Posted By auntie on September 19, 2012

4.91 miles   ★★

great name, crummy hike. first, i got lost and had to do considerable back-tracking. then, the roar of route 95 was never lost, not to mention the part of the loop that was actually on the shoulder of the highway (a very small part, but still). also, there was some bad walking on the old new london turnpike. not to say there weren’t some nice parts… just not worth revisiting.

that said, i believe i am now officially obsessed with hiking every road, track, and trail in arcadia. this spot was in the very southeastern corner of the management area, with, really, not much to recommend it. it did follow a bit of the north-south trail, though. the parts of the north-south trail that actually go through the woods are uniformly very nice. problem is there’s a lot of road-walking involved, too, and i’m just not a fan.

some magnificent turkey tail fungus

obligatory fungus shot. this was a very nice specimen on what looks like yellow birch.

unknown yellow mushrooms

bonus fungus shot. no idea on the i.d.

moonshine swamp

and here is the swamp from which my loop takes its name. i’m about 30 feet from route 95 here.

you can access this loop (if you want to) by parking on baker pine road, and picking up the north-south trail from the south side of the road. follow the ns trail until you’re just east of moonshine swamp, then follow the old woods road back towards the west to the new london turnpike and route 95. take the trail that branches off new london turnpike towards the highway, and follow this back to baker pine road.

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