Posted By auntie on April 22, 2014

6.47 miles; charlestown, ri

wow. this was a longer hike than i anticipated. but it was quite interesting. i started out on sammy’s c’s trail, which i had explored before last december. my ankle was not up to walking the whole trail at that time, so i cut it short, but i have been wanting to go back ever since. this time i hiked all of sammy c’s trail, which comes out on what i am assuming in retrospect is the schoolhouse pond trail. schoolhouse pond is a preserve owned by the charlestown conservation commission, and it’s one beautiful pond.

schoolhouse pond panorama (click to embiggen)

there were several large birdhouses in the trees by the water’s edge, and even a bat house (no residents that i could see). the trail to it leaves burlingame, which is where sammy c’s trail was, and crosses king’s factory road. it’s not directly across the road, however… i kind of had to guess which direction to head. i guessed right. you make a left on king’s factory road to get to the track that leads to the pond.

schoolhouse pond preserve entrance

this would be a nice short hike by itself, and there is parking just past the preserve entrance. the hike is a lollipop shape… most of which is on a dirt road. but it does loop off into a very mature white pine forest. it’s well-blazed where it needs to be, at least on the preserve itself. in burlingame, however, it’s another story.

i had passed some blue blazes leading off into burlingame while i was heading out to schoolhouse pond, and i thought that was a bit… odd, since i had assumed i was already on the schoolhouse pond trail (on the great swamp press map, the schoolhouse pond trail is supposed to be blue-blazed). on the return trip, i attempted to follow the blazes, but it was quite hopeless. there were so many blowdowns and tangles that i gave up and returned to the mountain bike track i was originally following. it kind of sort of seemed to head in the right direction, so i followed it.

there were maybe 3 or 4 blue blazes that i passed—just enough to reassure me that i was headed in the right direction. and eventually i intersected with the vin gormley trail and made my way back to my car. but it was rather touch and go there for a while.

still life with pine cone

saw this  little vignette while i was on the schoolhouse pond trail of a pine cone caught in a blowdown.

old snag

also on the schoolhouse pond trail… this lovely old snag. it wasn’t till i got back and looked at it on my computer that i noticed it, well, kinda looked like a dragon’s head.

smaug snag

you can see that, right? kinda dragony-looking.

i have added this entire hike to the hikefinder, but you can use just the part that’s the schoolhouse pond preserve if you don’t want to do a 3-plus hour hike.

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 5–7 miles, Charlestown RI, RI