Part of the magic of bike paths is that they occupy a parallel universe, running alongside but separate from the world of roads and towns that most of us are more familiar with.

Journal photos

Your turn: Which bike paths do you ride? Why?

You can be riding along on a bike path, in your own world, and then suddenly find yourself in a landscape that you know from another context, giving your brain a little jolt of recognition, rather like seeing someone you know well in a place that you didn't expect to see them.

This happens on all bike paths, but in particular it happens on what everyone calls the South County Bike Path, officially named for an early supporter, the late state Sen. William C. O'Neill.

You begin on this bike path from Kingston Station, a Victorian chalet-style building -- still very much in use as an Amtrak rail station -- that not only houses a small museum of railroad memorabilia but also is one of South County's architectural signatures, quaint and pure Americana, circa 1875.

From the station, where there is ample parking, the path follows the old Narragansett Pier rail line east for about six miles, passing through a wide range of landscapes, from suburban backyards, through woods filled with fragrant mountain laurel, into the mirey wetland and bird-watching territory of the Great Swamp state management area, popping out suddenly into the familiar landscape of downtown Wakefield, a part of the path that was completed only in the past couple of years.

Orienting yourself in Wakefield after your bike journey through the back-country parallel universe, you find places to have lunch, to shop for art glass, and to have coffee or listen to a little bit of jazz at the True Brew Cafe, 213 Robinson St. (www.thetruebrewcafe.com), just off the bike path as you continue east a little distance to the end of the path a little further on, just shy of the Narragansett town line.

Like the East Bay Bike Path on the other side of Narragansett Bay, the Blackstone to the north, and even parts of the Washington Secondary, the O'Neill path is one of the best possible ways to experience its own universe, one of the loveliest in the state: South County.

kimbrie@projo.com / (401) 277-7630