Block Island Daycation

Tuesday, August 25, Dave (below) Beth, and Tim left home at 6:45 to catch the 9am High Speed Ferry http://www.blockislandferry.com/ to Block Island, 13 miles off shore of Rhode Island. We arrived on Island http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/daytrip/block_island.html by 9:30 with our bikes (plenty of places to rent bikes as well), water bottles, helmets, swim suits, a camera and our light wind rain/jackets just in case, and a list of plenty of things to do for a day.

My brother Dave was visiting from CA, and had never been on the Block. Our first choice day trip to NYC, was nixed after we found tickets were sold out to the Statue of the Liberty museum and the stair climb to her crown http://www.nps.gov/STLI/index.htm . My thought was, it was just as well, as the heat in NYC would have been unbearable on Tuesday; so instead we welcomed a bright sunny, almost clear sky, reflecting the beautiful colors and hues of the Island. In the morning we rented kayaks

From Pond and Beyond kayak tours, http://www.blockisland.com/kayakbi/ and paddled out of New Harbor staying in the confines of the 1700 acre Great Salt Pond. During our paddle adventure we learned that the Great Salt Pond, used to be a daily dumping ground for the more than 1000 boats that can fill the harbor on any given day in the summer. Now thanks to the Federal Clean Water Act in 1972, combined with Rhode Island designating the Great Salt Pond as a "No Discharge" zone in 1993, the water is cleaner. For a pump-out, you contact one of the marinas or the town-operated floating pump-out station. Three years later shell-fish beds which had been closed since 1983 where reopened for harvesting. We paddled by one of the two small oyster farms on Island that provide mostly for the town’s restaurant business. The photo shows the terns hanging out in the bed. We where impressed to learn that more than 40% of the Island is preserved as open space, and that there is a strict moratorium on building any new docks or piers on the Islands waters. The later is currently being tested in the courts. http://www.biconservancy.org/CGSP.html

I was pushing to paddle ocean side, but that was nixed in favor of more time to ride, and a chance to see other parts of the Island and gain some beach time. Maybe I’ll get back later this fall to join the ConnYak http://connyak.org/ paddlers on their 18 mile paddle around Block Island.

So we covered the distance of the Island on our bikes, stopping for lunch and some views of the ocean. Our last stop on the ride was the beach at Mohegan Bluffs.

First we rested up for the climb back up the 200 foot cliff side at Mohegan Bluffs.

To end our day we dined in town (NewShoreham), paying the bill in time to make the 7:45 ferry back to Point Judith, and what seemed like a short drive home to Middletown while I slept. We learned to late that the state beach has shower facilities we could have taken advantage of after working up a pretty good sweat during the day. Turns out there was no jacket needed on Island, even with an ocean breeze, it was still hot humid and reaching into the high 80’s. It was a great get-away for the day and we left with plenty more to see and do next time we get back to Block Island.