Opt Outside!!!!

Early morning bike ride

REI closed their doors on Black Friday. They chose to be closed and pay their employees the day off
to go outside. Apparently, so did a lot of other people because over a million people signed up to opt outside.

I thought this is a wonderful idea. With temperatures near sixty degrees on Black Friday I to, opted to be outside. I ate a lot on Thanksgiving. I ate enough to be ashamed. So I got up early on Black Friday. I did not go shopping. Instead I put my bike rack on the car and went to the Blackstone River Bikeway. I did a quick twelve  miles in about an hour.

After I put the bike back on the rack I had about two hours before I had to meet my friend Rachel. I went to a place in Smithfield, RI I just learned about. The place was called Wolf Hill Forest Preserve. It is owned by the Smithfield Land Trust. It is about 300 acres and has about three miles of trail.

I hiked for an hour and fifteen minutes. The trails are very well marked. Some of the trails have been either raked or blown clean of leaves. Because of the leave free trails, the place felt almost park like.  There was one steep trail (green) that went up a couple hundred feet. Other than that one, the trails

were mostly flat through oak and maple woods.

The most interesting thing in the woods is a memorial to a WW II bomber that crashed there in 1943. Sadly, three airmen lost their lives in the crash. I stopped at the memorial and paid my respects. Also interesting, was a vernal pool (dry right now), and a lookout. The Mercer Lookout is a very short walk from  the Carlton's Way Parking area.  All told, I did about two and a half miles of connecting loops. 

I met Rachel at noon time and we headed to Newport. Our goal was to take photos of various landmarks. There were a couple I found online that I had never been to. Of course we planned on seeing the rocky shoreline but with darkness coming around 4:30 pm time was of the essence.

The first landmark we went to was a WWI Memorial in Miantonomi Park. We found the monument

t, but we also found the place to very nice for a short walk through the woods. We took some pictures of the woods and a tent (homeless person I guess, but it was right out in the open).

From there, we went to the waterfront. We took pics of the Rochambeau Statue then went to Fort Adams and Brenton Point real quick.

We also went to a couple of smaller landmarks including Purgatory Chasm. This is a cut through the granite for about forty feet where ocean water comes in and out of. It is similar to the famous Thunder Hole in Acadia, without the noise.

Old Mill Tower

Another landmark we went to is possibly the oldest structure in North America. The structure is called the Old Mill Tower. No one knows who or when it was built, but many believe it was built by the Vikings, but more likely it was built in the 1600's.

The highlight in Newport for me is always going to Sachuest NWR. I had hoped to see some harlequin ducks but it was not to be. However, we were rewarded with nine deer, including a herd of three very close to the parking area. We got some fantastic shots of them. We took some pictures of the rocky shoreline and Rachel took a lot of pictures of the sunset.

All in all, it was a great day to be outside. More pictures below.

Mission Accepted!

Rachel taking a picture of Romchambeau

Purgatory Chasm