, where it is all huge mansions and sprawling estates. Naturally, all the shoreline was private property. Kerry asked the teenage daughter of one homeowner whether we could get a glimpse of her aweseome waterfront vistas, but her mom said no. Access denied.

We’re on Meadow Street in South Norwalk, trying to make good time over to Wilson Point. No shoreline access here. It’s all industrial land. We were held up a bit by Don LaJoie, the longtime owner of his family scrapyard. He took us on a short tour of his property. It seemed almost mandatory.

The Norwalk Harbor Generating Station on Manresa Island fenced off a large portion of the shoreline. A security guard at the entrance said he can’t let us inside, though he’d like to. That means it’s more backtracking, this time through Village Creek.

Photographer Kerry Sherck and I got our start around 8 a.m. on Seabreeze Place in South Norwalk and quickly found a naysayer. Harborview resident John Moeling told us our goal of reaching Bayley Beach in Rowayton by noon was a bit far-fetched. He said it would take more than six hours, then offered us a car ride. We declined. Our walk could have been cut short by an hour if only it wasn’t high tide. Then we could have gone across this walk-way and bypassed a long walk around Manresa Marsh. Today’s trek calls for a lot of backtracking.