Conners Farm, Smithfield, RI - October 10, 2016

Mug Shot Again!

Today started off at Laura's Pleasant View Diner in Smithfield. We think this is our third time at Laura's and we still like the food and the service, and will likely return again. We have been here that many times because the hiking is very good in this part of Rhode Island and today we returning to a place we hiked last winter when the leaves were gone, Conners Farm. This spot is a good easy hike about two and a half miles long, not too strenuous but yet not flat by any means. Breakfast for Nana and Pappa today was omelets, Nana with a veggie and Pappa with a western..and they got the toast just right.. and lots of good hot coffee. We arrived at the parking area at Conners Farm about ten minutes after we left the diner and donned our packs and started off to the trail. The scenery here is fantastic even without wide expansive views, the rock strewn trail provides a wonderful visual and the variety of plants is just fantastic. Lots of mushrooms along the trail today. There has been a lot of rain here the

Rocks along the trail

past couple of days so the ground is ripe for mushrooms to pop up, and they have.  I know I have said it before but we are so fortunate to have so many places like this within reach of home, this place is about 20 minutes from our house. To to try something new I recorded the hike today and have edited a short piece to share the walk with you. I hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you would like me to post more like this. I have fun putting it together, The music is by an artist named Shaun Paul, a cello instructor in Washington State, I love his mellow sound. So take a few minutes, sit back and come along for a hike with Nana and Pappa.

Conners Farm Hike - with Nana and Pappa from Edward Huff on Vimeo.
Best to watch this full screen.


Conners Farm Trail - 30 Second Guide

A couple more photos:

Nana along the trail

The trails are well marked and well maintained.

With the kids - Washington Management Area - 8/28/16

Ben and Nana

This Sunday we had both Grandkids..always a pleasure, Ben and little Sweetie Pie Grace. Off we went to high adventure in northwestern Rhode Island, stopping first at the Village Bean Cafe in Chepatchet for a great breakfast. Everything was cooked just right and the waitress (sorry, the server...gotta be PC) was very friendly and helpful. Ben had a burrito and Grace had scrambled, Nana and I had our usuals and as we were leaving, Grace realized that she needed one of those special M&M muffins. .  So, all fed and rested we went off to the George Washington State Campground and Management Area right along Route 44 just before you enter Connecticut. What a great spot. We parked at the end of the road and headed off down the blue and orange trail. Mushrooms were plentiful today and

A pretty red mushroom

they apparently come in every color. We spotted red and yellow and white and purple and just about every shade in between. Grace seemed especially excited every time we came across a mushroom and especially when there were many along the trail. The trail here is strewn with boulders and rock, and ferns and great views of the pond. The kids had a great time climbing all over the rocks.

On the rocks along the shore

Grace proved to be quite a trooper as we hiked longer than her liking but she kept up with a minimal of complaints. Ben just kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny. Unfortunately the trail took a turn to the right when we needed to head left to continue our way around the pond and back to our car. Intrepid as we are we decided to head out off the trail into the wilderness (I should mention that there were several campers in sight toward the area which we were heading) and our high adventure began. We dumped out in the 'back yard' of a family camping there and had a good chat and got some bad directions but after a few fits and starts in different directions and consulting my app frequently we ended up at a dead end. Now I knew that the car was less than 100 yards away but no clear path presented itself in the direction we were heading. Grace did not want to head through the briars and up the hill but with a bit of encouragement we made it through the rough

Back at the car

stuff and landed right on the trail and the car was in sight. Less than 50 yards from where we felt stuck. All's well that ends well. Here is a photo of our champion hiker, back safe and sound at Pappa's car. By the way Grace and Pappa made that hiking staff, Pappa did most of the work and Grace directed the project so it was just right. After we got back to the car, it was a hot day, we drank our fill of water and Ben took my keys and got he air conditioning running. I then told him to drive us out of there. Now Ben is not of driving age and has little experience with cars, but I figured that he has spent the summer driving a boat and in well on his way to getting a pilot's license (flying for over two years now) he should be able to get us down the road safely. I think he was just a little bit intimidated but he did just fine. He took us about a mile down the road (a dirt road with no traffic) all without incident. Well done Ben. And Now, a few pictures to round out the post.

