Hike #1164; Willimantic CT to Wampum Corner MA
9/29/18 Willimantic CT to Wampum Corner/Wranthum MA with Jillane Becker
This trip got off to a shakey start in terms of planning. I always look so forward to backpacking, and I have a plethora of stuff I wanted to do.
Ready to goooo....
Among the ones Jillane and I both wanted to do was to connect to Pittsburg PA. We left off on the Mid State Trail in Williamsburg PA, and then headed south to terminate that series in Cumberland MD. If we continued west from Williamsburg another way on a trans-Allegheny Mountains route, we could reach Pittsburg rather easily, and mostly on rail trail with a few things in between. I went over the road to a great extent and found it to be exciting. Just as I was about ready to go, I tried to make reservations at area hotels. Even a week in advance, everything was booked because we planned to go on Saturday. There was some sort of college thing going on, and even the crap motels of the area were all booked. I found one that had a room, waited a couple of hours, and then it was booked too. I found a spot where we could leave a car for the week, but then I found through a friend that that parking area had been under water due to recent flooding.
Starting off
I realized that Connecticut and Massachusetts had higher than average water levels, but they were not in flood stage. We could shift gears and try to connect to Boston, which seemed like a really cool thing to do anyway. We had finished the previous trip in Willimantic, and I got permission to leave a car at a commuter lot right by where we had finished the last on. I had already looked over the route to a good extent, and I was also excited about doing this one, so we drove on out that way on Saturday night. We stopped at a thrift store the night before. I got myself a Beatles tee shirt, but didn’t see much of anything interesting.
Whittemore Park
We stayed at the Passport Inn and Suites, which wasn’t awful, but it was something. Most everything was booked up in this area as well. It was a good thing we found that at all. DAY 1 Disaster started right away when Jillane had forgotten to bring her good trail shoes she had recently purchased. She wanted to go the way in sandals, but that just would not have worked on what we were going through. We had to go to Walmart for her to find something reasonable and cheap to get through it with. She tried out two pairs, but only one would work. So, we got a pretty late start for the first day out.
Natchaug River
I always stress on it until we’re actually out there. It’s the same way with every hike, whether it’s a group one or whatever. Getting started is the worst part. With a vacation one it’s even more, because I just want to be out. I want to be away from the car and any responsibility associated with anything that’s not with me or on my back. It’s an incredible relief once I’m about a mile from my vehicle on on my way. We headed from the parking lot located on Frontage Road at the corner of Rt 195, and started heading south on 195. Pretty Whittemore Park was on the right side of the highway, and then to the left we cut into Philip Lauter Park. I had walked through this park the previous trip in the dark, at the very end. It was good to see it in the daylight. We followed the road down hill and passed the community garden with a humorous sign reading that they love gardening so much they “wet their plants”.
Natchaug River
We continued from the roadway onto the grass and followed along the Natchaug River downstream in the park. There’s a public swimming beach along the way that was kind of washed out that we went by, then turned to the right and headed out to Gordon Avenue. We turned up hill on this a bit, turned left on one of the next streets, then right on Pleasant View Ave to Ash Street. We turned left on Ash Street and walked a very short distance to the Air Line Trail, right where we had turned off of it the previous hike. An “Air Line Railroad was one that traveled point to point irregardless of terrain more so than other lines, in a direct route between cities. This was the one between New York and Boston. It was dubbed collectively as the Air Line, but several different companies built it. It then was the main line of the New York and New England Railroad, and eventually became part of the New Haven system, or the New York, New Haven, and Hartford.
Map showing the New Haven system
Trying to understand this line is not really cut and dry and there are a lot of complicated events in it’s history. For the purposes of this writing, we’ll just say that at one time this entire route was part of the Air Line route, which was followed by the “Ghost Train”, an all white painted locomotive, and the trail follows the route in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It gets confusing more so at the Massachusetts line because the trail name changes to the Southern New England Trunk Line Trail, but none of this trail follows the former route of the Southern New England Railroad, which very closely parallels it all the way from Douglas to the Blackstone River valley. I was confused on this one for a while.
