CRANSTON — An early morning hike, especially one close to home, can get your day headed in the right direction. I’ve enjoyed first-thing-in-the-morning walks on neighborhood streets, in local public parks and on city tracks, but I needed a change of pace, and wanted to see something new.
I found what I was looking for at the John L. Curran State Park, a 297-acre preserve tucked among farms and houses on the Cranston-Scituate border. Besides the physical exercise, the walk in the woods to the earthen dikes and spillways that form two reservoirs gave me plenty to think about.
The land was once used for farming and then as a public water supply before being considered for a housing development or a golf course. Neighbors, however, organized to stop those proposals and preserve the area for walking, recreation and bird-watching in a natural habitat for wild turkeys, red-tailed hawks and other wildlife.
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Today, Curran Park remains a quiet, peaceful place for a long morning walk.
I set out from a trailhead off Laten Knight Road and walked west down a wide path under oak, maple and beech trees. The trail was unmarked, with many side paths running off to the right and left, but I stayed on the widest, most-used route.
About a hundred yards down the trail, a deer stared at me from just off the path. I stopped to watch, but after he got a whiff of me, he bolted into the brush. It was a good start.
But I also passed an old couch, a used mattress and a truck tire, all illegally dumped. That was less encouraging.
After a long, gentle downslope, the trail opened to a clearing at the end of a long dike built to hold back water and form the 39.8-acre Upper Curran Reservoir. I paused to take in the view across the reservoir and saw a white farmhouse on a far hillside next to a line of houses, dense, green vegetation at the northern tip of the pond, and a rocky shoreline on the eastern side.
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I crossed the 1,100-foot dike, which started out as a dirt path on top of a 12-foot earthen dam reinforced by large rocks on the water side. The next section included cement blocks buried in the soil before the path reached a bridge over a wide, 50-foot cement spillway. Not a trickle was flowing over it after the recent dry spell.
At the end of the dike is a stone post that once held a plaque, now missing, that honored Curran, a fisherman, hunter, pioneer in conservation and founder of the Rhode Island Fish and Game Association.
There’s also a boat launch and a small parking lot off Seven Mile Road, across from Henry’s Tree Farm.
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There’s a “No Swimming” sign as well. Years ago, lifeguards supervised swimmers in the reservoir, but state budget cuts and liability issues ended that. A swimmer drowned there in 1985.
Fishing is allowed from a boat or the banks. Anglers report catching bass, and the state stocks the pond with trout. But during some summers, toxic algae blooms. When that occurs, the Department of Environmental Management warns not to eat the fish and to keep pets out of the water.
The reservoir, and a second one to the south, were built in the 1900s by the former Pawtuxet Valley Water Co., which was later acquired by the Kent County Water Authority. The land was eventually transferred to the state in 1967 and is now managed by the DEM. The reservoirs are no longer part of the public water system.
Curran Park was established under a plan supported by Gov. John H. Chafee for a series of parks ringing the Providence metropolitan area.
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The preserve became a popular summer swimming, fishing and hunting spot. During cold-weather seasons, the Cranston Fire Department used the reservoir for winter drills and ice rescue training.
Less appealingly, the preserve also became a dumping ground for stolen cars and abandoned junk. During a cleanup in 2000, neighborhood volunteers pulled seven tons of appliances, paint cans, tires, broken glass, diapers and other debris from the area.
In 1998, the state considered turning the park over to the city, which hatched a plan for a municipal golf course to help pay for the upkeep. But a neighborhood group’s opposition killed that idea, and the state retained the land as a public preserve.
While thinking about all that history, I recrossed the dike to the end and took a left to head north along the shore. The path followed the bank with short side spurs to small peninsulas and large boulders for fishing and gathering spots. I saw several blackened fire pits and some broken bottles. The trail leads to the north end of the pond, which is heavily covered with reeds and cat-o'-nine tails and noisy with the sounds of frogs. The path ended at a line of rocks and tree limbs stacked to stop access to private property.
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I turned around, headed back to the dike and picked up a trail headed south to search for the second reservoir. The trail passes under tall pines and cedars and crosses a stone wall before reaching a line of telephone poles. I went right and followed the cleared lane under the poles for a short distance before turning left onto a path that opened in the shrubs.
The trail turned swampy and muddy for a short stretch before skirting the Lower Curran Reservoir. I passed a broken-down boat dock and some firepits at the shoreline before reaching a large clearing with a fire ring and some trash at the water’s edge. The 28.3-acre reservoir, also called Spring Lake, is smaller than the other reservoir and lined with tall pines. No houses are visible.
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I also noted a blue-blazed trail cut by a Boy Scout that runs from Laten Knight Road to Spring Lake.
Continuing south on the trail, I rousted a pair of ducks at the shoreline before passing through another mucky section. I reached the southern end of the pond and an old concrete dam and spillway overgrown with dense vegetation. Hikers report that there was once a bridge over the dam, but it’s long gone.
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I walked along the edge of the cracked, concrete dike and took a few minutes to inspect a spillway with a stone post grooved to hold a gate. Outflow from the pond drains over the spillway and down stone steps into a wide, rock-lined channel with rectangular stone blocks in the base to prevent erosion.
I studied the craftsmanship of the impressive stonework and noted the contrast in the dikes at the two reservoirs.
At one point, both dikes were considered to be at risk of failing, and there was a danger that heavy rainstorms could damage houses, roads and property downstream. The deterioration was caused by age and overgrown vegetation whose roots weakened the structures and the soil around them.
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The dam on the upper reservoir has been rebuilt and is on open ground. The one on the lower reservoir seems to be cracked and worn and is heavily shaded by trees, brush and shrubs. Part of the spillway is clogged with debris.
According to the DEM, the Lower Curran dam is considered a high-hazard dam, rated as not safe and is in the DEM’s “top tier” of planned dam repairs. Because the hydrology is complicated, DEM said it is doing an analysis and modeling to develop an engineering design to rehabilitate the structure.
Past the dam, I followed a path on the southern bank of the channel. The water ran into a swampy area that reforms Clarke Brook, which flows south under Hope Road and then into the northern branch of the Pawtuxet River. I wasn’t sure of a safe crossing, so I turned around and found heavy tree limbs that had been laid across the channel to reach the bank on the other side. I checked it out and crossed to a 12-foot bank that bent west around the end of the pond to a grassy trail that may once have been a road.
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The wide path headed north along the edge of the pond and around several fields before ducking into the woods. Eventually, the trail led to a narrow stretch of Clarke Brook that links the reservoirs. I crossed the stream, headed back to the line of telephone poles and took the same trail back that I had walked in on.
In all, I hiked 3 miles in two hours, with plenty of stops.
If you don’t want to hike that much, pick one of the trails to the upper or lower ponds. The path to the upper reservoir is easier to walk and follow.
During my hike, I crossed paths with only one other hiker who lives nearby. She said there had been reports of a bear in the woods and she was dying to see one.
I was just interested in getting some physical and mental exercise during an early morning walk.
John Kostrzewa, a former assistant managing editor/business at The Providence Journal, welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com.