The most urban of Rhode Island's four bike paths carries the unlovely umbrella name of Washington Secondary, and it runs from the midst of a decidedly unlovely group of shopping centers in Cranston through West Warwick and Coventry, with a somewhat confusing array of sections partly completed or in the works. Long-term plans call for extending the as-yet-unfinished Coventry part of the path to the Connecticut border, in a nine-mile section to be called the Trestle Trail, but for now the rideable part of the path is about 14 miles, including a short interval of hard dirt.

Journal photos

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

Depending on where you are on the path, it might be referred to as the Cranston Bike Path, the Warwick Bike Path, the West Warwick Greenway, the Coventry Greenway, or the Trestle Trail. In the long run, the whole western bike path will become part of the East Coast Greenway, the planned 2,600-mile bikeway from Maine to Florida.

For now, though, there are a few things riders and walkers need to know about the Washington Secondary.

The northern part, right around the shopping centers at Garfield Street, is the least attractive, subject to vandalism and therefore likely to have glass shards that can shorten a bike ride in a hurry.

Moving south, the path gets more bucolic at around the 1 1/2-mile point, where there's a bridge over the Pawtuxet River. Regular rider Nim Marsh, who lives in the area and often rides on the path with his wife Naomi, says that he has seen hooded mergansers, ring-necked ducks, blue-winged teal, Canada geese and mallard ducks in the area of the bridge.

"I get to combine my two favorite hobbies: Bike-riding and bird-watching," he says. "It's a little bit of the country right here in the city. The trade-off is the smell that comes from the sewage treatment plant there."

The part of the path through West Warwick, in the area of Arctic and River Point, is the part most plagued with graffiti and glass. You sometimes see groups of teenagers hanging out and blocking the path.

After this point, the paved path continues to a beautiful section in West Warwick around the handsome stone Bradford Soap factory, near where an old caboose from railroad days is on display. From there, it goes uphill and along the river to the end of the paved section, just past Route 117. There are convenient parking lots at River Point in West Warwick and at Station Road in Coventry.

A 1 1/2-mile section of the path here is "unimproved dirt," meaning that it is unpaved, but hard and rideable even by cyclists on narrow road tires.

"It feels good to be off-road for a couple of miles," Marsh says. "You go by some beautiful old mills. The worst threat is the broken glass along the West Warwick section, and the graffiti you see on the bridge supports can break a bike-path spell pretty abruptly."

But west of Station Road, the Coventry portion of the bike path is "a delight," says Marsh. "They've left there some old railroad tracks and switches, which reminds you of the transportation system that made this path possible."

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