Love
We turned left on the trail, which is paved in this section. It very soon makes it’s way onto an old bridge that crosses the Natchaug River. There were some local kids hanging out there that gave us some weird looks. This is not a trail people typically backpack, so it must have looked odd. We saw a nice black snake along the trail, and passed through the Windham White Cedar Bog, apparently managed by a non profit or something known as Joshua’s Trust. We continued walking and the trail led us behind some buildings and such. There were former industrial lands to the left, which we checked out a little bit. A lot of concrete stuff and some old tanks. A few people went by us, but not many. The paved trail continued to the north to a fenced in area that google maps says is United Abrisives. The paved trail led us out to the edge of Boston Post Road and followed it north briefly to the intersection with Tuckie Road. There, it turned right to cross, and followed the on ramp Route 6 up hill, then descended on the other side. The trail then joined the old railroad bed again.
Swamp wetlands in Douglas State Forest
The pavement ended soon after joining the rail bed, and it looked a little like what we had seen on the previous trip south of Willimantic. There were swamp lands along the rail bed that were quite pretty. Something to the left looked like a spur track, but I can't find anything on old maps to show that there was one here.
From here, the rail bed moved rather obviously in an up hill fashion, more so than I had remembered on the previous one. We crossed Rt 203 next where we had to go up and down where a bridge used to be, and beyond crossed Boulevard Road on an extant bridge. It was a really nice section of woods above Rt 6 from here. The place we had stayed the night before was just below us on the rail grade, and we could probably easily have started here, but it would not have connected to what we previously did. From that point, the trail turns a bit to the east away from Rt 6 and things got a bit quieter. The Two Sisters Preserve of Joshua's Trust was located in the area with more side trails. I wish we had the time to explore all of them, but there's really not enough time in a life time to do it all. For maybe the first time on any of these connective hikes, I felt like I have to let something go. I will probably not live to explore those trails. The truth is, it's too far away from home to be heading out there to explore it. I won't have enough time in my life to explore all of New Jersey let alone every side trail I see on one of these trips. It's to the point where I'll have to pick and choose even what side trips I'll take. It's sad in a way to consider this, because it's one of the most mortal thoughts I've ever had.
Clark's Corner historic view along the rail at Goodwin SF area
The trail paralleled Lynch Road for a bit and then crossed Chewick Road near it's intersection with Lynch. We continued then through another long section of pleasant woods. The trail went from being the very improved surface to a more moderately improved surface. There was a little gravel, and it wasn't nearly as wide. The gravel or ballast is rough walking, but it's overall more pleasant to be on. We soon crossed over Brook Road at the intersection with Parker Road and continued north. After a power line crossing, we passed beneath Route 6. This was a nice little spot, because the railroad shared an underpass with the Merrick Brook. The foot bridge over the brook was only typical trail footbridge width, and so no trucks could get down this section. It gave it a more intimate trail feel that I prefer. We soon entered James L. Goodwin State Forest. It wasn't long from here before the Natchaug Trail system, of the Connecticut Blue Blazed trail system, joined from the right, as well as other trails. There was even a nice camp site to the left we could have used, but there was still plenty of time before dark and we had a ways to go of we were going to make it to Putnam the next day.
Trail Wood
The Natchaug Trail is yet another one that I really want to do. It was a term that meant "Land Between the Rivers", of the Nipmuc Indian tribe. The nearly twenty mile long trail connects to the longer Nipmuck Trail that leads to the Massachusetts border. Part of me saw this and just wanted to adjust course and follow it north, but there would be more rugged terrain and probably no motels to speak of. We continued ahead where James Goodwin's Pine Acres Farm was the site of his lumber industry that made use of the railroad to bring his product to market. We could see Pine Acres Lake to the right of the trail, but didn't follow the trails to it. The Nipmuck Trail starts with two branches much closer to Willimantic. Maybe one day we'll get around to doing that. We'll see. We crossed Eastbrooks Road to the north of Pine Acres Lake, and it was starting to get late. We'd have to find a place to set up camp soon. I knew there was a bed and breakfast somewhat nearby, but it wasn't going to work for us because it was still a bit too far. We crossed over the Pine Acres Pond Trail, another CT blue blazed trail in the Natchaug system after a farm, then crossed more beautiful wetlands on a fill, with beaver lodges visible to the northwest.
