5 best family-friendly hiking spots around RI providencejournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from providencejournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LITTLE COMPTON Benjamin Simmons dammed Cold Brook in the mid-1700s to create a pond and raceways to harness the waterpower to run his gristmill.
The mill is long gone, but the pond became the center of a natural sanctuary for birds and wildlife.
In the 1960s, Bill Chace and his family built five more ponds connected with a network of trails.The Chace family sold the land in 1995 to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, which maintains the family-friendly public preserve.
Today, the 433-acre refuge, named the Simmons Mill Pond Management Area, is unique because of the wide, easy-to-walk trails and dozens of hand-lettered signs identifying trees, wildlife, rock formations and the land s rich history.
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By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. Officials: no one answer for dirt roads Loads of crushed rock applied in some areas Ogeechee River waters flow over Riverview Road in February 2020 cutting off Woodwards Landing after severe rains last year. With heavy rains in the past few days, Bulloch County commissioners are discussing methods to mitigate dirt road issues. - photo by By SCOTT BRYANT/staff
Monday, Bulloch County road crews hauled and packed “crush and run” type rock into wet and rutted areas of five dirt roads in an effort to stabilize them and allow residents to drive in and out.
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun.
Along the gravel paths, the trees have been meticulously labeled, scrawled by a volunteer’s bold pen on wood that has been cut, planed, and sanded smooth.
The air smelled vibrant. As we approached Simmons Pond to the calls of the flitting few wintering birds, we met a gentleman fishing for trout. “They stock the pond, and I caught one.” On a tether in the water was a shiny, vibrant trout, swimming in place. “If I catch another, I’ll take ‘em home for supper; one for me, one for my wife. And I cook ‘em maself. If I don’t catch a second, I’ll throw that guy back.”