A panoramic view from Clayhead Trail.
Clayhead Trail, located on a 190-acre parcel on the northeast part of Block Island, provides some of the most spectacular viewing along the trail’s bluffs. On a clear day you can see South County, Newport and more.
At long last, vacation.
We are on a gorgeous island that feels far, far away, but near enough to mainland Rhode Island to run into somebody we know before the week is out, including, over the years: two governors, more than a few tipsy legislators, Donald Trump’s Rhode Island campaign chairman and a onetime mayor who soon after landed in jail.
We’re a short walk from the nearest beach, but under doctor’s orders to stay out of the sun (“as much as possible”) and way too out of shape to bicycle the hills.
But we’re on Block Island!
What CAN we do between our vacation-size breakfast and a sunset dinner overlooking Block Island Sound?
We hike.
Okay, we walk.
In fact, we walk the same Greenway Trails we’ve walked − or, in hubby’s case, used to run − every summer for 30 years, filled with fresh delight each year that 1) we can still do it; 2) it is just as beautiful as we remembered; and 3) we might − I stress might − find a hidden glass orb. (More to come on that later for the non-orbivores.)
As the week goes by, we lament what has changed, what erosion has done to some of the paths and the cliffs, how much farther back the ropes have been moved on the Clayhead Trail to keep us away from the edge − and we delight in how much hasn’t changed.
The first sound of the waves, just over the hill. The lone tree in the meadow. The butterfly that follows us.
The adventure begins with overstuffed dufflebags with, in my case, too many T-shirts, shorts, bathing suits (for late-day dips), hiking pants, tick repellent, tubes of No. 50 sunblock and Ivy Block, hiking shoes, socks, flip-flops, our all-important wide-brimmed Tilley Airflo hats and lots of books, including our dog-eared, 20-year-old copy of “On This Island: The Block Island Trail and Nature Guide.”
We look like happy (almost unrecognizable) geeks. (Pro tip: If you want a conversation starter on B.I., wear your frayed, old Benny’s T-shirt.)
Favorite walking trails on Block Island
Trails on Block Island are as numerous as they are diverse. You will find open pastures with tall grass waving in the breeze, enclosed paths through thick woods, lush vegetation and scenic vistas of the ocean. All of them deliver beauty and solitude.
We start slow, with the Lewis-Dickens Farm Wildlife Refuge Trail, only 0.9 miles in each direction. We work our way up to the breathtaking Clayhead Trail (a personal favorite), at least 2 miles in each direction, that overlooks steep cliffs, then winds down and around to the end of Corn Neck Road where, some years, there has been a food truck to greet us with chilled “Arnold Palmers.”
Another day, another favorite: a walk along West Beach, just past the transfer station, where we collect sea glass nestled in the rocks along the water’s edge, on our way down the beach, past a thick colony of seagulls that are just a bit frightening (think: Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”) to the North Light at the far end of the island that looks out over Sandy Point where the seals gather and the waves collide.
By now, we’re up to 5, 6, 7-plus miles a day. Feeling very proud of ourselves.
The roosters tell us when we are nearing Beacon Hill Farm and the familiar bench next to a shady apple tree where we met a goat that got up close and personal one year, and left a memorable black-and-blue mark.
After a brief stop, we cross the road and head up the incline to the trail leading to the Enchanted Forest that magically led us to our first − and only − hidden glass orb, glinting up at us from the base of a tree. (Never since! But we keep searching every year.)
For the uninitiated: the “Glass Float Project” is “a world famous art installation” initiated and re-created every summer since 2011 by artist Eben Horton. The back story from BlockIsand.info.com:
“With help from a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Eben created the first 150 floats, modeling them after the Japanese fishing net floats that occasionally break free from their nets and float up onto beaches worldwide.
“With permission, he began hiding them on the beaches and greenway trails that connect conserved parcels of land on the island.
“He and his wife, Jennifer Nauck, and the team at their studio, The Glass Station Studio and Gallery in Wakefield, RI, now make upwards of 550 floats every year. They are dated with the year and numbered between 1 and 550 …[hidden] a few at a time, from June until October … on beaches and greenway trails or other public areas.”
Our last day on the island, after checking out, we have a tradition:
We walk (slathered in No. 50 sunblock) from our hotel, through town, down a path to the beach in front of the former Surf Hotel (now known as the Beach House), past the pavilion at the Fred Benson Town Beach, along Scotch and then Mansion Beach, to the beach off the Clayhead Trail.
Miles? Lots. By now, we are no longer counting. We are treasuring another summer of memories.
For more on Block Island’s trails, visit alltrails.com/us/rhode-island/block-island, blockislandinfo.com, and natureblockisland.org.
With staff reports from Peter Donahue.
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