Historic North Windham Station view
We next crossed Station Road at the former site of Hampton Station. There was some junk and an old trailer and such laying around. We continued through woods from here, and there was an Audobon Society property to the right called Trail Wood. We eventually came to a side trail that led into it, and it was nice and clear. We decided we would have a walk in to look around for a spot to set up camp. There were apparently some kind of shelters to the south, but there's also a house that's lived in. At the time, I thought we'd have been better off to go south, but in retrospect we did the right thing. We followed the trail north and crossed over the Hampton Brook. Beyond, the trail turned right to follow it down to a wetland. We put wandered the area for a while looking for a good spot, but we weren't finding anything. I made my way back along the brook to an old access road to the property. The trail crosses the brook at the site of an old road bridge it seems, and the roadway can be seen heading up hill. The area was recently timbered for wildlife openings, but it turns back into woods just barely up slope from the trail. I found a good flat spot under pines to set up, and I thought we had a pretty good location. I slept pretty comfortably.
DAY 2
I always wake up first, rather early. I then get up and have a walk around looking for pretty scenery. I didn't get to do much of that this time. I wasn't awake for long when a woman came walking by on the trail system. I could see her coming from a long ways away, and our tent is quite camoflauged. However, dogs never miss us, and she had an off leash dog that came running up to us. She then walked right down the unofficial woods road trail out of the preserve to the north. I hoped that since she had an off leash dog, she too was doing something illegal and wouldn't report anything. Further, on an Audobon Society land of all places, I think dogs aren't even allowed in there anyway.
Camp
Still, we got up and started moving around 11. We followed the woods road a little bit further into the woods, then turned left on another trail. I found an old trail map, and this used to be officially part of the system, but was rather recently abandoned. You could tell people still use it to some extent. The trail took us out on Old Griffin Road right where the Air Line Trail crossed. We continued on Air Line Trail heading generally northeast from here. We passed by more wetlands and continued out across Kenyon Road. The trail in this area was resurfaced better than what we had been on toward the end of the previous day. I suppose it was a welcome thing at this point because it was easier on the feet. We passed by some pretty farm land, crossed Lewis Road, and the grade continued with cuts, fills, and shelves like we'd seen before. The rail bed was often wet in the cuts, and there was some nice big frogs along the way. We also noted a large section of dead woods, just about all Ash trees from what I could see.
Pomfret
We crossed over Rt 97 and Brooklyn Road, and the time went by rather easily. It was mostly all wide trail from this point. I would zigzag back and forth and let Jillane take the lead, that way rather than try to adjust my pace to go slower, I could do a little faster and just cover more ground. I have a hard time going a slower speed, so I have to compensate. It makes it less annoying for her if I'm walking behind her doing it than in front. I can see how it's annoying but I can't really handle it any other way. I used to do that with Cathy when I was with her a decade ago too, and she also hated it.
Abington Station historic
When we reached Mashamoquet Road, we took a break underneath the bridge underpass. This area was known as Abington, and it once had a station. The Abington Brook now flows under the same bridge as the railroad did, and it was a good break spot. I climbed down the stone wall and fooled around in the brook a bit, and then climbed under the bridge on the other side. A side trail on the other side led to the Abington Town Offices. We continued from here, crossed Osgood Road followed by Babbit Hill Road. Just before reaching the Rt 144 crossing, we came to the former site of Pomfret Station. Profret was once a nice little community along the railroad with a handsome station. Sadly, the station burned down I think in 1999 or so. It was planned to be used as an art gallery type of place. Today, there is a station like pavilion in the place of the old station, which made this an idea place to take a break.
Pomfret Station
I don't think any of the brick of the pavilion structure is authentic to the original station, but it could be. It was nicely done either way, but a fraction of the size of the original station. There were picnic benches and such under it, so we took our packs off and hung out. I looked around at all of the history kiosks under it, which were nice. There were some historic photos of the original station too. Beyond this point, the Air Line Trail was not even shown on the maps, though it is all state park land.
