Posted By auntie on December 14, 2014

3.45 miles; voluntown, ct

maybe once a year, the hubs actually hikes with me, instead of ahead of me. this was one of those rare hikes. he likes to take long walks through the pachaug state forest, just wandering aimlessly and checking out roads and paths that look interesting. he offered to show me one trip he makes on a regular basis, and i didn’t pass the offer up. i had already missed a providence county hiking club hike on this day because of bad leg cramps, and i didn’t want to miss getting out altogether.

this ramble starts on one of the gravel roads through the chapman area of the pachaug state forest. we parked at a gate and started to wander.

dam on beachdale pond

the track we took wound up here, at a double dam on beachdale pond in voluntown. once we crossed this dam, there was another shortly after it. the track led from there off into a neighborhood in voluntown, and then across a town park behind the elementary school out to route 138.

pachaug river

as you might guess from the double dams, the pachaug river here is split into two channels, each one stone lined. must have been a pretty impressive mill complex here once.

sawmill pond

the river flows into another smaller pond called sawmill pond before crossing under route 138. we crossed the river on the road and then took a right back onto “dep trail one” and back into the state forest. we followed this road for a bit, then detoured off onto what looked like a dirt bike track, which eventually took us back to the road the car was parked on. it was a nice ramble, and it was fun to share it with the hubs.

i’ve added this little ramble to the hikefinder under the title of this post.

Categories: Connecticut, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, CT, Voluntown CT