Posted By auntie on September 28, 2015

4.1 miles; exeter, ri

this was originally supposed to be a providence county hiking club hike on the northern half of the tippecansett trail, but unfortunately, the south county rod and gun club has closed off the 1500 feet of trail that crosses their property. this subsequently engendered quite a few back-and-forths with the trails people of the amc, narragansett chapter. the upshot of all that back-and-forth is that, yes, the gun club has closed the trail. again. apparently they’re planning an expansion of their shooting range, and have closed the trail as a precautionary measure. the amc is hoping to work with them to establish a reroute.

so as a result we ended up doing a nifty little loop on escoheag hill through the old pine top ski area. it turned out to be a great hike after all, gun club shenanigans notwithstanding.

beginning of the tippecansett trail

the tippecansett trail is a 10-mile yellow-blazed trail maintained by the narragansett chapter of the amc which begins here at stepstone falls, and then climbs escoheag hill to the site of the old firetower. and from there, it normally follows the canonicus trail across the connecticut border to go around the west side of tippecansett pond. the original trail route followed the east shore of the pond, but that was closed quite a few years ago by the rod and gun club.

stepstone falls

because of the continuing drought in our area, stepstone falls is a mere trickle of its usual self. you can very easily walk across the falls river now, and not even get your feet wet.

old backpacking shelter

just beyond the falls you come to an old ccc-built backpacking camp. the last batch of strong storms that blew through our area completed their collapse, but as you can see, someone is rebuilding. not sure if it’s the amc or the state, but it’s a great idea.

yup. it’s closed. again.

from the backpacking shelter to the top of escoheag hill is the hardest part of the hike—it’s a long, steep climb up. and then, of course, we came across the posted gate. fortunately our hike leader had once done a loop from stepstone falls through the old ski area on escoheag hill, and so we decided to just do that, since there was no obvious way to continue on our original plan.

rose hips

this is really a time of abundance for wildlife. lots of acorns bombarding us throughout the woods, and berries galore; winterberries, autumn olive, rose hips… we even found an old pear tree that was just full of fruit. the pears were small and misshapen, but still quite tasty.

atop escoheag hill

just beyond this spot on the trail, there’s a large opening and a view to die for—miles and miles of forest. it’s going to be a spectacular leaf peeping spot in a few weeks.

i have not added this hike to the hikefinder. there are many unmarked trails all through here, and it would be difficult to give clear directions. i suggest you check trailsandwalksri.wordpress.com to see if there is a better description of the trail there.

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, Exeter RI, RI