Tillinghast Pond
Posted By auntie on September 7, 2014
5.5 miles, west greenwich, ri
this past sunday i took a brisk walk around the perimeter of this nature conservancy property, clockwise, which is backwards from the way i’ve walked it before. it was a very nice day and a very good walk.
sign
when you walk the perimeter of this property clockwise, you take the white-blazed pond trail to the orange-blazed coney brook trail, which crosses plain road. the first part of the coney brook trail is through an area that has been logged fairly recently, and it’s full of baby white pines.
quartz cat
someone got creative with bits of quartz by the trailside. i think it’s a cat. use your imagination.
berries
i thought the jewel-like beauty of these berries was arresting, but they also made me a little melancholy, because ripe berries on brown foliage signals the end of summer. sigh. no avoiding it, i guess.
steep!
one advantage of walking this trail clockwise is the very steep descent to coney brook itself. if i had hiked my usual direction, i’d have had to climb these stairs. just sayin’. not far beyond this point you have to re-cross plain road and pick up the white-blazed pond trail again. i followed the pond trail to the yellow-blazed flintlock trail, and then back to my car.
bayberries
there are stretches of the pond trail where you skirt the edge of several fields, and beside the trail on one of the fields there was a massive stand of bayberry bushes. the berries of this aromatic shrub are coated with a very thin layer of wax. in colonial times, these berries were harvested to make candles. it takes 6-8 pounds of these (tiny) berries to make 1 pound of wax, and a pound of wax will get you 4 4-ounce candles. not especially cost-effective, but i’m guessing free wax was free wax in colonial times.
wickaboxet loop trail sign
finally, at about halfway through the flintlock trail, you come to the wickaboxet loop trail intersection (see my post from last week). had i had more time, i’d have continued on to the wickaboxet loop trail and added another, say 3+ miles. but it was sunday, after all, and the first patriots game was at 1:00, so i cut my walk a bit short.
you can find tillinghast pond in the hikefinder.
We saw lots of bayberries too, and yes, it’s a cat.