For such a small state (just 1,200 square miles), Rhode Island has an amazing number of different hikes with a wide range of terrains, wildlife, histories and glacial features.

Here are a few of my favorites that I’ve explored while writing the “Walking Rhode Island” column that are good options for summertime.

Enjoy!

The Falls River tumbles over Stepstone Falls in Exeter, dropping 10 feet over a terrace of flat stones – some natural and some man-made from a quarrying operation – to create a cascade of splashing water. The white spray from the falls sparkles in the summer sunshine.

You can reach the falls by driving down Falls River Road, but it’s more fun to hike upstream on the Ben Utter Trail. You’ll be rewarded with a relaxing rest stop on the smooth, stone landings on the banks of the river.

Hundreds of migratory birds stop at the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown on their flights up and down the East Coast. You can spot and hear a wide variety of colorful songbirds and seabirds in the inland thickets and along the rocky shore while walking on a wide, flat path that rims a crescent-shaped beach. The waves crashing on the rocky coast are a bonus.

If you visit, don’t miss the white board at the end of the trail where visitors list dozens of birds they have identified while walking in the preserve.

Cow Pond in Lincoln, nestled among low, grassy ridges on a hilltop, is a gathering spot for dogs and their owners. On summer afternoons, I’ve seen dogs splashing and cooling off in the water while their owners chat on the banks of the tiny pond.

Dog walkers, and other visitors, can take one of several old cart paths and dirt roads that cross wide-open fields and run gently uphill to the pond.

Chase Farm Conservation Park is not a dog park however, and pets have to be leashed. Any waste must be picked up and disposed of.

Lion’s Head Gorge in Jamestown’s Beavertail State Park is a one-of-a-kind wonder, named for the crashing of waves into a high-walled cleft of rock, which sounds like a lion’s roar.

From a rocky trail that runs around the perimeter of the peninsula, walkers can view sailboats and Brenton Point in Newport across the East Passage and hidden beaches and caves along a path high above the West Passage. There’s also a panoramic view of the ocean from the rocks below an iconic lighthouse at the southern tip of the park.

A short dirt path runs down to the Branch River in North Smithfield and offers a good look at the dams built by John Slater to harness the waterpower and run what was once the largest textile mill in the United States. Another trail leads to the rebuilt Slatersville Mill, with a distinctive, five-story bell tower, that still stands at the end of a network of canals, sluice gates, raceways and bridges.

Further along the trail, you’ll find a white church, a common green, tenant houses and a commercial block of shops that in the 1800s formed the first planned mill village in America. Slatersville became a model for other mill towns and was replicated all along the Blackstone River during the Industrial Revolution.

The wide, flat path that enters the Simmons Mill Pond Management Area in Little Compton is lined with dozens of hand-lettered signs that describe the trees, wildlife, rocks and rich history of the 433-acre preserve. It’s a special place to walk with children and grandchildren.

To extend your hike, choose from many well-marked trails that circle six ponds on the property to see an old grist mill site and a variety of birds, trees and wildlife.

Climb up a long slope to a grassy meadow at the top of Providence’s Neutaconkanut Hill (the highest point in Providence at 296 feet) and you’ll be rewarded with a sweeping view of the downtown.

For centuries, the Narragansets held ceremonies on the hill, which became the northwest boundary of Providence under a 1636 agreement between Roger Williams and tribal leaders.

Other trails from the hilltop cross wetlands, brooks and rocky overlooks. Don’t miss the Camaros graveyard, the remains of Chevy automobiles that were stolen and stripped and are now slowly sinking into the hillside.

Ospreys, once an endangered species in Rhode Island, now nest along rivers, swamps and waterways across the state. One of the best views of the fishhawks is from an earthen dike which forms the Great Swamp in South Kingstown. The ospreys nest high atop telephone poles, and if you are lucky, you can spot one taking flight, soaring high into the clouds and then diving into the swamp to spear a fish with its talons before flying back to the nest to feed its young.

It’s a breathtaking sight.

Rhode Island is dotted with many old family farms that offer easy walks across rolling hills, pastures and fields.

Lawton Farm in Cranston has all that plus a footbridge over Cranberry Brook, which bisects the 54-acre preserve. Visitors can choose from 30-, 60- or 90-minute walks. The longer loop follows the perimeter of the land, lined with stone walls and red maple, black walnut and beech trees, while shorter paths cross meadows, hay fields and lines of hedgerow.

The glaciers that crept down from Canada 15,000 years ago carved out Long Pond in Hopkinton. The trail, high above the southern bank of the pond, crosses a ledge and passes ice-split erratics, giving hikers a great view of the crystal-blue water.

