Posted By auntie on January 25, 2019

7.8 miles; Charlestown, RI

So not 2 weeks ago I called this trail “kayak-optional.” Then we got hit with the Polar Vortex and suddenly it becomes… ice. Lots and lots of ice. Took me, naturally, longer than normal to do this loop. Wonder why?

The Trail

So yeah. Swap that kayak for ice skates. I put a pair of Yak-Trax on my hiking boots which worked admirably to keep me upright, and also discovered, belatedly, that a hard rubber tip on your trekking poles is not the best choice for ice. It slides right over it like… a pair of ice skates, maybe.

Bog Bridge

I was astonished by the level of the ice on this extensive system of bog bridges over the Perry Healy Brook. It came right up to the level of the boards in spots.

View from the Covered Bridge

Of course it was higher than it is now, as you can see from the ice tutu that old tree is wearing!

Winter Color

The only spots of color in the woods were provided by old multiflora rose hips and bright green moss.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the Vin Gormley Trail from Trails and Walks in RI. The only map you’ll find is this photo of the map at the campground trail head. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

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Tags: 7–10 miles, Charlestown RI, RI

Posted By auntie on January 17, 2019

5.84 miles; Exeter, RI

I started this hike a bit late in the day; I had originally meant to do the normal Shelter/Breakheart route. But daylight was escaping me, so I wound up taking an alternate route back which involved rather a large amount of (dirt) road-walking. There was, however, a very nice bit in the woods which I really loved.

Icy Breakheart Brook

Also, for a change of pace, I walked this clockwise, or at least I began the loop going clockwise. There’s a nice long stretch right at the beginning the follows the brook.

Shelter Trail

This is the spot on the outward part of my route that leaves Plain Road and heads into the woods towards the old CCC encampment. I would be seeing that stretch of Plain Road again on the return journey.

Old Lodge Site

This big chimney is at the site of the CCC Lodge. This must have been quite a large camp, as there are cabins all over the place, some I never noticed before, but thanks to the leaves being off the trees, they seemed to have magically appeared.

Red Squirrel Midden

This is actually just more of a feeding site. An actual red squirrel midden is large heap of discarded pine cones and scales, and the uneaten, still green cones are stashed in the middle to keep them from drying out and losing their seeds. I’ve yet to come across a substantial midden pile, but you see these little feeding sites everywhere. And as you can see in the background, this was on the way up Penny Hill.

I’d hiked part of this section of the Breakheart Trail once before, with the Providence County Hiking Club. It’s very hilly and with the leaves all down, you can see a great bowl of forest all around you. This stretch reminded me a lot of some of the blue-blazed hiking trails in Connecticut. It’s a very lovely stretch of trail, which sadly ends on a road.

By the way, there are plenty of unmarked trails branching off this entire hike, some of which are recorded on the open hiking map which is a layer on Gaia GPS. That’s what the little waypoint marks are on my route, below. And of course they’re all carefully recorded on the Great Swamp Press map of Arcadia. This might make for an interesting return visit, this time avoiding the road-walking to explore the unnamed and unblazed trails to the south of the road.

Track (click for details)

As I mentioned above, the best resource for hiking in Arcadia is the Great Swamp Press map. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

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Tags: 5–7 miles, Exeter RI, RI

Posted By auntie on January 6, 2019

4.25 miles; Charlestown, RI

This was a new-to-me Facebook Group Hike Like a Woman Southern Rhode Island. Today’s group was 4 people. We started from the “Bucky Beaver” trailhead on Kings Factory Road. And due to all the recent rain we’ve had, it should have been a kayak-optional hike. Still, fun group and a great hike. I’ll be joining them again.

Bucky Replacement

You guys remember Bucky Beaver, right? Originally a sad little discarded stuffed beaver that I stuck on the tree at this trailhead for the Vin Gormley Trail, he finally bit the dust back in 2016, and he’s been replaced, rather inadequately imho, by a series of ratty (in one case literally) odd stuffed creatures. This looks like a dog? Puppy? Just the head? Okay, I’ll grant this one is a worthy successor.

The hike was advertised as “School House Pond Hike,” and I thought that maybe there were new or undiscovered (by me) trails on the Schoolhouse Pond Preserve. But this was really just a tour of some of the various and sundry mountain bike trails that wind through Burlingame north of the Vin Gormley. Not that that was a bad thing!

schoolhouse pond preserve entrance

The actual entrance to the actual Schoolhouse Pond Preserve is across the road from where we were hiking, on King’s Factory. Here’s a link to the map I made of the hike as I did it in April of 2014.

One of the Kayak-Optional Trails

There really was a LOT of water on the trail today. There were a couple of dicey water crossings where it’s normally just dry. Still, we managed to complete this hike without drowning anyone, not even the dog.

Ultimately, I’m not sure what it means to “Hike Like a Woman.” But whatever it is, I’m guessing we did it brilliantly.

Track (click for details)

You can find out more about the mountain bike trails of Burlingame from this AllTrails website. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

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Tags: 2–5 miles, Charlestown RI, RI

Posted By auntie on December 29, 2018

4.25 miles; West Greenwich, RI

The weather was too good not to go out somewhere, so I made a visit to Wickaboxet. The place was deserted when I started out this morning, and I was able to maintain a brisk pace.

