Posted By auntie on November 25, 2014

6.9 miles; exeter, ri

also known as arcadia, shelter and breakheart trails, i think, in a previous post. with thanksgiving coming up later this week, and snow in tomorrow’s forecast, i thought it might be a good idea to get some mileage in, so i decided to do this 7-mile loop through arcadia.

breakheart brook

this is breakheart brook north of breakheart pond. this has to be the prettiest brook in arcadia, start to finish. and with the recent rains, it’s flowing almost normally again. although i assume that we’re still in drought conditions, since we’ve hardly had enough rain to be considered normal for this time of year and certainly not enough to overcome the summer’s deficit.

stubborn beech leaves

the only leaves left on any of the trees now are the stubborn beech leaves, which will be there all winter. the whole forest has now shifted to shades of brown. it’s positively monochromatic these days.

spectacular shelf

i came across this MASSIVE shelf fungus in the middle of the trail. seriously, it was as big as a dinner plate. pretty impressive.

dark foreboding woods

i read a lot of fantasy fiction, and there’s always some section where the heroes have to follow a path through deep, dark, foreboding woods. never really saw any woods like that myself until this patch of thick white pines just kind of struck me that way.

you can find this hike in the hikefinder.

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