Beautiful Blackstone River
Rhode Island was just south of us when we stayed in a motel in Walpole, MA, so obviously I had to stop there for a bike ride. It is the smallest state by area, with just over 1500 square miles. Alaska, by contrast, has 665,000. I quickly went in google maps to see how long it would take to cross the northern portion, from west to east by bike. The answer is roughly 2.5 hours.
Rita and I saved the Rhode Island trip for the last day of our visit. We got up and headed south to the town of Cumberland, where we had a sit-down breakfast. After that we stopped by a cafe, where Rita studied while I waited for the bike shop to open.
I had it all planned out. I would drive to Blackstone Bicycles, where I would rent one of their cruisers. The Blackstone River Bikeway was only five minutes away from the shop, and its 18.2 miles offered plenty of room to explore the New England countryside. There was a possibility I could even bike the length from Providence to the Massachusetts border.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft angley. I arrived at the shop shortly before its noon opening and waited. Another man and a kid waited in the parking lot. I stretched and rested as the minutes ticked by, with no worker showing up. Then, at nearly half past the hour, the other man decided to call the office line. From the automated message, it turned out the shop was unusually closed on this day, for no apparent reason.
Will you please rent me a bicycle?
Being in such a state as Rhode Island, there was no guarantee I could find another place to rent a bike. The next day was our flight, so it was now or never. Who knew when, if ever, I’d be back in the state. One place, Bristol Bikes, was closed. Apart from that it seemed the only other option in the entire state was Providence Bicycle.
I called them and asked about rentals. The guy that picked up asked me my height, but seemed a bit skeptical they would have something. He went looking around the shop, and then came back and said he had one bike, and one bike alone, I could rent. Immediately I drove back to the cafe to scoop up Rita, and we drove down to Providence.
The shop was in a busy area outside of town, and the riding in that area wasn’t appealing due to traffic. Fortunately, when we were renting a van. This allowed us to put the bike in the back. The worker recommended either driving back to the Blackstone Bikeway or crossing town and getting on the East Bay Bike Path. Since Providence came through in the clutch with the bike rental, I stayed in town and hit up East Bay.
Some snags
The decision turned out to be a good one. It was a beautiful day, and it was a beautiful trail. Fully paved, it ran south along the Providence River, which gradually turns into Narragansett Bay. Sometimes it passed right by the shoreline, complete with views, while other times it veered off into neighborhoods, towns, or parks. It was popular, but not crowded. People biked, walked, or even fished from the trail.
One downside of the day was being on a time crunch. I got started late and had to return the bike to the shop before the 6 pm close. As a result, I made the decision to cruise on the way south, and then time permitting go slower and take pictures on the way back.
Another thing going against me was an injury that developed just in the past two days. While stretching in the hotel room I smashed my ankle against our steel bed frame. At first it didn’t seem bad, but after a day of walking in Boston it suddenly “fell apart”. Part of me thought it was sprained, while another part thought it was just twisted. In any case, I could bike, albeit with some pain and extra care.
A beautiful bay
Back to the trail. There were lots of fun surprises. The first was a view of a small island in the Providence River complete with a lighthouse. By small, I mean small. It was the size of a residential yard. Nearby a small number of wind turbines rotated. I also got to cross two wooden bridges over fast flowing tidal tributaries. Then, there was the frozen lemonade stand in the town of Warren.
I kept pushing forward and reached one of my favorite stretches of trail, which I believe is called “The Meadow”. There are tall grasses and trees looming on either side as the ride returns to the Narragansett Bay. A bit further along I found another fun spot, a public “right of way” next to a rocky beach. There was a stand full of kayaks. I’m assuming this was a place where people had open access to the water.
At that point I decided to turn around. I was a bit short of reaching the trail’s final destination but wanted to give myself plenty of time to make it back to the shop. In hindsight I probably could have pushed to the end, so that is a bit of a disappointment. In any case, I biked north and got the reverse views. I also stopped at Haines Memorial State Park. There were picnic tables and a grove of trees. Compared to the size I was used to in the Pacific Northwest these trees were midgets, but the contrast was refreshing. The best part of the ride back though was the view of the Providence skyline, big enough to be striking but definitely quaint compared to other cities, like Boston or in my backyard, Seattle.
I ended the ride where I started and met up with Rita. We had to fight through traffic jams to get back to the bike shop, and I quipped “a car accident anywhere in Rhode Island probably affects the whole state”. Back at the shop we chatted about our ride with the workers and learned that they recently suffered a flood, which submerged a depth of several feet. Heavy rains were the cause. At this point my ankle was really killing me, and I barely limped back into the car.
