Back when I first realized I could hop a ferry from New London and expand the reach of the Bike and Brew series, I didn't expect to go beyond Long Island. The city has another ferry going to Fishers Island, but there aren't any breweries there (plus the island is
apparently hostile to cyclists). I also discounted the idea of hopping the Block Island ferry; although there's a brewpub there, my wife and I found the beers to be watery and underwhelming on our last visit.
We weren't just being picky. Many of the Mohegan Cafe and Brewery's beers have gotten fairly brutal reviews on sites like Untappd and BeerAdvocate.
One review on the latter site described a stout as smelling "like a terrible homebrew that isn't ready to drink yet."
But my company took a recreational outing to the island this summer, and the more recent reviews of the brewpub were significantly better. So I decided to give it a shot.
Before this trip, I hadn't gotten a chance to do too much biking. For one thing, time is at a bit more of a premium when you have a newborn daughter. Also, I wasn't able to bring my bike in for a tune-up and tube repair until a few weeks ago, and it had been ridiculously hot and humid out.
About a week before this trip, I hit a nail during a ride and my back tire went flat in about 10 seconds. Amazingly enough, I was able to put a couple of patches on the through-and-through wound to the tube, and it's been holding up ever since.
First stop: a quick ride to the Block Island Express, a high-speed ferry. It long advertised that it could complete the trip in just over an hour, but they've since given the more realistic estimate of an hour and 20 minutes, varying based on sea and weather conditions.
Block Island is located about 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and encompasses just under 10 square miles. It manages to be popular as both a vacation getaway and as an easy day trip for people living nearby; several ferry lines serve the island, and it has quite a few shops, restaurants, public beaches, and other attractions. Roughly 1,000 people live here year-round, helping to support a historical society, newspaper, school, hospital, and other services.
Most visitors come into Old Harbor, which has the densest cluster of buildings. It's also where visitors are most likely to find bike and moped rentals; both are extremely common on the island, to the point where they control the roads much more than the vehicles do.
It's pretty easy to do a circuit of Block Island by bike, and I started by heading west along the south shore. It was a very windy day, so I was getting buffeted the whole time while enjoying the ocean views. Before too long, I came to my first destination: the Southeast Light.
One of two lighthouses on the island, the Southeast Light is a brick structure with an impressive keeper's house attached to the beacon. It dates back to 1874, and there's an ongoing effort to restore the lighthouse or at least keep it in decent shape. It's not quite in its original location, having been moved back from an eroding cliff in 1993.
Visitors can enjoy a sweeping view of the sea from the lighthouse property. Recently this view has included the five turbines of what is, somewhat surprisingly, the first offshore wind farm in the United States. On the day of my visit, they were mostly obscured by the mist. Reaction to the wind farm seems to have been mostly positive (among other things, the Block Island's power grid is now connected to the mainland and doesn't need to use costly diesel generators for its power), and has also helped inspire talk of further wind operations in my neck of the woods.
Within walking distance from the South Lighthouse are the Mohegan Bluffs, a towering set of clay cliffs. Apparently they got their name from a 1590 Native American battle in which a group of Mohegan raiders were driven off the precipice by the Manisseans. Bicycles easily outnumber cars at this stop, and plenty of people make the trip down the daunting staircase to check out the isolated beach below.
One unexpected feature of the bluffs was a new overlook, looking out to the lighthouse and wind farm. Most people were happily ignoring the barriers set up to keep them away from the drop-offs, including this group of en plein air painters.
For a small island, Block Island has plenty of parks and natural sites to visit. Perhaps the most impressive is Rodman's Hollow, a 230-acre nature preserve with 28 miles of hiking trails. I've visited this site on previous trips and enjoyed walks out to more secluded ocean overlooks, but on this particular expedition I decided to make Rodman's Hollow my turnaround point instead of continuing around the western bulb of the island. The wind was getting quite ferocious, and I felt like having it at my back for awhile.
