Posted By auntie on August 22, 2015

8.22 miles; west greenwich and exeter, ri

after so many miles of road-walking, this leg was mostly in arcadia management area, and mostly in the woods. yay! it started on hazard road in west greenwich, then entered arcadia through the overgrown parking lot of the old pine top ski area on escoheag hill. from there it meandered to stepstone falls and the ben utter trail, down the sand hill trail, and barber trail, and finally to the west exeter church on route 165. i finally got to see the section of the n-s trail north of stepstone falls, and have now personally completed the entire north-south trail over the course of the last 3 years. still gonna finish up with the pchc, though.

along hazard road

just because there are sections of road walking doesn’t mean there are some beautiful sights to see. this was right at the beginning of our hike, on the side of hazard road.

a toy “car-cass” in pine top

you just never know what you’re going to see in the woods.

beautiful turkey tail

the obligatory fungus shot.

mayapple fruit

the fruit of the mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), which blooms in, uh, may.

falls river from the ben utter trail

i gotta say, i think the ben utter trail is just about the prettiest hike in arcadia, although as you guys know, i’m partial to the fishing access trail on the west bank of breakheart brook. but ben utter is nice, too.

phlox in bloom

i don’t know if these are wildflowers or escaped cultivated phlox. they were growing along the side of barber trail, which is an old farm road, so they could be a cultivated variety.

i have not added this hike to my hikefinder. you can find info on the north-south trail here.

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Categories: Rhode Island, RI North South Trail, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 7–10 miles, Exeter RI, RI, West Greenwich RI