King Preserve
My Daughter was to hang out with her “Nanny”, (her grandmother) on Thursday and then again on Saturday. On Thursday Natalie concluded that it would just be easier if she spent Thursday to Sunday with nanny, “that way she wouldn’t have to come back and pick her up again on Saturday. It was deductive reasoning I thought. So my first thought when i realized I would be alonish for basically 3 whole days in a row was HIKE. Natalie spends A LOT of time Outside at her school in the woods so I don’t push her to do it at home. She literally has a lot of aches and growing pains and can only walk a little while before the whinning comes in unless she has a friend with her (then she conveniently forgets all about it.) I don’t like to hike like that, so I rarely force her with me. I saw this hike in Saunderstown, RI on a facebook post months ago and have been wanting to go since; so I did. Fun things went on. To pReface I have been OBSESSED with wild berry picking around my “hood”. I went as so far as to leave a note in a neighbors mailbox up the street to ask if i can pick their wild raspberries in their driveway they have spewing everywhere. I felt like I was my daughter’s age 10, she does cute things like that, leaving notes in our neighbors mailboxes ( her best friend is our neighbor) ANytime i am anywhere I am looking for wild raspberry bushes to pick; anywhere anytime! When I pulled into the parking spot I drove into wild raspberry bushes!! ha… sign #1, yay, snack for after hike, not enough to make jam. I started the hike and it was like any other hike around there is a path, you follow it, you see trees, hear birds, swat off bugs, trip on roots, jump on rocks, listen to my water bottle swish swish and wish it wasn’t disturbing the peace and quiet of the forest.
King Preserve
The trail is nicely marked with maps at a lot of points which is good because it turns a lot and different trails branch off. I kept going right. It’s summer here in RI and it was a bit wet so the bugs were out. They were not relentless but at some points they were there whispering sweet nothings of buzzing in my ears, I wasn’t into it. On this hike there is a vernal pool, to biologists this is a BIG DEAL. I met a guy once randomnly at a coffee shop or something like that and we got to chatting and I mentioned I lived near “here” and his eyes lit up big and he said isn’t that where there is a vernal pool?? Hmmmm i was Laughing hysterically inside, had no idea what he was talking about but…. what a sweet science human he was. I am not going to get in to the definition of a vernal pool but I will put a link right here for ya! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernal_pool. ANyway they make for buggy areas.
It was a pretty forest with lots of ferns and ofcourse that path. I thought these mushrooms were really cool on this tree but according to my arborist spouse it means the tree is d e a d!
Have you ever literally hugged a tree? As I walked I thought that I should hug a tree today. I am really into energy frequencies. Nature gives off the most beautiful energy frequency and trees are a good source of that. SO I stumbled upon this really large tree at the corner of the path right before the “waterfall” so that was my hugging tree for the day! It feels good to do it energetically but my mind is watching for humans coming so I had to kick my mind out of the moment for a bit. It’s a big ol’ Hickory tree.
King Preserve
Next there was a small little waterfall that I sat at for a bit to meditate. It’s my favorite thing, forest meditation. Try it it’s grand but get comfortable first and load up the bug spray.
Waterfall
King Preserve
I got to the loop part of the trail and it opened up to a big dirt pine forested road and that lead right to the upper banks of the NArrow RIver. A sweet little spot.. This far I had hiked probably 1.8 miles.
Upper Narrow River
Rhode Isalnd
Pine Forest heaven
Rhode Island
I continued my walk and thankfully there were lots of maps of the trail around but i must admit if it wasn’t for gps track app I would have ventured the wrong way home on the last leg of the hike! I love that app and it keeps me going the right way. Here is the most exciting part of the hike and sign #2 for what I am not sure of but it cool anyway. As I was walking i was looking down and forging ahead and I heard this big CRACK I looked up to see a tree break about 1/3 of the way up and fall right OVER! IT was so crazy and close. I felt very special and honored that I was there to witness that although it did scare the bageebees out of me and i had been about 60 steps ahead of myself I would have been RIGHT smack down next to it and then I probably would still be shaking from it. I thought it crazy that the tree just “let go” for no reason no wind, snow or rain. It was just it’s time i guess. However upon discussion with again; my arborist spouse he said that the break happened a long time ago and it must have been hung up on a tree and holding on by a small thread and that’s what let go and fell to the ground. That makes more sense to me. But in the end still felt so honored to hear it then see it. “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear does it still make a noise?” Honestly I think that’s a silly thing to ponder over ofcourse it does and it’s LOUD!
I carry on and continue my walk I am ready to get into some kind of water for swimming; it’s heating up and I am hungry. I think i started walking at lunch time. I heard a bird i couldn’t identify but i guess you can’t upload videos to a blog? In the end I walked for 1 hour and 51 minutes at the distance of 3.8miles (thank you GPS app). Thanks for reading this far! I am now off the bake something from a 1946 cookbook..:) stay tuned for that. I am hoping to be back here real soon.
Take good care,
Monica