Thanks to architect William Thompson, footsteps falling on the new boardwalk at Chittenden Park will carry hikers, birdwatchers, nature lovers, and folks in need of a shoreline respite to one of the most beautiful vistas on the 215-mile New England Trail (NET).

On Sunday, June 8, everyone is invited to come and take a look-in fact, bring a lawn chair or blanket and spend a beautiful summer afternoon enjoying all of the festivities at the park-as the boardwalk, which also serves as the terminus of the NET trail, is officially opened as the NET Southern Gateway. The celebration (which runs from 4 to

7:30 p.m.) takes place in conjunction with National Trails Day events and the Town of Guilford's 375th anniversary. It will include musical performers, speeches, exhibits, food, and the official ribbon-cutting of the trail's gateway, which connects from Long Island Sound in Guilford to the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border. In Guilford, the trail runs up through town and into North Guilford.

Located at the edge of Chittenden Park's playing fields, the new, 107-foot, subtly elevated boardwalk moves away from manicured grass to cross natural wetlands and dunes, in a curving route following the lay of the land. A few steps later, it gives out to an open platform overlooking undeveloped beachfront with views of Faulkner's Island, Chaffinch Island Park, and the West River. Simple-yet-sturdy benches on two sides of the platform beckon even hard-core hikers to stop and take it all in.

"The idea is it can serve a number of purposes. It can just be a great place to hang out. The pathway invites you and gives access to a place where there hasn't been any before," says Will. "A lot of people don't even realize there's a beach over here. It's a beautiful kind of delta, the West River, and until you're upon it, you don't know it's there."

While NET runs straight through the heart of central Connecticut, giving millions of people an opportunity to experience nearby geographically rich hiking to summits with long-distance vistas, un-fragmented forests, and large river valleys interspersed with historical Colonial landmarks, there's no question those involved with bringing about the new NET Southern Gateway recognize it as one of the trail's highlights.

"They're pretty excited," says Will. "When Charles Tracy, who's part of the National Parks Service, and Clare Caine with the Connecticut Parks and Forest Association, and [Guilford Parks & Recreation Director] Rick Maynard and I first walked the site and talked about what we were thinking, I created a montage of this, and here we are. It's kind of neat."

The walkway, which was paid for thanks to committed funding from Connecticut Parks & Forest Association, private donors, the Guilford Foundation, the National Park Service, and Connecticut Department of Community & Economic Development and services from the Town of Guilford, will benefit Guilford with a "net impact that is positive," says Will, who also worked with the town and local landscape architect John Cunningham to bring about the new boardwalk at Jacobs Beach.

"Here at Chittenden, it's sort of interesting because basically you have a non-profit sort of raising the funds and even my fees are at operational, so again it doesn't have a budget impact, and the community gets to enjoy it perhaps a little more, and it potentially opens the town up to more activity," says Will, adding, "I think both these projects have done that a bit, by kind of softly opening up the shore a bit more. We did it by asking how do we build off what we have-not ruin what we have, but make it a little more usable?"

Maynard has high praise for Will's work and the many extras he's given both projects without additional costs. He also notes that there are "no tax dollars in the boardwalk" at Chittenden, which cost close to $100,000 to produce.

"It's phenomenal work that he's done," says Maynard. "Will has given countless hours he does not charge us for. A lot of what he's done was beyond what we've paid for. We are already seeing the results, especially in the last year with the improvements at Jacobs Beach. People are coming out to enjoy it more than ever since the boardwalk was installed. At Chittenden Park, not only will the boardwalk benefit hikers, but also more Guilford residents will now have the chance to enjoy that little beach view and that location, which is quite serene."

Will actually first saw the potential of the little locale from the water years ago.

"I lived both in the east and west growing up and at one period I lived in Colorado in the mountains so I did a lot of hiking, but I also spent a lot of time on the water and saw this spot," says Will, who also coaches the Guilford High School (GHS) crew team, which he successfully established 10 years ago.

"It's like anything-when you live in a community, you kind of find some of the nicest things when you're volunteering in that community," says Will, a resident with his family since the late 1980s (he's also a longtime member and current vice president of the Guilford Historic District Commission). "It's funny now, because I've coached crew more times with my daughters [on the team], but sometime without them, so it's like all these kids become your daughters. And now we're having people that were athletes on the team coming back and helping coach, so we're starting to see that."

Being a resident who's involved with the town gave Will an appreciation for those who came out to discuss plans for the boardwalk at Jacobs Park well before construction got underway.

"Even though the public meetings went on and on, it gave people time to talk about things," he says. "And even though some people felt more mixed about parks, it felt like in the end the desire of a lot of the town to make something happen stood through, and those parts are in place."

The Jacobs Beach project is another enhancement Will hopes more residents will appreciate, and use, for their outdoor enjoyment.

"It was almost in some ways a public-private partnership, and I also worked on that with John Cunningham, who lives here in town-we actually designed that together. We did a master plan. Then, Ellen Clow [of Park & Recreation] and I sat down together and wrote a STEAP grant. So by taking the time to develop that, the town got more than half of that funded."

As with the Jacobs Beach boardwalk, Will is pleased with the results of the Chittenden Park walk, especially because it is designed to work with the land.

"Being in the outdoors, it's nice if we can do subtle interventions, so that you can still feel the connection," says Will. "That's a lot of what I try to do in recreational projects."