Today was the Providence marathon and many of the routes I regularly ride were closed off for the event. I eneded up riding on the latest extension to the Woonasquatucket (go ahead, try it slowly--"woon-as-qua-tucket") River bike path this morning. The newly opened portion runs the length of Promenade Street in Providence, bringing the path all the way to the back side of the Providence Place MalI (Secret Mall Apartment anyone?).
Providence Place has long had a bike path cut through where you can go from the front of the building out the back of the building--and moves you down two or three stories in the process. Leading out from the Mall cut-through, the path follows the Woony northwest out of Providence to Johnston, past a number of converted industrial mills and the shopping center development that was one of the motivators for the artists who created the secret mall apartment.
The close proximity of the mill buildings to the river indicates that many of them converted the mechanical energy of the water flow to drive machinery, or at a minimum, their processes relied on a continual flow of water for cooling or cleaning. There are also a ton of interesting mill buildings like this on the Blackstone River, which starts up near Worcester and eventually flows into Narragansett Bay after passing over a number of dams, locks and the like. Looks like half of these beautiful old brick clad buildings have been converted to living spaces and the other half are commercial offices. At one point, the path splits and runs on each side of U.S. route 6, and the narrow bridge over the highway makes the route even more fun.
Today was a cool, breezy spring Sunday with 20kt gusts, great for marathoning but less so for cycling. The weather didn't scare away the participants of several adult soccer games and at least one open air church service being held in an adjacent park. The path ends unceremoniously in a tidy neighborhood in Johnston. It's not far from this endpoint to the State Park in Lincoln, which has a nice traffic-quiet circuit for riding. But today, I'm feeling cold and this is going to be just a turnaround spot. Back to Providence where I'm going to do a couple of steep hill climbs from Main Street up to College Hill before heading back home for some coffee. What a great ride!
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