GARI: Blackstone River Bike Path: Day 1

Today we began our 2010 resolution to hike/run all of the trails (or at least as many as we can) of the Greenways Alliance of Rhode Island. It was a gorgeous day today, around 40 degrees. (Yes, 40 degrees IS gorgeous, when the norm is 20.)  Some hold-over ice on the ground from a storm a few weeks ago has made hiking a little treacherous, but most of it had melted by this afternoon.

The Blackstone River Bike Path is currently under construction and the plan is for the trail to run from Providence all the way up to the Massachusetts border. There are about 7-10 miles of trail complete at this time, and today we kept to the area around Lincoln and Cumberland, RI.  This is the Blackstone River:

The river has a pretty fascinating history and was an integral part of Rhode Island’s industrial economy. More about that will be forthcoming!  It was surprising that we have lived in Rhode Island for 3 years and never knew this was here. Luna in particular was thrilled about the discovery, since it provides more opportunities for walks!

One interesting thing that we noticed was that this trail runs right through an urban area—right around that bend in the road lies one of Cumberland’s main streets, complete with shopping center, gas stations and a McDonalds. At least we won’t go hungry on this trail! Luna was enthralled with the river, as she is with any body of water. She jumped right in—not something we would do even if it is forty degrees outside. She also ran through a patch of cockleburrs so we had to have a bit of an extraction process at the end of it all.

You  can see some old factory and other outbuildings in the background on the other side of the river. The stone steps we are standing on may have had some purpose way back when or maybe an enterprising fisherman just liked the spot and decided to make things easier for himself.  Just one of those things we want to find out about now!

We met quite a few other people who were eager to get outside after the cold weather we have been having. When we moved here from North Carolina we thought Rhode Islanders were a little bit unfriendly (who ISN’T unfriendly compared to Carolinians?), but all you have to do is get a big, goofy dog and go to where other people go to walk or run. Then people never stop talking to you.

Next time we are going to follow the river north through Lincoln up to the Albion Dam. That one is going to be more of a day hike, our first big one of the year. Hopefully the snow will be all melted by that point, but this is New England, so you truly never do know. Till next time!