Posted By auntie on November 3, 2015

9.7 miles; thompson, ct, burrillville, ri, and douglas, ma

met a friend here by hiking in to the coffeehouse loop in douglas state forest from the airline trail trailhead. she doesn’t do long hikes, but wanted to begin to check out the douglas state forest, and i, well, love long hikes.

early morning on wallum lake

we met at 8:00 am, which meant i was up and hiking a lot earlier than i normally get out. you can see some mist rising from the surface of the water over on the lefthand side of the photo.

late color

there was some pretty impressive late color still out there, and it was a sunny clear day. great day for hiking, but then, aren’t they almost all?

massachuetts mid-state trail marker

this hike takes in a section of the massachusetts mid-state trail, a long-distance hiking trail that runs from the rhode island border to the new hampshire state line through the middle of the state. i’d love to do some sections of this some time.

tri-state marker

this hike also takes in the tri-state marker. i’m beginning to think of this big ol’ granite post as an old friend.

bossie crossing

my friend’s husband identified this type of structure as a “bossie crossing;” i.e., a place going either over or under a railroad track so farmers could move their cows from one side of the tracks to the other when their farms were bisected by the railroad. there’s a little tunnel, by the way, that goes under the amtrak tracks on groton’s haley farm preserve. wonder if that’s a bossie crossing too…

you can find long and ell ponds in my hikefinder, and also on my new “favorite hikes” page.

Categories: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 7–10 miles, Burrillville RI, CT, Douglas MA, MA, RI, Thompson CT