Old Stone

Probably because it’s December and there are no leaves on the trees or brush, I saw an old cemetery I never noticed before; most of the stones were unreadable.

Low Sun Angle

I always find hiking in December slightly unnerving, because of the low sun angle. No matter what time it actually is, it seems like it might be getting dark soon.

Perfect Cellar Hole

Wickaboxet is a treasure trove of wonderful old cellar holes. After years of freezing and thawing, these lines are still arrow-straight. So impressive!

And now for the “Meta” portion of this post, my 2018 by the numbers. Yes, I keep a spreadsheet of all my hikes, just so, at the end of the year, I can do this:

Yes, A Chart (click to embigginate)

So as I may have mentioned, 2018 was a difficult year for me, and I didn’t get that much mileage in this year, or that many hikes. The only year I had less mileage was 2013, the year I broke my ankle. Figures that this was the year I joined a Facebook challenge to hike 365 miles. I was short by 27-1/2 miles of that goal. My best year? 2015, when I managed close to 700 miles. Someday I’d like to log a 1000-mile year. Goals, people! Goals! And overall, since I started this blog and started keeping track, I have walked 3,435.57 miles, and it took me 10 weeks, 6 hours, and 45 minutes. And no, I’m not going to do the math to figure out what that comes to in miles per hour.

Track (click for details)

And by the way, here is the track for Wickaboxet. You can find out more about this whole vast trail system from this pdf file published by the Nature Conservancy of RI. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

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Tags: 2–5 miles, RI, West Greenwich RI

Posted By auntie on December 24, 2018

5.5 miles; South Kingstown, RI

I had the urge for mileage, and a good workout, and I got a bit of both on the Duval Trail. Apparently more than I thought, because I bumped into some guy twice on the trail system and both times he asked me if I was okay. Srsly, dude? I mean, I know I’m a little out of shape, but srsly?

Block Island from the Overlook

It was cold, but a sparkling, crystal clear day. Block Island was plainly visible from here. Squint.

The Trail

This trail has some strenuous ups and downs. And yeah, I was doing a little huffing and puffing. NO, THAT WAS NOT OXYGEN IN MY PACK. He had to have been trolling me, right?

Hello, Butt Rock, My Old Friend

Glad to see Butt Rock is still where it’s supposed to be.

Quaker Cemetery

I took a little lollipop loop at the end of this trail. Instead of following the blue-blazed trail at the unnamed road where the trail crosses, I went right to another intersection, where I turned left onto Red House Road which, after a wee bit of road walking, got me to the trailhead at the intersection of Sand Plain Trail, L’Ahinch, and Red House, where I headed back. It makes for a nice change instead of backtracking the entire way. Oh, and took the “non-system” trail out to my car that cuts through the Quaker Cemetery.

The Trail (click for details)

You can find out more about the Duval Trail and get a trail map from this South Kingstown Land Trust website. Scroll down to get to Duval. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

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Tags: 5–7 miles, RI, South Kingstown RI

Posted By auntie on December 18, 2018

Turkey, you say? I resemble that remark!

Yes, thanks to a reader suggestion, I am instituting a new feature, a rundown of my LEAST favorite hikes of 2018.

#5—Grills, Interrupted

Inadequate Puncheon

I said it before and I’ll say it again… when FEMA warns you that the river you’re about to hike beside is officially above flood stage, it might be time to pick another hike.

#4—Moosup Valley SP

Uh… What?

When I say this part of the Trestle Trail in Eastern Connecticut is ”undeveloped,” I am again exercising my boundless talent for understatement. And yes, that is a photograph of a bare human footprint. On an undeveloped trail. In the middle of the woods. (Do you hear banjos? I swear I hear banjos…)

#3—Chatfield Trail, Part the First

One of Many Boulder-Strewn Ridge Tops

It didn’t seem too daunting, from looking at the map. A mere 4.6 miles? Pfft. I can do it as an out-and-back. Piece of cake. What I failed to realize is that this trail climbs one rocky, steep, boulder-strewn ridge after another rocky, steep, boulder-strewn ridge, after another after another after another! Or it does for the first mile. Which is how far I managed to get before finding a convenient FLAT woods road that got me the heck back out of there.

#2—Phony Baloney Pelloni & The Great Diamond Hill Swamp Trail Hoax

So Far So Good!

I was on a quick scouting mission for another long-ish trail, the 10-mile Tomaquag Trail in Hopkinton, RI. The map seemed very straightforward. All I had to do was check out two wee sections…

#1—Trail of Lakes, Sort of

Rattlesnake

That, my friends and readers, is a photo of a 6-foot-long Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. (Relax. This is another Florida hike. We’re not in South County anymore!) I heard the rattle BEHIND ME, meaning I WALKED RIGHT OVER THE SNAKE AND NEVER SAW IT. Yup. First hike where I encountered something that could have actually killed me, because I was 6 miles into a 10-mile hike with no cellphone service.

And there you have it. My least favorite hikes of 2018. [Crappy trails? Dang. That would have been a MUCH better title for this post…]

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