Sixty-Something: Hamptons “Walk And Talks”

One thing about the Hamptons; there is no better place to take nice long walks. There are just so many scenic roads, trails and paths. My wife and I have a term we use for our sojourns, we call them “walk and talks.” We found that when we go on long bike rides, we actually don’t talk to each other because we are riding the bikes, but when we take a nice 4-mile (one hour-and-a-half) walk, we talk about everything. For us it still has the shine of walking home from school with your special one. At our sixty-something age we take walks that are tick free for obvious reasons.

There are some wonderful Hamptons walks we love to do besides the usual walk down the beach along the breaking surf and back. Perhaps first on the list is the (4.2-mile round trip) walk form Louse Point in the Springs to the Springs General Store to get lunch on a summer day. After a walk past some of that scenic waterfront of East Harbor and Gardiner’s Bay it is just a simple route; Louse Point Road to Amagansett Springs Road to Old Stone Highway and back. It’s roughly 40-45 minutes each way. There and back takes just a little over 90 minutes plenty of time to “walk and talk.”

Another favorite usually done before our weekend sunset sails on our sailboat is the walk from Maidstone Beach to Flaggy Hole Beach, also in Springs. This one is a short 45-minute roundtrip (1.4 miles total) with the loop around all of Maidstone Park. We take this one to stretch our legs before sailing. It gives us the opportunity to see most of Gardiner’s Bay from the highpoint and see if there are whitecaps. It is a beautiful walk with lots of folks walking dogs and it’s always fun to pass the families at Children’s Beach. The lagoon of Sunset Cove also has abundant wildlife. We do the Maidstone Park Road loop to Gallatin Lane to Flaggy Hole Road and back but doing the Maidstone Park Road along Gardiner’s Bay.

I do play reviews for this website of shows at Bay Street Theatre. Many times we (my wife and I) arrive early to ensure we find adequate parking. On beautiful active Sag Harbor Saturday nights we like to walk and talk while people watching in order to stretch our legs before the plays/shows. So we walk about 2 miles of Sag Harbor Village up Main Street past the American Hotel up to Union Street then across to the John Jermain Library then back to Bay Street Theatre past the Whaling Museum. However, we take a little detour down Garden Street to see the historic homes and get that wonderful Sag Harbor feel before turning unto Spring Street back onto Main Street for the walk back on the other side past the stores on the other side. When we do this walk, we find lots to talk about. Mostly commenting on our people watching.

Our favorite late night after dining out walk has to be our walk around Bridgehampton Village when there is a full moon! Hull Lane with its views of both the historic graves of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church with its huge spire are right out of walking through an Edgar Allen Poe poem. At night in the summer all walks are pleasant with that nearby ocean breeze or bay breeze always soothing.

The “walk and talks” are our way of keeping the magic we found on our first walk together almost exactly ten years ago. It was a chilly full moon Sag Harbor night. Now we walk through life together and we believe our “walk and talks” nurtures the unique spark we found that night and helps it endure.