Nana and Grace

Usain Ben - or Ben Bolt?

Overlooking Wilbur Pond

Defoliated - Crawley Preserve

Iced Coffee

Well it's the Fourth of July Weekend and you know what that means.. we slept too late and the lines at the breakfast place I choose were 15 deep out the door.  Drat! -- So on to plan B. I had chosen Stepping Stone Falls for our hike today but we headed further south and ended up in Richmond RI, right near where I work and went to the Fresh Ground Cafe for breakfast. We each had iced coffees (since it was almost noon) and breakfast burritos. All very good! and good service too. Since I know this area and we were on kind of a tight schedule we decided to hike in a place nearby called the Crawley Preserve, about 5 miles from the cafe in Usquepaugh, RI - I had been there sketching several times but had never walked the trails. To our surprise the Gypsy Moth caterpillars had almost completely defoliated the area. It was amazing seeing the entirety of the forest, this time of the year without leaves. It was like winter again.
However, the trails were very well marked and we were not to be deterred by a few missing leaves. We started off on the Red Dot Trail which winds it way up a hilly countryside with several switchbacks to keep me from puffing too much. You can see in the picture  that the leaves are just gone, but the trail is wide and the walking is very easy and the scenery is still

No Leaves

No leavesvery nice. Even though it was a hot July day and we didn't have much cover, it was cool enough that I didn't work up my usual lather. Along the red dot trail we met a lady who said she live just down the road, she was walking her dog, a large white handsome dog of some unknown breed. We chatted for a few minutes and came away with a lot of local knowledge about the area and about the trails. For the longest route she recommended talking the red trail to the blue trail and the blue trail to the yellow trail which would lead us back to the parking area. This is exactly what we ended up doing. Along the way there were trail markers with numbers on them - we have learned since that they match up with a trail guide and point out natural features. We need to walk this again with the guide in hand. At he far end of the preserve we could see signs of civilization but soon were back into the forest. Interestingly the caterpillars were in the stage of development where they were becoming moths..and the woods were swarming with little white moths, amazing.

We found the yellow trail

 The trail system here was one of the best marked trails system we have walked. All the blazes were fresh and bright and they were close enough together that you never had to search them out. The yellow trail had the most diversity of terrain with a brook and large glacial boulders strewn along the way. Even thought he walking was easy the views were fantastic. The yellow trail also was just a bit greener than the rest of this defoliated forest with lush ferns and raspberry bushes, once we got near the brook, anyway. As we neared the finish of our two mile walk, a white tailed deer leapt across the trail just in front of Nana, giving her a start and it was gone before I looked up. We had heard several wild critter thrashing around in the brush from time to time and supposed it was deer, this confirmed it. After returning to the car, we drove down the hill to the Kenyon Grist Mill, a Rhode Island favorite. And now some more photos.

At the start

Well marked trail

Pappa, posing like a pioneer - what a poser!

App didn't have the trails

Mill stone

Nana at Kenyons

With Friends - Prudence Island

Coffee!!

We started early today as we had to catch the 9:45 ferry in Bristol to go Prudence Island. Prudence Island sits right in the middle of Narragansett Bay. We parked at the ferry dock in Bristol at about 8:15, which should have given us plenty of time to catch some breakfast and make the ferry, leisurely. Things just didn't workout that way. We had found a 'breakfast place' which turned out to be just muffins and coffee.. thanks Siri! And walked along Hope Street in hopes of finding a place that serves a full breakfast menu and sure enough we found just the place. The Sunset Cafe, since 1926. The Sunday morning crowd had begun to gather and the place was hopping. We got seated right away and were served coffee in great huge mugs. The good service seems to have ended there. The picture on the left of Nana and her coffee was taken at 8:33 according to my iPhone...we got served at 9:10 and still needed to make it to  the terminal and get tickets. I don't do well in situations like this as I am compulsorily punctual, and I was really getting on edge as the time to catch the boat seemed to be rushing at us, the short version is that we ate fast, and made the ferry just fine, but not without me

