SPOILS
COVER STORY
“Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind.”
OF WAR
– Herman Wouk, The Winds of War
Y
ou won’t find war in some of the most historic hikes in our area, but you will find remnants of the war machine. But mostly, you’ll find peace and quiet, a most wonderful state of mind, in these three conservation holdings on the South Coast. They seem like they’ve been there forever, but the World War II lookout towers on Gooseberry Island in Westport, at the far end of the Horseneck Beach reservation, just past the museum and education center known as the Horseneck Lifesaving Station, have been there since the war. They were built to keep a military eye on the sea, notably looking for German submarines, but now are still standing solid, not decaying, jutting into the sky like the sentinels they once were. Gooseberry is a wonderful place for a hike and sightseeing, connected to the mainland by a cement causeway that, until recent years, you could drive over to park in a rugged old dirt-and-rock strewn parking lot. There was a gate across it the last time I wandered down that area, so parking to walk over can be a challenge.
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Story and photos by Paul Kandarian
Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown is a pristine 242-acre hunk of rocky land with a few miles of walking trails that offer views second to none on all three sides of the promontory just up the road from Sachuest Beach. But the walk over the causeway is a lesson in man-made obstruction; the ocean on one side of the causeway and on the other pounded by waves, and some controversy still exists that it disrupts the natural order of things. But Gooseberry Island is a terrific place to hike and reflect, and draws a mix of families, boaters (there’s a rudimentary boat ramp there), hikers, birders, and anyone who loves the salty sea air. Walking from the parking area, a flat path cuts through the gut of the island and near the towers it splits in two. After gawking at the towers to the right, and trying to visualize what life must have
August 2023 | The South Coast Insider
been like in them, you can also walk left to the calmer eastern side of the island. Either way, it’s a nice walk, even on the rocky shoreline where you can look for sea glass, shells, and other stuff the waves have tossed to land – including the random massive ocean-eroded log that came from who-knows-where. Gooseberry is a hotspot for birds as well, as the migratory breeds travel up and down the coast, including swallows, geese, ducks, seabirds, and piping plovers.
MARCHING ON
A much busier walk, but not noticeably due to the size of the place, is Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown, which during World War II was used as a rifle range and communications center. Prior to that, colonials used the area for farming, and much later in its life, after the military left, it was the town dump, later being turned over to the Audubon Society, finally undergoing the cleanup and restoration it deserved. It is now a pristine 242-acre hunk of rocky land with a few miles of walking