Posted By auntie on June 20, 2015

8.5 miles; burrillville and glocester, ri

if you don’t know the story of the walkabout trail, it’s a good one. from the new england mountain bike association:

In 1965, Australian soldiers from the Royal Autralian Navy were stuck in Rhode Island, waiting for their brand new missile destroyer. So how does one amuse 300 soldiers for six weeks? The Division of Forests of Rhode Island had a great idea: build an 8-mile walking trail through the park. So for 2 weeks at a time, soldiers went out into the New England “Outback” and cut trail from 8:30AM to 4:00 PM every day, followed by some swimming, rugby, horseshoes, softball, and steak-sampling on the barbie by the reservoir. Some enjoyed it so much, they requested to stay for several months. And in the end, the trail was named the “Walkabout Trail,” in honor of the Australian aborigine tradition of “going walkabout” from time to time, wandering through the bush with his family and meager belongings.

i walked it for the first time in april of 2013, and only did the 6-mile middle loop. today we walked the full 8-mile loop in all its glory. and we were rather thankful for the drought—there were spots along the trail that would have been underwater in regular years.

hemlock shelf fungus

there were tons of hemlock shelf fungus. the trail weaves through several dense hemlock stands.

sloganeer

life is, indeed, a path. it’s also a minestrone. now i have that earworm… dang.

the trail

this trail system is marked with 3 colors for the 3 loops: the 3-mile blue loop, the 6-mile red loop, and the orange 8-mile loop. the north-south trail also winds through these trails. we converged with it and parted with it several times.

dragonfly

we saw a few dragonflies, but tons of tiny toads and even tinier frogs. there was a swarm of them at one point. wait, is the collective noun for frogs “swarm?” let’s ask mr. google, shall we?

we ask mr. google

ah. so we saw an army of tiny little black frogs. seriously, these were the smallest frogs i’ve ever seen. they were no bigger than a pillbug. wish i had taken a photo…

a few laurels

parts of this trail were lush and jungle-like. and there were even a few last stands of laurels in bloom.

you can find the walkabout trail in the hikefinder. trailhead, trail map, courtesy rhode island d.e.m.

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