Hopkinton Grills West
Posted By auntie on April 7, 2017
4.46 miles; Hopkinton, RI
I looked at my total hiking mileage for the year so far, and I was mightily embarrassed! Less than 100 miles and it’s April already. So I decided to make a push to do more hiking, starting with Five Hikes in Five Days. Today was Hike #1.
I decided to start off with this spot in Hopkinton, which is labelled “Grills.” Grills! Another Grills Preserve! It’s on the opposite side of Route 91 from the Hopkinton Grills we’re all familiar with. I think they’re calling it Grills West.
Now you might assume that a preserve with lots of fancy trail signage like this
Fancy Sign
would be a pretty cool little trail system. Don’t believe the sign!
Fine Print on Sign
There is no blazing, and only one old woods road. Lots of flags throughout, but no trails and no blazes. Sigh. Guess I’ll have to head back here again. Maybe next year?
Signage and lack of blazed trails aside, though, this is a neat little property.
Amtrak Sign
This is a somewhat intimidating looking sign, but I figured that since I was not actually in a vehicle, I was pretty safe. And indeed, this is the only trail I could find anyway (see above).
Old Cemetery
There’s a lovely little cemetery on the property.
Sad
At least, it’s lovely till you read the headstones. There’s one large headstone marking the grave of a 14-year-old boy, and then this broken stone which commemorates the deaths of twin infant girls. They were barely a month old. The inscription reads “Budded on earth, to bloom in Heaven.” Someone placed a tiny angel figure on the broken stone.
Warning Sign
The old woods road I was following spent a good stretch paralleling the Amtrak Railroad tracks, which was where I saw this somewhat cryptic pictographic sign… “NO RUNNING IN FRONT OF LADDERS!” Yeah, I’m sure that’s what it means.
What fascinated me was the signage that warned against going into Phantom Bog on foot. Phantom Bog is directly across the tracks from this property, and the sign said it is ONLY accessible from the Pawcatuck River. Hm. I bet the local kids get there okay…
Bear Sign
Then I saw this. Trust me, it’s way too big to be anything but bear. It’s full of old seeds and nuts and I think the big things are smooshed acorns. Somehow the quaintness factor of this place went down a few notches. I’d be willing to bet the bears aren’t intimidated by the sign warning against crossing the tracks into Phantom Bog. They are such scofflaws!
As I mentioned, the trailhead for this hike is on Route 91, address approximately 28 Alton-Bradford Road, in Hopkinton. You can click on the image, above, to see details of this hike, and to download the gps track.
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