The DuVal Trail

It's easily one of the most beautiful, well-designed and well-maintained trails in Rhode Island  -- and around this time of year, it's truly spectacular. No other trail I know boasts such an abundance of mountain laurel, and when I walked the trail this past Sunday, the blooms were just beginning to open. Within the next few days, they will emerge fully, and the trail will be hedged and overhung with delightful blossoms of white, pink, and red.

The DuVal trail system, though administered today by the South Kingstown Land Trust, has a history that far predates the land trust legislation. It goes back to 1983, when Helena-Hope Gammell, donated the first four acres; she later became a founding member of the SKLT. Her initial gift has now grown to 167 acres, along with 74 adjoining acres managed by the DEM. The area in full is known as "Susanna's Woods" after Ms. Gammell's niece Susanna Klebovitz, and features a rich example of the sandy, acidic soil and mixed oak and pine forests so characteristic of southeastern Rhode Island. Happily, the area was spared much of the infestation of gyspy moths a few years back, and the oaks still stand tall and proud as far as the eye can see.

Entry to the trail system is from a parking area in Post Road near the site of the old Quaker Meeting House, established in the late seventeenth century; George Fox himself was said to have spoken there in 1672. The meeting house itself is long gone, though the adjacent cemetery can still be seen; from the parking area, you'll walk about 500 feet west along the road to the trailhead. There, a stone memorial recalls Susan B. DuVal, whose bequest enabled the trail system to be established.  

From the trailhead, follow the blue blazes of the DuVal trail; if time is short or a more leisurely walk is desired, two loop trails -- the yellow "Lynn's Loop" and the red "Polly's Loop" -- branch off to your left a short distance later. The DuVal, though, is the star of the system, following the ridge line up and down for nearly three miles. At the 0.7-mile mark, it jogs across Gravelly Hill Road; a short while later, at the peak of the highest ridge, a viewpoint offers a glimpse of the distant blue waters of Narragansett Bay. From there, up and down you'll go, with the trail's sandy soil and carefully terraced log steps making your way an easy one. Mountain laurel abounds on every side, though for some unknown reason the most showy bright-pink blossoms always seem to bloom some distance from the trail.

Eventually, you'll wind your way down to the trail's end, at the intersection of three roads: Sand Pine Trail, L'Ahinch Road, and Red House Road. One can make a sort of loop by following the unmaintained part of Red House Road to the south, and cutting back to the DuVal trail on a brief shortcut, though since this passes through private land, it's not recommended. Better to return as you came, rich with the realization that a trail taken in its other direction is, in many ways, a whole new one. On your return, as you refresh yourself with some cool water, take a moment and have a look at the old cemetery: it's an object lesson in the transience of human life, here amidst the greater continuity of nature itself, which will ever claim and reclaim the soil from which it springs. However long the span of our lives, we are really only visitors in this vastness; for anyone in need of a little life perspective, I can recommend no better remedy than a hike along the twists and turns of the DuVal trail.