Keri and I hiked roughly 40 miles total. This was the first real hike with a full pack and all the gear that I’ve done since 1988 when I hiked the high Sierras to the summit of Mt. Whitney. This was also Keri’s first real hike ever.
Day One – August 13th, 2010
We got a late start after missing our morning bus to Chepachet. The next bus got us there around 2:30. From Chepatchet we hiked west on Route 44 toward Durfee Hill Road where we would find the North South Trail. Keri and I decided to check out Cady’s Tavern for a late lunch of nachos, onion rings, and beer before hitting the trail. The food was so-so but the ‘Gansett was cheap! Buck fifty a pint. After lunch, we trekked back to the trailhead and made our way south on Durfee Hill Road. About a quarter mile down this road we turned onto the Gray Squirrel Trail which eventually met up with the old Sweet’s Logging Road which merged with Willie Woodhead Road. We hiked down this way until about 7 or so and started to look for a place to stealth camp for the night. Soon we found the remnants of another old logging road veering off the path to the right. We chose a spot a couple hundred yards down to set up for the night. Sleep was restless here. Keri had never camped in the wild like this and was spooked by the thought of rabid racoons mentioned in our guidebook. “No worries,” I said, “They can’t get in the tent.” All kinds of animal noises and an occassional gunshot pierced the night. Sometime in the middle of the night Keri sat up straight which woke me right away. Rabid raccoons! Holy shit! “What is it? What do you hear?” I ask. “Nothing.” We both try to sleep. In the morning Keri told me it was the complete silence that woke her. Not a sound to be heard.

Stealth camp

Day Two – August 14th 2010
Woke up around 5:30 in the morning. I’ve always found it pretty easy to get up when camping. Anything is better than another moment on the hard ground. We were all packed up and back on the trail by 6:30. Not even 5 minutes after leaving our campsite we made our first trail discovery. Out here, deep in the woods, an abandoned homestead. I saw the shape of the house through the trees ahead. As we got closer, a side trail opened up and lead us past the ruins of a stone foundation and basement of a house that must have stood a couple hundred years ago. All that was left was this stone lined hole in the ground with a fireplace in one side and several trees growing straight up out of the ground floor. To the left of this was another house. This second house had been partially burned and dismantled but 3 rooms remained that still had a roof above them. A sign greeted us, “Keep Clean Please.” Beyond this was an empty shed and a clear flat rockless ground perfect for camping. If only we had discovered this place the night before! Damn!

Basement with trees

The perfect camp we didn't use

Onward and downward… Continuing on Willie Woodhead Road we hiked South. The road itself is not much more than dirt and rocks shaped by the wheels of offroad vehicles. Eventually, the road transformed into a maintained gravel road lined with power lines and “For Sale” signs. Before long we started passing driveways and houses and came upon Old Snake Hill Road where we turned West onto hard pavement. About a mile down this road we came to the junction with Route 94. We asked someone working in their yard where the nearest store might be. “A couple miles down that way,” she says, pointing South down 94. We decided to go ahead and find this store to replenish water supplies and get some snacks and cold drinks. The store turned out to be a gas station. Good enough. The station is at the junction of Route 94 and Route 101. Looking at our map we realized we could hike down 101 and catch the trail again. This would allow us to skip the portion of the trail that heads into Connecticutt. As a bonus we made our second trail discovery on the way back to the NST. Jerimoth Hill.

Jerimoth Hill

The short trail to Jerimoth Hill is on the left hand side of Route 101 when you are traveling West. The trail itself is not long. Jerimoth Hill is the highest natural point in Rhode Island. 812 feet above sea level. On the walk up I found the perfect walking stick for the trip. At the top there is a clearing that is used by Brown University for their Astronomy program. Next to the clearing is a small outcropping of rock. This is Jerimoth Hill. Ha. We stopped here for a short break then headed back toward the NST. South on East Killingly Road put us back on the path. This portion of the trip is almost all on back country paved roads which are very hard on the feet. It wasn’t until a few miles southward that we got onto the Tom Wood Road which was by far the best trail to walk on. Dirt, roots, rocks. The forest canopy shading us from the sun. Little frogs and tadpoles in puddles by the wayside.