Approaching Prudence

suffering some unfounded anxiety. It was a beautiful bright sunny morning with a very strong wind out of the Northwest, the bay was full of white caps and Nana and I stayed inside for the short ride over to the island. Our friends met us at he ferry landing on Prudence and drove us to their house where we had even more coffee and even better conversation. Once we had our fill and caught up on all of the happenings we set out for a hike. We ended up on Broadway just East of the schoolhouse on a well maintained trail, the Heritage Trail,  and began our walk. For the next hour we chatted about all sorts of pressing issues like 'What kind of bug is that?', you know, the real important stuff.  We made it to the site of an old farm, Baker Farm, where a Frisbee Golf course had been set up and many Frisbees were left there for old walkers like us, so we all tried our hands at pitching Frisbees.

Pitchin' Frisbees

It was proven that we had all pursued the right career paths as Frisbee Golf proved a bit too difficult for our talents. The site where the 'golf course' was set up was the site of an old farm and many of the foundations were still standing. Even though this farm has been long abandoned the layout was still quite obvious. we all took turns guessing what part was what...and we came up with logical answers, but we really don't know if we were even close. I was a beautiful spot.

Examining the foundations

As I mentioned earlier it was a very windy day, however the forest around us kept the wind away from us and coming to this clearing which was open to the sky we started to cool off rapidly. Even thought it is the middle of May it was a cool day on the trail if you got out from the protection of the trees. An interesting thing, maybe a tradition on the island, was the setting of old rusted pots on the top of the stone walls that criss-cross the island. I think we saw at least a half a dozen old enameled cooking pots that had their bottoms rusted out, perched on the tops of stone walls. There were several at the farm, which isn't too surprising I guess but further along the trail we saw several others.

Pots on Walls

We walked to the Division Wall where we decided to turn back, making the Division wall our halfway point. Our good conversations continued and we all had a good time in each others company.
Through a series of events recently the value of good friends has come sharply into focus. Shared times like these bring home that fact the these friendships are our most valued possessions and that these times and shared ideas and what put meaning into all that we do. So thanks to all our friends that put meaning into our lives and thanks to the people who stack pots on stone walls to make us confused.

We walked a total of two and a half miles, not far in miles but a great day in the woods. Back at the house w fantastic lunch was set out and more stories were tole, problems solved and plans made. The 5:35 ferry arrived promptly at 6:00 ...well it's island time ... and our little group continued the fun with dinner in a local restaurant before heading home. A truly great, memorable Sunday. We should all have more of these.   Some more pictures below.

Friends

You can't get too lost here.

The ride back

Our Walk, about 2.5 miles

Mothers Day - East Providence-Providence

Broadway Diner

Today we started off with our grandchildren and headed to one of our favorite local diners, the Broadway Diner right here in East Providence. The food and service were fantastic as always with large portions and  great coffee served with a smile. Being Mothers Day there was lots to do and lots to celebrate, and we thanked our lucky stars that we got to start it off with the kids. I even got to do a bit of coloring with Grace and learned much about 'My Little Pony' - did you know that they are all girls? Not sure just how that works, but that is what I was told. We had lots to do and got the kids home in good order and did chores around the house and yard and realized that we had some time before everyone was to come over for supper so we decided to walk the 'Linear Park - 

 the newly finished park that runs along the side of the Washington Bridge that connects Providence to East Providence carrying Interstate 195 East and West.

Could have used a better name.

As we began on the East Providence side of the Seekonk River with the wind in our faces we thought that maybe this walk was not such a good idea. Soon, though, we settled into a good pace and began to enjoy the urban landscape and good conversation. Once across the bridge and through the Linear Park we arrived at India Point Park in Providence where many people were enjoying the sunshine on this Mothers Day. There were an obvious number of Mothers out there, God bless them all. We walked down to the community boat house and checked out the boats and watched some early activity out on the bay. We then headed up the ramp to the footbridge that spans Interstate 195 and into Providence proper. This section of Providence, Fox Point, is filled with wonderful old houses and as you may know I am a sucker for this stuff, I just love the old houses. We turned right onto Wickenden Street and made our descent back toward the river.

