My View
By Joe Hale

I stepped into the shallow Polpis Harbor channel and immediately sank to my thigh in dark brown muck. Right away I knew that Day 3 of my walk around the complete perimeter of Nantucket would be just as challenging as the first two days. What I imagined as a Thoreau-like meditative exploration of this island was quickly becoming an eco-challenge.

I began my trek in Tom Nevers and hiked to Great Point on Day 1 (severe lightening storm - rescued by Ranger). I then continued from Great Point around Coatue and its five points on Day 2 (dive bombed by gulls and terns and attacked by swarms of mosquitoes).

Day 3 started at the Wauwinet Gatehouse with a goal of reaching town. I was a little anxious because I didn't know how the navigation of Polpis and Monomoy harbors would go. I soon knew. ...

Within 90 minutes, I was sinking to my waist in goop and recalling those movies of my youth where the guy died an agonizing death in quicksand. I leaned forward and began crawling on my belly to avoid sinking further. With one hand holding my backpack above the water, I moved like a three-legged crab. The shells embedded in the muddy peat cut my legs and hands. Two hours later I'd made it around the harbor. Nothing would be worse than Day 3, could it? I finally ended the day in town - wet, bloodied, muddy, tired - getting very strange looks from the tourists as I appeared to be some crazed axe murderer stumbling around.

Day 4: The quiet hike from town to Madaket - a long walk/wade/swim around retaining walls. It was a hot, solitary day. My hips and legs were bothering me because I was constantly walking on an incline, and with every step my right leg was lower than my left. As I reached Eel Point, a fierce wind blew up accompanied by a soupy fog. I ended Day 4 at the Westender.

Day 5: Rounding Smith's Point and heading for home! Well let me tell you, Smith's Point is a huckuva lot farther around than it appears on the map, and I was determined to walk it all. Once I finally rounded the tip of the point and touched my toe in the turbulent surf between there and Tuckernuck, I headed home along the south shore. The sand grew very soft, making the progress plodding and slow, and exacerbating my hip pain and the blisters on my toes. I longed for a stretch of hard-packed sand. At Nobadeer it started to rain. The constant crashing surf was starting to annoy me, and the wind was really blowing, which made the walking even harder. But finally, after seven hours, I arrived home, totally pooped.

So am I glad I walked around Nantucket? You bet. I'm still a little sore, but I know our island much better. I've experienced the geography. I've had dozens of new experiences. I was startled when an entire beach rose up and scurried up shore as I approached,

and then I realized the "beach" was actually thousands of tiny hermit crabs anticipating my arrival and getting out of the way.

I noticed the south shore has 10 times as much trash on it than the shores of the Sound. I saw that plastic is the scourge of our beaches. If plastic was banned our beaches would be 90 percent cleaner.

I learned that we have a nude beach on Nantucket, and my pace accelerated when I realized it was populated by several couples my age and lots of naked fisherman!

I became more of an environmental activist when during a particularly long and somewhat boring stretch of south shore beach, I began picking up the deflated balloons I saw everywhere and called the companies that sponsored them. When I got through to their marketing departments, I told them that I was calling from a beautiful beach on Nantucket and that their clever marketing scheme had ended up spoiling our pristine beaches. I asked that the next time they come up with another way to spread their corporate message.

I saw more people on 'Sconset's beaches working on the bluff erosion project than enjoying the beach (and won't Mother Nature ultimately have the upper hand regardless of what we spend or do there?).

I saw jellyfish around Coatue that looked like inflated iridescent empanadas.

As I flew to Boston on Sunday and we banked over the island, I felt like I was looking down on an old friend with whom I'd recently had a long, heartto heart talk, resulting in a deepening of our friendship. It was a good walk around Nantucket.

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