Pomfret Station
The trail shown from Willimantic was still shown on google as a dirt surface trail to the northeast for a while, and then was shown not as the bicycling font, but as a white dotted line to Pomfret Station. I had high hopes that from here we might have just a pleasant foot path on the right of way. I'd be partly right. We hung out for a bit, but the yellow jackets were going for whatever power aid drinks I had out, plus whatever food, so we didn't stay for as long as we would have. We continued across the highway and I checkedout a property to the right that had some art stuff on the lawn. There was a yard sale sign on the corner that advertised "good shit" which I found kind of funny.
Near Holmes Road
The rail bed on the opposite side had a narrow tread way, but it was mostly clear. There was a steep set of steps down to the left that went to the Wappoquia Brook. I should have taken my pack off and ran down to have a closer look. Oh well.
Pomfret
The trail remained far less improved ahead. Planks were put down to get over wet areas, and it was only footpath width. When we got to the next road crossing, Needle's Eye Road, there used to be a bridge there. Only one stone abutment remained, but we had to go down and up. I was surprised to see East Coast Greenway signs there. Usually they only put those up when it's improved enough to put bicycles on it easily. This section is passable, but not as easily.
Historic image at Pomfret
From this section to Wright's Crossing road was alright, just a little muddy. When we got to Wright's Crossing, it was adjacent to some farm land and almost completely under water on the grade itself. A path to the left of it took us adjacent to farm land heading east northeast.
Pomfret
As we approached HOlmes Road, it got even harder. The grade got too wet to reasonably walk through. I could do it, but the soft mud getting in my shoes made annoying noises for like an hour, and it just wasn't comfortable. A foot path actually went to the right from the grade and maintained higher ground. We passed a giant fallen tree root ball and emerged on Holmes Road. Google maps even recommended a bypass through this section. Still, it wasn't that bad yet. We walked across where Holmes Road had filled in over the grade and looked for an access on the other side, where the road bends sharply. There was nothing there. We then followed Holmes to the east of the grade, and there was a path leading down hill to the left. This took us to the grade, which was walkable ahead. The next section went avove a farm area on a fill, and the Bark Meadow Brook was below us to the left. There was some bad washout in this area, and I assume that the brook at some point must have overflowed, and the fill of the railroad was like a dam that washed out. We continued ahead and the grade got wider, but not really mowed off. There was a vague footpath through the scrubby vegetation ahead, and at least it wasn't abrasive stuff. It got wet though the section, but we managed to get through. The section came to a spot with a drain thing, and then another steep slope up to Modock Road out of a cut.
On the other side, it was even messier. This part was the least like a trail of anything we were on along the rail grade. We headed down by way of a slope that people clearly use, but the deep cut was not really traversed by a path at all. There were down trees everywhere, and we were just navigating the cut whatever way was easiest to step over everything. I remember thinking at the time "Dan Lurie would change his mind about the East Coast Greenway if he saw this...". Dan would always say "No one gets a rager to hike the entire East Coast Greenway". We went out of the cut onto another fill, and it got easier to walk again. The path was a narrow footpath, but it was overall nice until the next cut. As we approached the former bridge site where the railroad went under River Road, the cut filled with more water than we'd seen yet. There was fortunately another foot path that went up to the right from here and took us out to River Road more easily. The rail bed came out of the cut ahead, which wasn't as bad as the previous one, north of River Road, and onto another fill. The weeds were getting worse in this section. No one had cut anything and trees leaned over the rail bed. It was still clear enough that we could walk through, and better than some of the stuff we fought through on say the Mid State Trail on the Tussey Ridge in PA. We were still doing okay. Things changed after we reached Town Farm Road. The grade approaching the road, if we had been heading south, looks totally uninviting, but to the north it looks quite clear, much more like the trail sections to the south. We walked in beyond the gate, and didn't take long before we got to a rather wet section of trail. A stream flowed right into the grade from the left, and so Jillane went up slope to the right to try to avoid it. I waited for her to make her way down where the stream mostly drained off of the grade to the east. We then continued on better grade to the north, which switched from cut to shelf, and then onto a fill. There was a pretty bad washout at about this point, and ATV paths went up and down on both sides. We continued along the fill, and soon reached big piles of old cut stone. I figured this must be the remains of a bridge of sorts. On the google maps, it showed that the pedestrian bridge was in place over the Quinebaug River into Putnam, so I was kind of confused about this. Also, the trail went steeply down hill from here. I thought maybe they'd erected a new foot bridge on the old railroad abutments, but it still didn't make a lot of sense to me. I went down hill first and came to River Road. I was expecting an open road with traffic, maybe a parking lot. What I found was a totally abandoned road with signs to the west reading "NO Trespassing Police Take Notice". The bridge was not what I was expecting at all. They had used the old railroad abutments and center pier, but a tunnel was cut through the center pier for the foot bridge. The bridge actually crosses the site, but far far lower elevation than the railroad originally did.
