Hiking the Thames Valley Trail: Section 15-Highway #7 to St. Marys

   Woo hoo! I. Am. Done!
   Today, I completed the final section of the end-to-end Thames Valley Trail! It's taken me about a month, but I finally finished all 110 kilometers, from south of Delaware, through London and on to St. Marys.
   Doralyn (my angel) followed me to the end point in St. Marys, where I left my car, this morning and then drove me back to the last spot on the trail I had finished, which was on Highway #7, near River Valley Golf and Country Club. I then needed to traverse the bridge over the river. The bridge is not really designed for pedestrians, however, and I waited until there was no traffic coming my way before I started across. As it turned out, I made it most of the way across before a car came along and I was able to hop the guardrail at the last minute.
   The first section takes you toward the golf course and then actually on to the course itself before you get to the little side trail. The guidebook actually recommends watching out for stray golf balls (which I did) and I even found a couple, which I threw onto the first tee box I passed.
   After the golf course, the trail essentially follows the Thames River all the way to St. Marys, with a brief bit of highway walking as you get into town.
   It was a brutal kind of day, in some ways. There were some parts of the trail which did not appear to get much traffic and were overgrown. This made the going a little tougher but the worst part was, with all the vegetation underfoot, you were unable to tell where the holes and the uneven parts were. Came close to rolling my ankle several times.
   Possibly the worst aspect of the day were the spiders. The path was inundated with them and they strung their almost invisible webs right across the trail, generally at waist and face height. After awhile, I got into waving my trekking poles in front of me as I walked, just as a precaution. In the car afterwards, I was still yanking cobwebs off me!
   The trail itself was tough, yet quite beautiful in spots. Lots of hills to climb and tree trunks to either go over or under. Plant life was amazing and lots of wildlife as well. The weather was warm at 26C (78F) and there was a nice breeze, so, all in all, a great day!
   So here we go with obligatory photo dump because, once again, I walked the walk!

Quick pic of where I left off the
most recent section

And on to the start of the final section!

Headed to the golf course.

On the course, walking parallel
to one of the fairways

The ever-beautiful Thames.

Spotted one deer venturing out into
the river and by the time I could
get my phone out for a pic there
was a whole family!

Scenery

Pretty rugged-ruggedly pretty

Moo-moos!

Kinda hard to see, but there's
a thin, electrical fence here

Beautiful

Look carefully (unless you're
afraid of spiders...) These
were all over the place.

A nice flat, fairly spider-free section

And then, out of nowhere, an old
abandoned camper. Blanket
on the line, firepit, jacket. But
no road to get it there....

Ah, the crossroads. Always nice,
knowing where to go!

No idea what this used to be!

     

The highway back into St. Marys

Me, at the end of the Thames Valley Trail!