Day 3

12.5 mi / 10.5 mph / 399 ft. climbing
Home: Hope’s AirBNB

Only five miles of riding took us from our home at the center of the island to where the road ends at the tip of the northern peninsula. We abandoned the bikes and continued on foot along the sometimes-rocky beach, drawn to the lighthouse (contrary to its original purpose).

I spotted something bobbing in the waves as we walked, and my camera-telescope revealed it to be a seal, his head above water, watching us. And 20 yards later, there was another one, doing the same thing. And 20 yards later, another. There was a mile-long line of them, about 30 yards off the beach, and 20 yards from each other. Mostly just holding position, and watching. We’ve never seen seals behaving like that before (and it was cool to have the realization that we’ve been on enough coasts around the world to actually have a pretty good accumulated knowledge of seal behavior!) Was it a strategy to catch any prey as they try to cross the “line”? Had the morning’s walkers forced them off their beach, and they were giving us the stare to get us to clear out so they could return?

It turns out they were grey seals, a species exclusive to the North Atlantic, so probably the main reason we haven’t seen this behavior is because we haven’t seen grey seals before!

Do the seals that we finally found on land at the tip of the beach eventually have to rotate into the water to take a shift on the line? Unfortunately they didn’t tell us. But we had a lot of fun watching the waddling fat sausages.

We ate lunch on a driftwood log after we finally made it back to the bikes, foregoing a chance for shade, which is hard to come by on this mostly-treeless part of the island. The weather was absolutely perfect, clear with low winds, and the October sun bright enough to consider hiding from it, but the temperature mild enough to keep us comfortable when we failed to do so.

The island has a good collection of trails open for public walking (with bike racks everywhere in recognition of one of the main forms of transportation). We visited the Clay Head Preserve (still on the north peninsula), walking a trail that first took us down to an east-facing beach, and then raised us up to the top of the coastal bluffs.

As we were getting back on the bikes at the trailhead, a couple of friendly gray-haired ladies arrived (also on bikes) and were impressed with Rett’s “Da Brim”. Probably less than a minute of conversation later, one of them asked “Are you familiar with WarmShowers?” She hosts in Gloucester, RI, is fairly involved in the organization, did badass primitive 1970s bike touring (rolling herself in a sheet of plastic as her “tent”!), and invited us to stay if we ever came through again. Too bad we’re done with Rhode Island tomorrow!

We completed our northern loop with a stop at the grocery store again, knowing now to ask at the counter for those frozen scallops, but struggling with what other food to get since tomorrow’s ferry runs right at dinnertime. Hopefully we guessed ok!