A narrow, hook-like peninsula constitutes most of Block Island's northern end. This partially encompasses the Great Salt Pond, a mix of freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater part has only been around for a century and change, after a channel was cut to connect to the sea. There's plenty out there about the ecology of this pond, but for the most part it just seems to be clogged with small boats.
Another lighthouse stands at the northern tip of Block Island. Anyone wishing to visit this one has to make a long scramble over a rocky beach, and then might be dismayed to discover that the lighthouse is only open for tours for four days of the week. Still, this site offers yet another beautiful vista and is always popular with visitors.
Those heading back to New Shoreham from the North Light have a steep hill to traverse. Some residents at the top of the incline were kind enough to put out an honor system lemonade stand catering to the many thirsty bicyclists passing by.
There's a brief, sharp hill from the northern peninsula back to Old Harbor, and I opted to stop midway up to check out a few public trails. Both had these steep staircases to traverse stone walls, and the trail to the Atwood Overlook led to the top of a short hill which offered a view stretching from the Great Salt Pond to the North Light.
The "Sacred Labyrinth," built out of stones, invites people to walk its winding route and take some time for quiet contemplation. It's on public property, but the landowners have welcomed the public since the labyrinth was
established in 2001.
Block Island is packed with trails that cut through woodlands, along cliffs, and over seaside dunes. I really should visit more of them. But on this day, I needed to get back to town and made haste to pedal back to town. Mohegan Cafe and Brewery is located on Water Street, in a busy stretch of restaurants and shops not far from the ferry landing, and this area of town is absolutely packed with visitors.
The Mohegan Cafe and Brewery dates back to 1990, but didn't begin serving as a brewpub until the late 90s when head chef Dave Sniffen brewing up small batches of home-brewed beer to serve at the restaurant. Ownership of the business
changed back in 2014, but Sniffen still reportedly helms the brewing operations.
Block Island apparently faces a
unique dilemma when it comes to hosting brewers, since there's a limited supply of freshwater available and it's only replenished by rainfall. And since the island is a major tourist destination during the summer, there's a high demand on available water supplies during that time. So Mohegan Cafe and Brewery's operations rely on extract brewing, which allows them to skip the mashing and sparging process and thus save a good deal of water.
I ordered a pint of the cafe's booziest option, the Joe's "How I Got Fired" High Octane Ale. The story goes that Joe enjoyed a few too many of these 9% ABV scotch ales, showed up hung over to his place of employment the next day, and promptly got the boot.
While the
reviews on BeerAdvocate are none too charitable ("one of the worst commercial beers I've ever had," one complains), the recipe has apparently been re-tuned in recent years. On
Untappd, its approaching the standard 3.5 average that most decent beers seem to enjoy. I found it to be delicious and not overly strong, a welcome change from my last experience with Mohegan Cafe's beers.
The company get-together included lunch, but I couldn't help but get an order of chowder fries. This tasty appetizer involves clam chowder poured over an order of French fries, with a healthy amount of melted cheese on top. It would have been suicide to get this mid-ride, but since I'd finished up for the day I decided to treat myself.
The Mohegan Cafe and Brewery also makes their own ginger beer. I ordered a "Mohegan Mule" as my second drink and also found it to be quite tasty.
And why not, one more. It's a party, and you have to get a Mudslide if you go to Block Island and are of drinking age. It's a tasty (if hideously overpriced) frozen concoction of vodka, Irish cream, and Kahlua all blended together. This has sort of become the official drink of the island, with ongoing debates over which venue has the best one.
After a relaxing beach afternoon, it was back to New London. And so ends another Bike and Brew milestone: the first expedition to Rhode Island, even if a high speed ferry got me across the state line.
Total mileage: 15 miles
Previous Bike and Brew Outings:
Outer Light Brewing Company
Beer'd Brewing Company
Fox Farm Brewery
Shelter Island Craft Brewery and Greenport Harbor Brewing Company
Barley Head Brewery
These Guys Brewing Company and Epicure Brewing
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