Posted By auntie on November 24, 2012

3.74 miles   ★★★★½

pretty day for a pretty hike up the john b. hudson trail to breakheart pond, then back down the west bank of breakheart brook. i think this is the prettiest trail i’ve seen in arcadia. did some scouting to see if there was a brook crossing north of frosty hollow pond… no definitive answer. i was too chicken to try picking my way across the stones. it’s not outside the realm of possibility, though. i marked a couple of possible crossings on my gps. i will do this hike again.

i saw another ringneck pheasant standing by the side of the road on 165. it turns out that the state stocks wildlife management areas with farm-raised game birds like these poor pheasants. no wonder one came right up to me last week. it was probably hungry and lonely. this not only doesn’t seem very sporting (they’re tame birds after all!), but it seems as if it borders on animal cruelty. these birds don’t know how to survive in the wild, and they’re probably eaten by coyotes and foxes as much as blasted by hunters.

and speaking of hunters, there was a nice looking older couple headed up the trail as i was leaving, and neither one had on a scrap of blaze orange. in rhode island, that’s not only dumb but also illegal. i heard gun shots while i was hiking, so i’m pretty sure there were hunters out there. and there are a lot of very clear signs posted at the trail head. sheesh.

headstone, wilcox lot

there is an historical cemetery along the hudson trail, the wilcox lot. i find these old cemeteries so melancholy. you see a lot of them out in the woods around new england—mute testimony to lost and forgotten farms, along with the ubiquitous stone walls.

wilcox lot

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