No short shrift for R.I. mountain biking

As I approached Arcadia , Rhode Island's largest green space at 13,817 acres, a swath of forest appeared on the right. Near a small white church off Route 165 , I spotted a narrow singletrack trail and pulled over. I hopped on the bike and dipped into a shaded thicket of pine, beech, and oak trees.

This was no smooth singletrack, like those found in Vermont's Kingdom Trails, but a gnarly, root-studded, rock-littered passageway with short, steep ups and downs. I quickly learned that this rural section of Rhode Island near the Connecticut border does indeed have hills. After sliding down one slippery part of the trail, too fast to stop at an upturned tree, I went flying over my handlebars. Little Rhody had given me a wake-up call.

I would spend the remainder of that day riding technical singletrack, grassy doubletracks around a gorgeous body of water, Breakheart Pond, and on dirt roads that bisect the park and thankfully brought me back to my car. It was a glorious day of riding with less than a handful of bikers and one horseback rider on the entire property.

Last month, I returned with a good friend's son, Alex Katz, 13, to test my knee five months after surgery. I knew that if I could handle Arcadia for a couple of hours, then I was on the road to recovery. If not, Alex would have to find another way back to Needham. After a 75-minute drive from Boston, we arrived at Arcadia early on a weekday morning. Aside from two Army personnel dressed in camouflage and carrying full packs into the forest, there were no other people in sight. The grounds were ours to enjoy.

We parked near a set of doubletracks and off we went into the great green yonder. We would ride along streams, past forgotten fishing holes, eventually making our way to the yellow-blazed trail in the far right-hand corner of the park that lines Breakheart Pond. Experienced riders will want to try the 13-mile perimeter trail that loops the park, some of the 40 miles of singletrack Arcadia offers.

Others, like Alex and me, will simply want to get lost on a web of trails that branch off like spokes on a wheel. I couldn't possibly lead you on our same route, because it was a maze of twisting turns. And that's the beautiful thing about mountain biking at a place like Arcadia. Unlike road biking, where you always seem to be staring at a map or fretting about that car on your tail, mountain biking offers a liberating feeling of spontaneity. Here, you're free to get lost, with rarely another biker in sight, the only obstacle being the occasional horseback rider. All the while, you can smell the pines and hear the birds.

After about two hours , with a mix of sweat, dirt, and swatted flies covering our bodies, Alex and I pedaled through the meadows and cornfields of the adjacent John A. Stolgitis Field Trial Area and found our way back to the car, all of our knees still intact.

Contact Stephen Jermanok, a freelance writer in Newton, at farandaway@comcast.net.