Narragansett Trail, Yawbux Loop
Posted By auntie on September 1, 2015
4.65 miles; north stonington, ct
as ireland is approaching, and have i mentioned that i’m going hiking in ireland soon?, i feel the need to keep moving, even if the mileage is not as high as i would prefer. so today i just did a little local loop on the narragansett trail, starting and ending at the wyassup lake boat launch. and since i’ve been shifting my clock in order to not suffer too much from jet lag when i get there, i was able to hit the trail at a little before 6:30 am. sunrise today was 6:13, so it was still pretty gloomy in the woods.
wyassup lake at sunrise
i will say this for the whole “getting up before dawn” thing—it’s durned pretty. this was the view from the boat launch at right about sunrise this morning.
doll’s eyes
this plant is called “doll’s eyes,” for obvious reasons. for less obvious, but very important reasons, it is also called “white baneberry.” the entire plant, and especially the berries, is very poisonous. the berries contain cardiogenic toxins that can have an immediate sedative effect on cardiac muscle tissue, and ingestion of the berries can lead to cardiac arrest and death. so besides the creepy “doll’s eyes” thing, yeah, it’s deadly.
beaver lodge
this hike loops around a big old beaver pond on yawbux brook, and here is one of their lodges. the blue-blazed narragansett trail through here is really overgrown, but someone rode their horse through here, so i just kind of followed the hoof prints.
another view of the beaver pond
this is a really pretty section of the narragansett trail, and the return trip follows old woods roads that go by a really impressive old cellar hole. nice hike, especially first thing in the morning. of course, the major drawback to hiking at this hour is nobody came before you to break through the spider webs. man, i was just covered with spider webs by the time i got back!
you can find this hike in the hikefinder. trailhead, auntie’s trail map.
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