Over Rt 195 on the footbridge

We walked down to Gano Street then back under Route 195 and took the stairs back up to the Linear Park and back toward East Providence. Now with the wind at our backs we started shedding layers and I began to build a nice glow (that's a nice way of saying I started sweating). I love the view from this bridge and it is fun to look down and check out the boats in the marina. We kept a boat in that marina for a couple of seasons before we discovered Pawtuxet Cove, but that is a story for another day.

We soon arrived back at the car and we both checked our apps and we had walked two and a half miles..not a long walk, but time was limited and it worked out just right. As a side note, our pace was considerably faster than when we are walking in the forest. So we made it back home in time for the family gathering, and had another celebration for Mothers. So here's to all the Mothers out there, we all owe you so much, thanks.

A Few Pictures

Coloring time

A view of the bay

Best graffiti ever!

Back across the bridge

Middle Earth - George Washington Management Area

Ahh, Coffee

Yes I know it's Wednesday, but I am home recovering and Nana has the day off, so it's time for a walk in the woods. We stopped this morning at Harmony Kitchen on route 44 in western Rhode Island, Harmony to be specific as if you couldn't guess. The restaurant is a very local place and it was indeed a very harmonious restaurant where everyone in the place knew each other. And we apparently took someone's regular seat. . .
The service was done with a smile and the food was great, and the local thing here seems to be beans, baked beans, served with every breakfast, and this was fine with me.

Beans, at breakfast, Mmmmmm

And another place that made my toast just right Things like this just make me happy. Nana had her typical omelet and I had my two eggs home fries and toast, and we both had beans, with no ill effects. I even had time to get in a quick little sketch while we were there. After I paid I plugged in our destination in the GPS and we were off and another 10 minute ride brought us to the George Washington Management Area camp ground where we got in for free because there was no one in the booth. A normal fee of $2 is required when there is someone in the booth. We found a place to park at the end of the long dirt road through the campground and set off on a trail marked with an orange, red and blue blaze(s) and this is where the magic began. In my last post I stated the the Freetown Forest was devoid of personality, well this trail seems to wander through Middle Earth or Sherwood Forest. It is beautiful.

Orange, red, blue blazes

The trail here seemed to take me back to my childhood fantasies of far away places where the Hobbits and dragons live or where the tales of old took place. I kept waiting for Robin Hood or Chingachgook to come down the trail. The rocks are covered with mosses and ferns grow everywhere and expectations hide behind every rock and tree. Small streams tumble through the woods and are easily forded by hopping on stones that are in just the right places all across the streams.

Stone hopping

We had a great time hiking through this section of the forest along the shore of a pond by the name of Wilber Pond, the smaller of the two here in the area. We could see campers and tents on the far shore as we walked along. We walked for about three quarters of a mile before turning back, not know exactly where this trail led. Just after we had begin this trail the blue dot trail broke off to the right, so we backtracked to that spot and began our way along the blue trail for another three quarters of a mile or so before returning to the car. The personality of this trail was very different as we seemed to leave the boulders behind and the trail became wide and the walking was easier and at a faster pace. Our mapping app did not show either of these trails and although we knew we would not get lost, we kept fairly close to the parking area, we were also up against clock having a noon appointment in Somerset Mass, many miles away. By the time we returned to the car we had walked a mere 2. miles but we were completely refreshed by the experience and have made plans to return. As we approached the car a park ranger pulled up in his truck and we chatted with him for a while and followed him back to the entrance gatehouse where he gave us a trail map. He told of the Walkabout trail which is an eight and a half mile trail around the park. I think that is in our future. We also discovered trail markers for the Rhode Island North South trail. I looked this up when we ultimately made it home and the North South trail is 78 miles long.

North South Trail

Now that is an ambitious trail, running from the ocean  on the south coast to the Massachusetts border. It is apparently typically done in seven sections of 10 - 14 mile lengths. So at that pace you could do the North South Trail in a week. There seems to be many sections of the trail that follow a road from time to time but it appears mostly to be through the Rhode Island wilderness areas. Maybe some time Nana and Pappa will make this walk. It looks like a challenge, but also looks like it could be broken up over several weekends and would be a great way to explore the state top to bottom or bottom to top.  I will post a few more pictures here so you can better get the flavor of the day. The remainder of our day was well spent doing chores and and hangin out with our grandkids.

