Posted By auntie on September 3, 2015

5.7 miles; west greenwich, ri

ha! finally caught up with my blog posts. sorry for the recent spate of back-dated posts. things just got away from me, and i wanted to get current before i left for ireland. um, have i mentioned i’m going hiking in ireland? i don’t remember—feels like i might have. anyways…

i have 2 more local hikes planned before i leave on monday after today’s. i hiked this once before, and i remembered there was a heck of a climb back up from the factory brook crossing on the return. i didn’t remember the steep climb outbound up to the top of the hill from the parking area though. that came as a bit of a surprise.

factory brook crossing

in a normal rainfall year, this whole valley at the bottom of the hill would be very boggy and wet. naturally, this year is different. there was a trickle running through the main part of the brook, but not much more than that.

teeny mushrooms

these mushrooms were absolutely tiny. think the buttons on a dress shirt. and not even the regular buttons—the buttons on the collar. that’s small. they were so small i couldn’t even tell if they were gilled or not. teeny.

hay-scented ferns turning

and a recent blog post by my friend bruce said something about hay-scented ferns beginning to turn yellow and i thought “nah! haven’t seen that yet.” well, spoke too soon i guess, because these ferns are giving up the ghost. i’m thinking it’ll be looking a lot like autumn by the time i get back. from ireland. where i’m going hiking. have i mentioned that yet?

you can find the entire tillinghast pond-wickaboxet trail-pratt conservation area trail system (minus the newly-cut shepard trail) in the hikefinder. trailhead, auntie’s trail map.

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