Turner Reservoir
Posted By auntie on September 23, 2014
3.27 miles; east providence, ri and seekonk, ma
um, long time no post! i’ve been working full time on a temporary basis, and i just haven’t had the extra bandwidth to write blog posts. i don’t know how other people manage to do it. but the temporary assignment is over now, and i have some blogging to catch up with. just because i haven’t been posting doesn’t mean i haven’t been hiking… i managed a couple of after-work hikes, and got out on the weekends.
this was an after-work hike with the providence county hiking club. they’re a Facebook group—check them out. nice people, and if you hike at the pace i do (think snail… turtle… molasses…) they are great. there’s no rushing with this bunch.
the turner reservoir is a large fresh-water reservoir that is part of the ten mile river watershed. we hiked a loop trail that circled the reservoir. there was a short, maybe 1/4 mile stretch of road walking along busy newman avenue, route 152, but the rest is through woods along the water. we also made a short side-trip to visit the newman oak, an historically significant old tree in east providence.
the foliage was approaching peak color, and the late afternoon sun made some stretches look like you were walking along a stained glass corridor. lovely.
the stretch where the trail goes along newman avenue is basically a causeway across the reservoir, and on the north side there were lots of swans and other waterbirds. it was really amazing.
the newman oak is a tree said to be 300 years old, and the trunk of this tree is 15 feet around. so of course i didn’t get a picture of it. but here’s the plaque!
and here is the dam at the reservoir. the are installing a fish ladder here—it is the last obstacle for spawning fish on the ten mile river. i believe herring are the fish they are concerned about.
i have added this hike to the hikefinder. the map that is linked to in the hikefinder is from the always-excellent trails and walks in rhode island blog. the ten mile river watershed council is a group that is doing great work preserving and cleaning up and building trails along the river.
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