But the most interesting feature is at the west end of the pond where the trail climbs the rocky steps of the “Cathedral,” a natural cleft cut between high rock walls. At the top, hikers can scramble up a giant outcropping, where scenes from the movie “Moonrise Kingdom,” were filmed, for a good look at the length of the pond.

The Walking Rhode Island column runs twice a month in the Providence Sunday Journal. John Kostrzewa, a former assistant managing editor/business at The Journal, welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com. His book, “Walking Rhode Island: 40 Hikes for Nature and History Lovers with Pictures, GPS Coordinates and Trail Maps,” is available at local booksellers and at Amazon.com.

I have absolutely zero complaints about Rhode Island FC tonight. They went to the home of the league leaders –Louisville City FC – who prior to tonight had scored 40 goals and allowed just 15 in 15 matches, and drubbed them by a score of 5-2.

Not once during the 90 minutes plus stoppage time did they ever look like losing, nor even drawing. Rhode Island FC’s second win of the season coincided with the first time it has scored more than twice, and every single player looked to be firing on all cylinders. The Draw Kings are dead.

The trouble for Louisville began in the 30th minute as RIFC defender Stephen Turnbull laid a pass off to RIFC midfielder Clay Holstad well away from Louisville’s goal. Holstad had taken several long shots this season, and they had all rattled the woodwork at best.

This one did not. Well, it did. Twice, actually, before ricocheting into the back of the net for what is likely the goal of the season. There was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Keep an eye on SportsCenter’s Top 10 this week and you may well see it.

RIFC winger Jojea Kwizera added his first ever RIFC goal in first half stoppage time on a second assist from Turnbull as Kwizera fired the ball past Louisville goalkeeper Damian Las from a tight angle to make it 2-0 going into the break.

The bloodletting continued in the 67th minute as RIFC striker JJ Williams — who had missed what should have been an easy goal earlier in the night — received a pass into the box from RIFC winger Noah Fuson who came in off the bench and chipped it over Louisville’s Las at close range to make it 3-0 giving Rhode Island their first ever three goal lead and the first time they had scored three goals ever.

Louisville City FC — who average nearly three goals a match — attempted to clamber back into this one in the 85th as midfielder Dylan Mares was played on over the top by Louisville midfielder Taylor Davila. Mares took a fake shot that made a Rhode Island defender miss and then he fired the ball past RIFC goalkeeper Jackson Lee for the first time in the game. Lee made 8 saves on 29 total shots against Louisville, many of them quite difficult.

Fuson didn’t let Louisville keep their hope very long though. As regulation ended and nine minutes of stoppage time were added on by the officials, he burst down Louisville’s right side and beat two defenders to chip goalkeeper Las once again.

This goal will not be without controversy, a third Louisville defender attempted to clear the shot before it crossed the goal line. Although the officials ruled it a goal, the television angles were inconclusive and the Louisville fans let the referees feel their ire with chants of “ref you suck”.

Louisville clawed yet another goal back in the 5th minute of second-half stoppage time as defender Jake Morris banged a free kick off the wall and past the outstretched Lee to make it 4-2. Lee may beat himself up for his inability to stop Louisville’s two goals tonight, but in my opinion he made many more class saves and is as responsible as RIFC’s goalkeepers for their shocking win.

Finally, Rhode Island midfielder Isaac Angking delivered the coup de grace as fellow RIFC midfielder Joe Brito played him brilliantly in on goal and Angking, who was one-on-one with Las, calmly slotted it past him only 58 seconds after Morris’s goal. The resulting 5-2 scoreline is the largest win Rhode Island has earned this season and Louisville’s largest defeat. It is also the first time Louisville have dropped points at home this season as RIFC have now picked up four points across two matches against the league leaders.

Statistically, the game was as lopsided as the scoreline suggests but in the opposite direction. I mentioned that Louisville took 29 shots (10 on target). RIFC took only 11, with 6 on target, although they certainly made theirs count.

Possession was as disparate, 64%-36% in Louisville’s favor, with the home team also outpassing RIFC 416-254, and more accurately at 87%-70%. Finally, Louisville City FC won a stunning 13 corners. RIFC won zero.

None of that mattered, as Rhode Island FC took virtually all of their chances for the first time in team history, and Jackson Lee put in the best performance by an RIFC goalkeeper on the season.

Rhode Island FC will ride the high of their 5-2 victory into their next match, which will be their first at home after two-and-a-half weeks away, on Wednesday, June 26th, at 7:30 pm ET, as they take on El Paso Locomotive FC at Beirne Stadium.

