What a lot of you may not know is that every Sunday (or just about every Sunday) Carol and I go for a hike somewhere nearby. We try to make it somewhere new each time but we have been doing this for almost three years now and we do live in the smallest state in the United States so we do repeat ourselves from time to time. We are still amazed at the diversity of hiking spots we have at our disposal in the Rhode Island area. Most of our hikes take place within an hour from home and we have hiked over 180 Sundays and have only repeated a few spots, and most of the repeats are because we were pressed for time and chose a spot near home.
Our Sundays start with us deciding on a location to hike (we use the AllTrails app) and then find a diner or local breakfast place nearby where we plan to hike. This past Sunday we ate at a diner called Don's Diner in Plainville, Massachusetts. The food and the service was great and it was a classic polished stainless steel diner with great atmosphere and not too expensive. Our waitress was friendly and had a great smile...what more could you ask for.
We hiked the Wrentham State Forest in Wrentham, Massachusetts which was just 7 minutes away from the diner in Plainville. we had hiked her once before in February of 2016 and didn't quite make a mile as it was covered in ice, a very hard and slippery ice which made us turn around after a very short while.Although we have lost 99 percent of the snow at home in East Providence, here in the state forest there was still a solid 3 to 6 inches on the ground. Melting had begun and as a result many of the low lying areas of the trail were filled with water making for some creative crossings.
It was a perfect day for a hike with no wind and the temperature was climbing steadily and made it to the mid 40's. Perfect. We saw lots of signs of wildlife, and human footprints from time to time but we never saw another person during our 3 hours in the forest. We made some newbie mistakes on this trip. Carol decided to leave her pack in the car as we would be walking in the snow and she felt that the pack might make her a bit unstable. Carol is typically the one who carries a water bottle as my pack was full of my camera gear. And her pack has the first aid kit, which may or may not have come in handy this time out.
Wrentham State Forest if provides a moderate to easy trail with lots of short ups and downs, and lots of rocky outcroppings. Rocks dot the trail so you have to watch your footing and today there were many trees down across the trail from the last couple of Nor'easters we have had. We are expecting another storm tomorrow, as I write this on Monday morning. The say we may get up to two feet of snow tomorrow morning. . aaah... spring in New England. I know I have neglected the blog over the past couple of months so let me fill in a few hiking blanks. So far this year we have hiked Sachuest Point in Middletown, RI, Swansea forest behind town hall in Swansea, a great hike at Hunt's Mill right here in East Providence, and Powder Mill Ledges out on Route 44 in Greenville, RI and we discover a nice park with a steep hill overlooking Providence called Neutaconkanut Hill. All in all it is starting off to be a fine year of hiking, and we are looking forward to another great year of diners and hikes.