Rhode Island’s sandy soil provides hikers a break

Apr. 11—After current hikes that concerned scrambling up Connecticut’s rocky ridges and stumbling down boulder-strewn ravines, it was a aid to hit the path the opposite day in Rhode Island, the place sandy paths coated with pine needles made for glad toes.

“Comfortable and easy. I am going to take it,” mentioned Phil Plouffe, as he, Andy Lynn and I strolled by the 600-acre Grills Wildlife Sanctuary in Hopkinton. About two thirds of the Ocean State’s soil fashioned from glacial until, creating a really perfect floor for straightforward mountaineering.

Do not get me fallacious, trails that ascend steep ledges and hug the sting of precipitous overhangs may be exhilarating — particularly in the event you do not slip — nevertheless it’s arduous to benefit from the view once you’re concentrating in your footing.

No such distractions whereas ambling alongside the Tomaquag Path, which departed from a small, unpaved parking zone off Chase Hill Highway. We adopted white-diamond blazes by a muddy cornfield earlier than coming into a lush forest of white pine, oak and beech.

In a brief distance, we crossed slender Wine Bottle Brook, handed an intersection with the yellow-blazed East Loop Path, after which turned proper onto the Cedar Swamp Path, which is marked with orange-rectangle blazes.

Subsequent, we turned proper onto the Peninsula Path, marked with yellow-diamond blazes, handed a picnic space, and crossed a bridge and boardwalk that spans Tomaquag Brook and a surrounding marsh. Tomaquag means “place of beavers” within the language of the Narragansett tribe, whose members roamed the area lengthy earlier than European colonists arrived within the seventeenth century.

We handed quite a few stone partitions, outdated foundations and different remnants of previous inhabitation. An indication at first of the sanctuary implores guests to not disturb these vestiges.

It reads, “Throughout America, archaeological and sacred websites are the delicate stays of hundreds of years of human historical past on the panorama. It’s a heritage that all of us share. It can be crucial for us to share the enjoyment of discovery tempered with accountability for the stewardship of those websites.”

Thus, modern-day guests shouldn’t transfer rocks, sit or climb on partitions or dig close to these websites.

After crossing Tomaquag Brook, we might have continued on the Tomaquag Path towards the Pawcatuck River, after which crossed the Polly Coon Bridge onto the 550-acre Grills Protect, owned by the Westerly Land Belief.

Phil, Andy and I had beforehand hiked trails within the Westerly protect, so determined to remain within the Hopkinton sanctuary, which we had been visiting for the primary time.

Each properties had been as soon as owned by Richard Grills of Westerly, who operated the now-shuttered Bradford Dyeing Affiliation. Environmental authorities had cited this enterprise, which grew from a small textile mill within the early 1900s to a 500,000-foot complicated that manufactured army uniforms, for discharging industrial waste into the Pawcatuck River.

The tracts now are completely protected as conservation areas, together with a 3rd close by Grills Protect, owned by the Hopkinton Land Belief.

After crossing Tomaquag Brook, we started a gentle climb that led previous a picnic space to a knoll that featured an expansive vista of surrounding woodlands — fairly a departure from the flat, swampy terrain we encountered at first of our hike.

After admiring the view, we circled and kind of retraced our steps, taking a roundabout route as a result of a piece of path had flooded throughout current heavy rains. Let’s hope issues dry out later this spring.

We wound up mountaineering about 3 1/2 miles — a pleasant, brief stroll that might simply have been prolonged by looping by the Grills Protect in Westerly. Connections between preserves improve their worth — not just for people, however for wildlife.

A map of the sanctuary, and different info, is obtainable on the Hopkinton Land Belief web site, https://hlt-ri.org. Extra details about the Westerly Land Belief is obtainable at westerlylandtrust.org.