More than 10 years ago in Newport, the foiling and levitating catamarans of the America’s Cup World Series heralded a hydrofoil revolution.

A decade later, after lots of testing and refinement, that revolution has given birth to an entirely new era in ocean watersports.

Call it the foil era.

And it’s already here in Rhode Island, in full foiling force, just in time for the summer of 2024.

“We are at an unbelievable stage in the evolution of foiling,” says Denton Chase, an accomplished foilboarder whose surfing nickname is “Beasho.”

Chase rides his foil in waves off Matunuck each summer before he returns home to Half Moon Bay, California, for another nine months of ocean play, frequently on the mammoth world-famous waves at a reef off Mavericks Beach, and sometimes with big-wave master Jeff Clark and other legends of surf.

Most of Rhode Island’s foilboarders, or “foilers,” remain in love with the traditional sensations of conventional surfing or paddle-surfing or wind sports such as kiteboarding or sailboarding.

But the magic of a hydrofoil can help a rider enjoy such “disciplines” far more frequently, according to Chase and other local foilers.

Plus, the foiling itself, which is yet another distinct water-sport sensation, is quite fun, too, they say, like “floating on a cloud” or snowboarding in the lightest of powder, Chase says.

“It’s never too flat, too windy, too big or too perfect to foil,” the 54-year-old says. “It’s all great.”

The number of people who ride foils are multiplying: If you didn’t see one last summer, prepare for a first sighting this summer.

On a Sunday in early June, Chase is prowling through the outer reefs off Napatree Beach.

His eyes twinkle as he surveys the tops of messy ocean swells heaped by an incoming current.

He’s riding in a boat. But he can’t wait to get on his foilboard.

Just about everywhere he looks, Chase sees a free ride he can hitch.

Foilboards combine power of water and wings

A hydrofoil is basically a set of wings that interacts with water, providing lift and support like the wings of an airplane.

The physics of hydrofoiling allow a foil of much smaller size by comparison.

Modern foilboards are so efficient that some riders can generate enough lift and power to propel themselves with nothing but their own body movements.

A highly skilled pumping action generates lift and forward movement. Old-fashioned paddle-power can help, too.

Some foilers practice this type of foiling in place of a gym workout. But this typically isn’t what motivated them to learn foiling in the first place.

Harnessing nature’s gifts for fun in all conditions

The main objective for many foilers involves the energy that Mother Nature gifts to them in various combinations, especially in the Ocean State.

They’ve always harnessed these forces for the fun of it. But thanks to their new-fangled foils, they aren’t as needy for one-of-a-kind weather events these days.

Foils offer fun in the lamest of surfing conditions, traditionally speaking, or in the lightest of breezes. It’s possible for some people to ride a foil on the current.

“You can create a lot of energy out of nothing quickly,” says Christian Schlebach, a foiler and oceaneering Newport businessman whose company, Hooley, sells foiling equipment.

“There’s so many more places you can do this,” Schlebach says.

“There’s no days off,” he adds.

Have you seen a foilboard in Rhode Island yet? You will.

Denton Chase, a California resident who frequently rides the famous waves at the reef off Mavericks Beach, adores foil riding in RI.

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Foil surfers, unlike traditional surfers, can catch and ride an ocean swell long before it breaks. In fact, some can ride a swell that doesn’t break at all.

A foil surfer with a standup paddleboard might venture way out beyond the break at First Beach in Newport to capture and ride a shorebound swell long before it curls near the sandbar.

Another foil rider, averse to that much paddling, might choose a shorter board and stay in the breaking waves and whitewater.

In this discipline, the paddling part is on the tummy, or “prone,” as they call it. But the most enthusiastic practitioners of prone foil surfing usually aren’t prone for long.

They can ride a wave toward shore, exit with enough energy to carve a turn, and coast offshore – going against the surf – for another ride and a fresh burst of energy. With the pumping-type body movements and no paddle, some can keep their surfing stances from one wave ride to the next.

Have you seen a foilboard in Rhode Island yet? You will.

Denton Chase, an accomplished foilboarder, rides with a wing in Watch Hill just outside Taylor Swift’s house and in the bay behind Napatree Beach.

Winging it in Rhode Island on a foilboard

Other foilboarders – or quite possibly the very same people on some other day – might choose a “wing” for extra power generation.

It’s a wing – not a sail – in the lingo.

Foilboarding wings are hand-held.

The leading edge of the canopy has an internal air-inflated bladder that provides structure and shape.