Tom Wood Road

Onward and upward and southward until we came to the Shady Acres Restaurant on Route 6. We stopped here for lunch and topped off our water bottles. Today was going to be a long hike. By the time we reached the restaurant we had already hiked 12.5 miles. One thing we noticed was that stealth camping was not going to be an option again. Every optimal place to camp was either fenced off or had no trespassing signs or had homes forbidding us from camping. The nearest campground was 6 miles South of the restaurant just off the trail. 6 more miles…. We called them up and confirmed an open site and 4 hours later arrived dead tired and sore. They were amazed we walked there. Who does this in Rhode Island? Not Rhode Islanders that’s for sure. The campground is the Ginny-B. I wouldn’t call this place a campground. It’s more like a mini town in the middle of nowhere. The majority of the sites have plumbing, electricity, and satellite tv. I shit you not. There is a store, communal showers, laundry facility, baseball field, beach and pond, horseshoe pits, and a fishing pond. Almost every site is occupied by a big camper vehicle. Some even have fencing and wooden decks surrounding them complete with “Beware of the Dog” signs. Kids riding bikes everywhere. BBQ’s grilling and bonfires blazing. Laundry lines strung up between the trees and mingling with Christmas lights. The people in the campsite right next to us had a big roaring campfire going and a big tv next to it where they were probably watching the Patriots kick a ball around. I do not think the majority of Rhode Islanders know the meaning of the phrase, “roughing it.” Anyway, we had no choice but to shell out the 30 bucks for the night so we took advantage of the free showers to sooth our tired bodies. It wasn’t long before we passed out in our little primitive tent.

Day Three – August 15th 2010
We awoke at quarter to 6 after a somewhat more restful sleep attributed to the previous day’s long hike and exhaustion. The camp store opened at 7 so we decided to pull our sleeping bags out and lay outside to look up through the leaves of the trees to the lightening sky.

View from the ground at 6 a.m.

We felt sore and accomplished but we had decided that we had to end the trip today. We had several reasons for this. First, feet…really…hurt. The hard pavement and lack of proper hiking footwear are killer on the feet. Second, there really isn’t any option to camp other than in these expensive “campgrounds” that are way too far apart to hike to. The nearest one to the Ginny-B southward was another 12 miles and another 30 bucks. No thanks. Third, there are no stores anywhere out in this part of Rhode Island. No gas stations. Nothing. We were lucky that we were prepared and carried enough water and trail bars sustain us but that gets old real fast. Fourth, the pack I used was an old Peak1 Coleman that was just not comfortable. There were many times I wished I still had my old Jansport pack.

7 o’clock rolled around and we walked up to the camp store for hot coffee and cold danish. Back at the campsite we wrote in our journals and mapped out our route homeward. The plan was to continue on the trail south to Greene which looked to be a “town” on our maps in the guide book. From there we’d see if we could either find a bus back to Providence (unlikely since it was Sunday) or at least get cell phone reception again and get someone to pick us up. Greene was only about 6 miles away. We left the Ginny-B at 10:30. A well-deserved late start. After a couple miles or so of hiking we came to Moosup Valley and found a haunt.

Moosup Valley meets Lovecraft

After a short break here we continued on to Greene, stopping every so often to check for cell service and always with an eye out for some kind of store. When we finally reached Greene we realized it’s just more of the same back country roads. We decided to get off the trail here and take Route 117 East toward Summit. A local said there was a store “a mile or so” down the road. I don’t think Rhode Islanders know how long a mile is because this turned out to be almost 3 miles of pure walking hell with only one bright spot. About halfway down this road while in search of a clandestine spot to piss in I discovered the ruins of a house just off the road. Pee break! I imagine this would be an awesome place to practice archeology. The house itself is almost all caved in. Several walls still remained standing in steep angles. The floor had rotted away long ago leaving the basement filled with rusted appliances and bedsprings. Off behind the house was an intact shed and several dumps filled with old soda bottles and vintage kitchen enamelware. Behind the shed, covered in pine needles and branches lay the rusted hulk of an old Ford Fairlane convertible.

A house in ruins

Ford Fairlane

The rest of the hike seemed to drag on forever. We were walking slower and slower. Still no phone reception. Feet aching. Rest stops every 15 minutes or so. Just the steady tunk two three four tunk two three four sound of my walking stick hitting the asphault. Finally, at 4:30 we arrived in “Summit” at the junction of 117 and 102. No store except a closed hardware store. Grar!!!!! Luckily, a working Coke machine stood guard outside. Not only that but cell service came back and we were able to reach our friends Meg and Murray who gladly drove out from Pawtucket to give us a lift home.

Even the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is seen in these black and white terms. The Palestinians see that they only have two choices. Fight or live as an oppressed people. They choose to fight because they want to be free. The Israelis see only two choices as well. Strike preemptively or live in fear of death. Violence should never be the answer. If we begin to think in terms of non-violence then another solution presents itself. What better message could the Palestinians send to Israel and the rest of the world than to lay down their weapons and link arms and march on Israel in the name of peace? Yes, they may face death at the hands of some terrified and trigger-happy Israeli soldier but they will no longer be contributing to the problem of violence but rather the solution to it. Should any be killed in the process who do you think is going to look bad? Certainly not the unarmed Palestinian. The same thing goes for the Israelis. If they think in terms of non-violence they, too, are presented with other solutions to the problem. They would realize they are in violation of the basic human right of self-determination. They would realize how hypocritical their actions have been and withdraw from occupied territories. They would realize that they pray to the same God of Abraham and so would really have no other choice but to extend the hand of friendship to their Arab brothers and sisters.

