Posted By auntie on March 17, 2019

12.1 miles; Charlestown and Richmond, RI

I wasn’t sure until almost the last minute whether I’d do this again. I will miss Day 4 and Day 6 this year due to prior commitments. Alas, no completion patch for me this year… This hike was harder than I expected, even with the aggressive neighborhood walking I did last week.

Mel and Bob

My friends Mel and Bob are hiking it again this year, which makes me very happy. They are so much fun to talk to that I break my longstanding rule about not talking while hiking.

Perfect Day

We got a perfect and perfectly clear day. It was so clear we could see not only Block Island, but the Block Island wind farm. Uh, again, you will have to take my word for that, as this is another of my usual crappy lo-res iPhone shots.

Boardwalk in Burlingame

This section of the 6-day trek starts at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown. From there you walk about 1 3/4 miles on the roads, crossing Route 1, before entering Burlingame State Park. After a stretch walking through the southern end of the park (watch for blazes, as there are tons of crossing mountain bike trails through here) and then through a part of the campground, the N-S trail connects with the yellow-blazed Vin Gormley Trail, which it follows until just past the “rock climbing” portion, where it takes a divergent left turn to cross Buckeye Brook Road and enters Burlingame Wildlife Management Area. The trails through the WMA are a little less developed, and contain a lot of rocks and water. Finally, the trail leaves Burlingame at Burdickville Road, then following Shumunkanuc Road, Kings Factory Road, and finally coming back to the meeting point at Meadow Brook Pond on Route 91, a distance of nearly 3 miles on roads. Not my favorite part, but as I’ve said before, if you’re going to do long trails, you’re going to do some road walking. No way to avoid it.

Roland Dedication

I hope someday this will be a granite marker, and not just painted wood, because without the efforts of Roland, this trek would not be possible.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the North-South trail from this rather old and slightly link-rotty website called HTML Outdoors Planet. There is also some very good info on “The Trek” website. But by far the best guide to the North-South Trail is published by the Great Swamp Press. It is, unfortunately, out of print right now, and essentially unavailable as a used book. It is, however, available from the Rhode Island Library system. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

<– SEE ALSO, 26TH N-S TRAIL TREK, DAY 5  DAY 3 (2.5) –>

Categories: Rhode Island, RI North South Trail, Walks and Hikes
Tags: Charlestown RI, Over 10 miles, RI, Richmond RI