rocky part of Middle Earth

Ferns, rocks and streams

I'm happy, really, I'm happy - what a sour looking old Pappa

Along the Blue trail

Spring Day - Carr's Pond

Karen's Kitchen, Esmond - Click Image for larger view

We did get off to an early start this morning and were at breakfast in Esmond, Rhode Island before 9:00 - this is early for us as you may know by reading this blog. The reason we were in this part of the state was because our grandson had a flying lesson, and I always get a camera rigged in the cockpit to record the fun. Karen's Kitchen was a clean and very friendly place and as you can see on the sign, the home of the Hot Wiener Omelet! I have never heard of a hot wiener omelet before but am a big fan of the Rhode Island Hot Wiener, also known as a New York System wiener. Our waiter was prompt and the coffee was good and of course I had to order the hot wiener omelet. It was just as I imagined, excellent - here'e the recipe - one wiener sliced finely mixed into the omelet and cooked up- I think there was some cheese and onions in the egg mix too - once the omelet is on the plate, it is covered with the meat sauce and

The Mug Shot

raw onion and of course celery salt. All the ingredients to make a great Rhode Island omelet. I told the waiter just how much I enjoyed the omelet and within minutes Karen herself came out and we had a nice long chat about the restaurant, apparent she is getting ready to retire and is selling the place, I hope the new owners keep the Hot Wiener Omelet on the menu. Once we finished up, we made our way toward the airport but had a few minutes to spare so Nana and I stopped in the Lincoln Mall, at Target's and picked up a few thing we needed for home. At the airport I got the camera gear delivered and made plans to drive to T F Greene Airport in Warwick where our grandson was landing for the first time. He is very familiar with take off and landing at the small North Central Airport and this was his first time at a large commercial airport with a very active tower. So Nana and I took off to see if we could find some place along the perimeter of the TF Green airport to video the landing. Most of the area along the outer fence was posted that you couldn't even stop, just keep moving, nothing to see here. . .  but we found a nice place that didn't have signs and parked and walked up the clearing to the fence to await the landing. we had been there about 20 minutes when the police arrived and the first words out of the officer's mouth was 'Are you ISIS?' - He was very thorough though it was obvious what we were doing there, and we almost missed the landing, and the good news is we didn't go to jail.

Crossing

It was about a 15 minute ride down Route 95 to exit 6 and another 5 minutes to find the parking for the pond. I found this place using the AllTrails app on my phone and there seems to be miles of trails in this area. There was a hint of spring in the air, with little wind and temps in the 50's. We planned to walk around the pond and a quick glance at the app and we were off. Here is a word to pay attention to...a quick glance at a map could be less than helpful. What we thought would be a two mile hike turned into an an almost four mile hike. I thought I saw that the path continued around the pond but at the far end, over a mile into the walk, there was a (beaver?) dam that made a backwater that took us further afield and added a couple of miles to our walk, which was fine as it was a beautiful day..it was just unexpected. There are many many trails here that cross each other and

go off in all directions, and they seem well used. You can see by the picture here that some of the rocks seem to have been visited by younger people who thought they would look better painted. We saw many signs of late night parties around campfires along the trails. It is an easy access place and lots to explore. It seems as though it is well maintained although many of the recent trees that have fallen across the trail have not been removed yet but there were many that had fallen earlier in the year that had been cut for easy passage. We saw some Canada Geese on the pond and heard a lot of seemingly invisible  birds . We came across lots of little flowers - yellow, purple and white and a curious little plant that had waxy leaves and big red berries. I spent quite some time searching the internet (because the internet knows everything) and I think they are Wintergreen Berries.

Here is a picture of the plant with it's bright red berries. If you know what it is let me know..but I think it's Wintergreen Berries. As we made our way back toward the car we crossed over the bridge on the road we drove in on, crossed the road and hiked the forest on the other side of the road back to the car. This was a great place to spend some time. There were many other hikers, people fishing the pond from the bank and from canoes and kayaks and people out with their dogs. We met a man with a beautiful boxer deep in the woods. This was a fine Sunday walk. And now, more pictures.

Hot Wienie Omelet

Crossing another stream

The dam that foiled our plans

Pappa crossing

the pond

At the finish

Our route