Trip 46 — Long Island Walk

Day 9: Southampton to Sag Harbor
Thursday, 13 November 2025

Today: 17815 steps/13.86 km/8.61 mi/2h 30m
Total: 412951 steps/321.06 km/199.50 mi/55h 56m

"I should have shown you some of my running routes," Kristy says. "Noyack Road sucks."

"It's the worst walking I've done in years," I reply. That might be a hasty exaggeration, but it's close.

Kristy recently ran the New York marathon, her 22nd. It was she whom I met up with in Tokyo last year, between my Niue and Dogojima walks, and who made me aware of Ikaria.

She and her husband, Brad, along with their two children, have a house in the northern part of Southampton, just off the horrible Noyack Road. When she found out I'd be passing through, she insisted I stay there, even if she would be with the others in New York City. But she was able to be out here after all.

She's picked Liz up at the train station and we're dining at Captain Jack's on the Coast. The menu feels like a medley of the whole Abecedarian Walks. There are mussels from PEI and salmon from the Faroe Islands. I finally find a locally sourced item, crab- and shrimp-stuffed flounder. Liz has a mahi-mahi Reuben — this is her first Reuben-style sandwich as a vegetarian, and apart from too much dressing and lopsided allocations (one side gets almost all the fish, the other almost all the cabbage), it's a good take on the classic.

Kristy knows all the local roads, plus trails that don't show up on the map. She helps me plot a walking route for today, based on her experience running in the neighborhood.

It's a short segment, and Liz and I finish our leftovers before heading out; Kristy has already left for the city. Liz walks the first half-hour with me before being driven to Sag Harbor, where she'll work for the afternoon and I'll meet her at the Sag Harbor Inn.

Past Kristy's house, a trail, barely discernable under the leaves, leads up to the road. It's called Middle Lane Highway, but there's very little traffic — this is what I was expecting last night. The road is straight but hilly; Kristy has warned us, but I haven't grasped how many up-and-downs there are until we're in the middle of them. I don't keep count, but one of the side streets is called Fourteen Hills Court.

I turn left onto Noyac Path — this is where Liz gets picked up — and continue north until it merges with Millstone Road (where I see deer and turkeys) and eventually Noyack Road (where the name acquires the "K"). Noyack Road isn't (quite) as bad in the daytime as at night; the traffic is slightly less, and being able to see the surface I'm walking on is a major improvement.

I veer left toward North Haven and follow the beach. It's colder and windy here, and the gulls are having an afternoon meeting on the sand. Ahead is Shelter Island, reachable by ferry, and beyond that is the part of the North Fork between Southold and Greenport that I see more clearly now in the sunlight than I did while walking through it in a snowfall two days ago.

I turn right on Ferry Road and cross over the bridge into Sag Harbor. The marina is merely a grid of wooden posts at this time of year; most of the boats are hibernating elsewhere. But the town itself is still lively, and when it's time, Liz and I walk the main stretch for a cozy Italian dinner.

Then it's back to a long day tomorrow.

Go on to day 10