The conflict with Iraq is no different. Who knows what Saddam Hussein had up his sleeve? That is irrelevant. How powerful a message would we have sent him and the Iraqi people, to all the countries in the Middle East, and to the world, if we had invaded Iraq armed not with guns and tanks but with an army of non-violent soldiers with arms outstretched in love bearing food and humanitarian aid? The people of Iraq would not have fought us then. How could they if they see we offer peace? Saddam would have lost whatever hold he had on his people. How could he have possibly defeated so powerful an army as one of peace and non-violence? What could he have possibly said to convince them that this non-violent army is evil and intent on their destruction? Alas, it didn’t work out this way and here we are years later still fighting the “good” fight.

We need to begin thinking in terms of non-violence because they are all-encompassing. Non-violence is the true path to freedom. There will always be different views of the way the world is and the way it should be but there is one ideal that we all aspire to. That ideal is freedom. Freedom means being able to express these diverse views without the threat of violence hanging over our heads. Freedom does not mean we have the right to dictate what others think. Freedom depends on tolerance of these different views so that we may learn from them. Freedom does not give license for the use of violence, ever. Freedom is by nature non-violent. We need to think in terms of non-violence because they foster love and tolerance rather than hate and ignorance. Not too long ago, a man was arrested for wearing a tee-shirt that read, “Give Peace a Chance,” that he had just purchased in a public shopping mall. Arrested for wearing a non-violent statement on his body. This is in violation of so many things that it is appalling and it is indicative of the direction our country is headed if we give in to fear. The officers that arrested him did so out of fear that his shirt was going to cause trouble. They not only violated that man’s right to freedom of expression but also the public’s right to hear that expression. There is no other word for that except oppression. They are not allowing the public to decide what they want to think for themselves. Why? Fear. They’re afraid of facing the issue at hand that there is violence in the world. Has it gotten so bad that we have to fear non-violent expression? We must remember that fear also leads to ignorance of the root cause of the problem of violence by thinking in black and white terms. We forget that between those two extremes of black and white, good and evil, right and wrong, that there is always the third gray area of non-violence in every action, tolerance of diversity, and acceptance of human beings as ONE people with a common ideal of freedom.

We live in a world that is afraid. Our country included. Our government feeds this fear in order to catch terrorists. They do the things they do and say that it puts the world’s terrorists on run and less likely to carry out terrorist attacks in the future because now the terrorist is supposedly afraid of being caught. That is just ridiculous. Do you really think a suicide bomber is afraid of jail if he’s not afraid of death? Does taking a few terrorists off the street justify terrifying our country with the threat of terrorist attack and an entire world with the threat of war? How can these ends justify the means if in the process we do nothing but generate more division amongst ourselves? Our government says we won’t listen to these terrorists. Why not? If we don’t then we remain ignorant to the cause of the problem. We’ll be thinking in those black and white terms of good versus evil. Terrorists need to stop thinking this way too. Violence solves nothing. Violence never does and never will.

This is precisely why we must not blindly follow our leaders. For one thing, they cannot read our minds. If we want something from our leaders it is our responsibility to make it known. We must hold them accountable for their actions as well as ours. Leaders must be treated as extensions of our will. They are representative of the human race, not some untouchable gods with omnipotent powers.

Who are we? We are human beings. We are not Republicans. We are not Democrats. We are not Christians and Buddhists and Muslims. Those are just labels to describe different ideologies perceived by the human race that we may or may not believe in. When we think of ourselves only as these things we leave absolutely no room for growth and we become intolerant of those who aren’t exactly like ourselves. When we become intolerant to the different expressions of our humanity then it is our own beliefs that have become stagnant and conservative and they don’t contribute to the betterment of our lives and those of our fellow humans. We must not sow the seeds of intolerance or we run the risk of becoming ignorant to the true nature of humankind. We are all ONE people. When we become intolerant we run the risk of becoming ignorant to the true impermanent nature of universe. Things change. The founders of our country knew this. They made it possible to change what needs to be changed and wrote it down in the form of our Constitution. All people are created equal. This is a progressive nation and not a conservative one. To view it otherwise is to live in the past grasping for ideals that may have become obsolete in the modern world. To view it otherwise is to stifle growth of the human spirit by limiting yourself to one small slice of human expression and to ideas that never change. What kind of life is that? What kind of nation is that? What good could come from that?

When we think in terms other than non-violence we make the mistake of taking people out of the equation when we come up with our solutions. It is impossible to take people out of the equation when they are a fundamental part of it. It is not realistic to think that it is possible because in the real world we are not abstract things. We are flesh and blood and soul. We must wake up and realize this. We must abandon our fears and trust in the goodness of humankind. All it takes is a first step on the path of non-violence and we’ll be on our way to a peaceful and truly free world.