Posted By auntie on June 25, 2015

7.25 miles; johnston, ri

today i decided to download and follow a friend’s gps track on this state park in johnston.

mostly this hike just beat me up. there were some muddy spots and a ton of mosquitos, some pretty decent hills, and some very dicey water crossings. still, the overlook in the northern part was really cool.

old farm equipment

i started this hike from behind the fire station on route 6 in johnston, but you can also access it from dame farm off brown road. this is old farm country, and there was a ton of old farm equipment rusting away in the field at the beginning of the trail.

indian pipes popping up

the indian pipes have started popping up through here. funny plants, these—they are plants, but they don’t produce any chlorophyl. they get their nutrients from fungal networks that in turn get their nutrients from trees.

view from the overlook

the very northernmost part of this hike takes you to an overlook on a rocky ridge top.

fire ring at the overlook

there is really quite an impressive fire ring at the overlook, too. probably built by generations of local kids.

tire dump

also impressive, but in a not-so-good way, is the massive tire dump i came across. mounds and mounds of old tires for a very large stretch, and all i could think of was all the little pools of standing water in all those tires, full of mosquito larvae. i moved through here pretty quickly, i can tell you.

i have added this hike to the hikefinder. trailhead, trail map, gps track from Hiking in RI (i sort of followed track #3).

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 7–10 miles, Johnston RI, RI