North South Trail Trek, Leg 3
Posted By auntie on April 5, 2014
9.32 miles; richmond, exeter, west greenwich and coventry, ri
even though i cheated and caught a ride for a big section of this walk, i managed the most mileage since the accident last july. it was a cold day, but for the parts where i kept moving, it wasn’t bad. this is a very pretty section of the n-s trail, especially the section that is on the sand hill trail in arcadia and the last bit in nicholas farm management area.
roaring brook trail
this leg starts in arcadia management area, in the vicinity of browning mill pond. the first part goes along the roaring brook handicapped access trail, but quickly veers off onto the arcadia trail. it follows the arcadia trail to bald hill trail, an old woods road, to 165 and then from the west exeter baptist church, it picks up hargraves trail and then barber trail, both old woods roads. there is a swamp right at the intersection of barber trail and deion trail, and the wood frogs were just going crazy there. one lady called them “the ducky-sounding frogs.”
i think she’s right. they do sound kind of “ducky.”
after maybe a mile along barber road, it veers off into the prettiest pine woods on the sand hill trail, and from there it picks up the escoheag trail to the ben utter trail.
falls river from the ben utter trail
this is a very scenic section that follows the falls river up to stepstone falls, where i caught a ride to nicholas farm management area, after a stop along the way at the intersection of bailey pond road and hazard road. the organizers of the hike built 3 checkpoints in along the way, and since i was riding with them, we had to stop and make sure everyone who started out with us was still on the trail.
spencer’s rocks on the moosup river
the last bit through nicholas farm management area was also very lovely. after crossing the moosup river on an old trestle, and following the trestle trail for a while, it meanders back to follow the moosup river north to our meeting point on the plainfield pike in west greenwich. by the way? there was still ice in large patches on the trestle trail. ice! in april!
i have added this leg of the n-s trail trek to the hikefinder.
This sounds like a very nice hike. I signed up for the trek this year but as “unluck” would have it I’m not going to make any of the hikes.