A central strut, somewhat akin to the boom of a sailboard, is inflated, too, with a simple air pump.

Such wings can capture wind, flying stably in the breeze held by just one hand. Wingboarders call it “flagging the wing.”

A new era in water sport means new sporting feats

In Rhode Island, such foils and wings have opened up vast new riding territory, depending on the conditions and the desired type of riding.

One popular combination involves an incoming tide and a north wind blustering down Narragansett Bay in the opposite direction.

The wind adds some extra shape to an incoming current-driven swell.

Wing-wielding foilers target such swells, launching from points along the southern passages and reaching out into the Bay on the north wind.

Then they catch the incoming swell and release the wing.

Wing foilers launching in Saunderstown near the Jamestown Bridge, or at Fort Getty in Jamestown, will ride a north wind south to Beavertail. Then, they’ll catch the incoming swells and ride them back.

Trailing behind them, their leashed wings glide gently in the breeze like pet seagulls as the swell propels them northbound on the foil. When that gets boring, it’s an easy downwind sail back to where they came from.

At the moment, some of the sports pioneers are testing their abilities in extreme ways. In April, says Chase, a Californian named Kyle Pemberton rode a foil 55 miles from Mavericks to Santa Cruz on a wind-driven swell.

The skill and confidence that’s necessary for adventures of such magnitude don’t come easily. Also, foils have lots of hard edges, which raises the stakes of wipeouts in crowded surfing breaks.

But as Chase points out, foiling is possible in lots of different places. That includes some pretty safe environments for learners.

What’s it like learning to foil?

Many foilers start out water-ski style, behind a boat with a tow rope, before they move on to riding foils with help from waves, swells, current or wind.

Schlebach strongly recommends learning the balancing of riding a foil on an electrically powered foil board, or eFoil, which he rents.

“It’s like an airplane running down a runway,” he said. “When the foil hits a certain speed, it lifts.”

At about 5 miles per hour of speed, the foil begins to lift, Schlebach said. At 8 miles per hour, it’s “fully loaded.”

Handling the lift, which is instantaneous, is a big part of the early learning curve.

Novice foilboarders learn to keep their body steady and forward to leverage their own weight against the lift of the foil, which wants to lift right out of the water. Without proper correction and balance, the outcome is a wipeout.

Once a foil is underway, it moves through the water with far less drag than a paddleboard, kayak or sailboard.

A rider can coast through a lull if the wind cuts out briefly or a swell fades for a moment.

“You can literally glide through the lulls,” Schlebach said.

How does foiling in Matunuck compare with California’s Mavericks Beach?

To date, only a few people have ever foilsurfed anywhere near the most forceful “Outer Bowl” section of the reef at Mavericks, according to Chase.

Citing evidence that includes a 2018 video, Chase claims he was the first foilsurfer to catch and ride waves on the reef on a standup foil board and under his own paddle power without any tow-in.

He estimates that he rides Mavericks and other nearby terrain in the Pillar Point area 200 times a year.

Chase, whose middle name is “Summers,” also summers with his family each year on Groton Long Point in eastern Connecticut.

And these days, the Mavericks surfer says his fun flows right through his annual East Coast sojourn, thanks to “exhilarating” local foiling opportunities.

He talks with a sense of fulfillment about stalking the most paltry movements of saltwater on Long Island Sound near Groton Long Point.

He figures he foiled off Matunuck 100 times last year. Compared with his hometown turf, he says, the Rhode Island conditions are glassier and less messy with greater frequency.

“I’m out when no one else is,” he says, “because it’s too flat or too bumpy or imperfect. But these are dreamy welcome conditions compared to Northern California.”

Foiling near a Rhode Island house owned by Taylor Swift

Indeed, no one else is at play in the heaving swells just east of Watch Hill’s lighthouse, and just south of “Holiday House” – Taylor Swift’s vacation home up on the bluff.

The small center console boat bobs dramatically in the chop. Nothing about the conditions looks very promising for boarding. But Chase raves.

He pulls out a hand tool. Then, he bolts a sharp-edged foil to his experts-only board, which he built himself.

His hair is wet from rain and spray. In a metaphorical way, Chase says he intends to keep it dry. In other words, no wipeouts or even light falls. From the boat, he carefully sits himself on the floating foil board.

A short distance away, he paddles furiously. His foil takes off. The ride lasts more than a minute and whisks him a distance of almost three football fields. The course zigs extensively and then it zags just off the pop-singer’s beach. Soon, Chase will joke that he’s seen her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.

But first, he paddles out again for another magic carpet ride.