Posted By auntie on December 25, 2015

3.5 miles; West Greenwich, RI

merry christmas to all my readers, by the way. i hope it was just as good as your expectations. hm, that could be either good or bad, actually…

this is both a new and new-to-me trail at tillinghast. very pretty. it goes through some interesting spots, including the old bates homestead (lots of great cellarholes), a thick pine forest, along the banks of phillips brook, and through a gorgeous young beech thicket. merry christmas to me!

phillips brook crossing #1

the brand-new red-blazed bates loop starts at the hellsgate trailhead at the tillinghast/wickaboxet complex, on plain meetinghouse road. it almost immediately crosses the road onto the newly-acquired bates property. from there it crosses phillips brook twice in a big loop, although there is a crossover trail that starts at the first crossing and just follows the eastern bank of the brook to the 2nd crossing. total mileage for this loop is about 2 miles, unless you do what i did and hike it part way a 2nd time in order to see what the crossover trail is like.

young beech thicket

this is a lovely trail that changes its character several times. it was almost startling to walk into this little beech thicket.

double-blazes

the crossover trail is red double-blazes, which had me somewhat mystified the first time i saw it. according to my understanding of blazing, a double-blaze side-by-side like this indicates a trail terminus, either the start of the end of a trail. but the entire bates loop crossover trail is double-blazed red. guess there is no real standard for this sort of thing, and in fact, i’ve seen all kinds of blazing systems. this double-blaze was a first for me, though.

cascade along phillips brook

however they blazed it, the crossover trail is really lovely. it follows the banks of phillips brook for its entire length (maybe 1/4 mile). there were several little falls and cascades.

warm enough for witches butter

and i forgot to even mention that it was WARM! i mean, i was hiking in a short-sleeved teeshirt (polypro, of course) and far from being cold, i was actually sweaty by the time i finished. on christmas day. there are signs all over that this weather is confusing the plants, including lots of mushrooms popping up unseasonably.

this hike is part of the nature conservancy’s tillinghast/wickaboxet trail complex. i have not added the bates loop to my “auntie” hiking map, but you can find the nature conservancy’s map at their website.

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