Posted By auntie on July 27, 2014

4.32 miles, smithfield, ri

this was my second time here but the first time with the providence county hiking club. oh, and the first time without snow. there are many more trails here than i mapped last time, and some of them have changed color. very confusing, and the blazing is hit or miss. we got to the airmen’s memorial, mercer lookout and another great overlook, though. great hike. missed the rain by minutes.

mercer lookout

at mercer lookout at the meeting of the white and blue trails (more on trails later), there was a fantastic overlook that i completely missed last time out, and the remains of what was reportedly an old boy scout cabin. pretty neat, although it was very hazy today, with rain threatening, so the view was a little fuzzy.

quarry overlook

this is the view from another little overlook. it was either a quarry or a sand and gravel pit, not sure where the definition of one begins and the other ends, actually. but i’m told that on a clear day you can see the bay from here. i kind of had to take our guide’s word for it today.

green trail

this was a sheer rock face on the green trail that we passed on the way out. of course you can’t see the scale from this shot, but trust me, it’s pretty big.

the trails on this property are a bit confused and confusing. there is no decent online map of them, and what there is just makes things more confusing. i honestly intend to come back and complete mapping both the mysteriously disappearing blue trail (bottom of map) and the entire yellow-blazed “memorial loop.” i have mapped as many of the trails as i could, but i can’t honestly say i got all the colors right. to make matters even worse, it appears that some of the trails used to be blazed one color, but then were re-blazed with another color. at any rate, the map that you can find on the hikefinder is as close as i could get. good luck!

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, RI, Smithfield RI