Walking Mystic: take your time, feel the magic.

Mystic is a remarkable place to walk, it really is. That’s good because it really isn’t a great place to park. Don’t fight it, just walk. Walking is exercise, walking makes you mindful, walking
makes you more observant and walking gives you time to breathe in the magic of the area. There is a powerful new book called “Walking, One Step at a Time” by Erling Kagge, a Norwegian writer, philosopher and explorer. It’s about how the simple act of walking can transform you, calm you down, slow you down, and make you appreciate the world around you more. Sound basic? It is.

Walking makes you notice the little things. In Mystic that means snippets of history, interesting street names, eclectic architecture, vistas and views, wooden masts, hanging pot buoys, seagull placement, random mega-rocks……and that’s just in the town center. If you wander a bit there is vast array of hiking trails and land preserves. You can expand those vistas to include ospreys,
heron, egrets, cormorants, loons, duck, geese, swans and a vast array of songbirds. If you’re patient, even fox, deer and coyote.

One of the nice things about a small town is that you can switch from “urban” walking to “rural” walking in the blink of an eye. Just try walking west over the bridge, past the hubbub of shops, eateries and bars, turn right on Gravel or Pearl Streets and within 10 or so minutes the sky opens and you are strolling along bucolic River Road with open views of unspoiled wetlands, wooded bluffs, and the broad bird-filled upper Mystic River. Walk!

Just a few ideas for walking in Mystic (view map)

Mystic Drawbridge to Scenic River Road (.5 miles / 10 min.)

Downtown Mystic to Mystic Seaport Museum (.6 miles / 11 min.)

Mystic Seaport Museum to Olde Mistick Village/Mystic Aquarium (1 mile / 20 min.)

Mystic Amtrak Station to Downtown Mystic (.4 miles / 7 min.)

Bill Pryor is the founder of Mystic Revealed, a blog and tour site. He runs a variety of guided-tours specializing in the history, food and local culture around Mystic.
www.mysticrevealed.com / bill@mysticrevealed.com