this post has been days in the making..
Last Saturday, I thought I'd post this as a "weekending' post. Later, when I hadn't gotten around to it, I figured I'd plug it into a "walk with me wednesday' post. It is neither. Seems like there ought to a day to mark the first bike ride of the spring.
The weather was SO warm and beautiful (and partly overcast), that we decided to throw all of our previous plans out the window, load the bikes onto the back of the van and head to our nearest bike trail.
The Blackstone River Bikeway, part of the RI State Park system, is a nearly 12 mile trail that runs for a time along an old towpath paralleling both a canal and the river. It travels through history, passing by archaeological ruins of several New England milltowns. For an urban trail, there is a remarkable amount of wildlife. I've seen deer, beaver and muskrat, blue heron, ducks and geese. This weekend it was turtles. They were everywhere!
When we crossed the marsh, we stopped to watch the largest fresh water turtle I've ever seen. It had a shell nearly two feet long! While we watched, it caught dinner, a bird!!!! I still can't believe it. I was very happy to be way up high on the boardwalk. That's one bit of water I don't want to wade in.
Sorry, no pictures. I tried. For the longest time we thought it was a submerged tire. Then it swam. I had only the camera in my phone. Though most of the turtles we saw, and at one place we counted 19, were the painted variety, the big ones must have been snappers.
It was an all too short ride, round trip about 12 miles. Still, perfect.
7 responses to “first bike ride of the season”
I’d have liked to have seen that turtle. We’ve been seeing egrets down here and the occasional great blue heron, too.
Looks like a terrific afternoon, glad you were able to get out and enjoy the bike trail!
Those snappers can live a long life! Glad to hear the turtle population is doing well 😉
Great bike ride. A bird for dinner? Wow! Yeah snappers are a force to be reckoned with. I love painted turtles and their markings.
I have never seen a turtle in the wild. They must live here, but….
And a big one, eating a bird? wow.
It feels so good to be out in nature for the first time in a spring. You sure now how best to enjoy it!
What a lovely ride!
Somehow I’ve always pictured RI as being totally urban. Thanks for the view of (a much prettier) reality!
Turtle catching bird?? Wow. Very dramatic. I’ll never forget seeing a snake swallowing a toad in our woodpile when I was a kid. The snake was still, the toad was half in his mouth, and looking resigned to his fate. It was macabre in a way only kids can appreciate.