Putnam bridge site
This bridge site was one of the reasons this section of rail was taken out of service. The same super Flood of 1955 that devastated New Jersey and Pennsylvania was also a big deal up here, and it took out the bridge over the Quinebaug River. It makes me wonder how the current foot bridge will fare being so much lower.
Historic image of the Putnam bridge
We crossed over the bridge, and could see the abutments to where the railroad continued on the other side, but it was fenced off. We weren't going to continue that way anyway. We had to do a side trip from here to get to our hotel from the night, which I had since reserved. We turned right briefly, and then left on Arch Street to head north. Along that, we passed an old building that was a sort of trolley shop or station. We next passed beneath a stone arch for an active railroad, formerly the Norwich and Worcester Railroad which soon paralleled the Air Line, which was the New York and New England. We turned right on the other side along South Main Street. I checked with Jillane to see if she wanted to get some food in town to the left before we headed up there, because the only other option would be to get delivery, and she preferred to go to the hotel first. We continued along the street, which is a dead end, where I planned to cut into the back of the Putnam cemetery, then come out right across from the hotel. Unfortunately, when we reached the rear of the cemetery, it was all chain linked closed. It looked like it had been closed off rather recently. With all of the local homes there, I didn't want to hang out gawking, and I wasn't going to turn back. We cut to the right of the fence and just started trying to follow it that way. We didn't have far to go to get to Killingly Ave and the hotel, but we'd have to skirt Rt 295 for a bit. We tried staying up slope and fighting through weeds, but it sucked too bad. I could see the bridge that carried Killingly over the interstate, and so we went down to walk along it briefly, then cut back to the woods toward the cemetery again. There was still no way through, but we got pretty close to the road bridge. Just as we approached, all sorts of weeds blocked the way. Fortunately, it was all stuff like Japanese Knotweed that didn't hurt to shove out of the way. I fought through some and found that there was a good opening between the chain link fence and the road at the end of the bridge. Jillane followed me up through that, and I was annoyed to see that the entire cemetery along the most open road had no fence around it. We walked the short bit along the road and cut down slope to the hotel on the corner of Killingly and Heritage Road where it becomes Grove Street.
Second night home
I went in and got our room, and before going in Jillane checked out the grounds. There was a giant Silver Maple tree in the back, a little covered bridge, and an abandoned restaurant section that seemed pretty cool. We went inside, and the lady at the counter gave me a menu to what she said was the best pizza place to order from in town, because it had the best menu. We ordered pizza to be delivered from there with a couple of toppings. We got a good amount of stuff because we were both pretty hungry. I think we had two pies of different types. I wasn't even stuffed afterwards, so we could easily have ordered even more, but I was glad we stopped at that.
DAY 3
There was really not much to do waking up at this point. I was just looking up history and such on where we were. The town was settled way back, and was originally known as Aspinock. It was renamed in honor of Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam. The town really began growing in the mid 1800s with the development of mills which provided clothing and other goods for Civil War soldiers.
Historic Putnam postcard
The town was devasted during the FLood of '55, and in the half century to follow, much of the unused downtown was repurposed into a sort of antique shopping center. When we finally got moving, we made our way across the street to the cemetery. We followed the roads through that to the far corner where we could come out directly on Grove Street, where we turned left. There was a nice little saying in the concrete of the sidewalk that read "Giving to others leads others to give". There was also a giant fake paper airplane lodged into a tree, which was quite odd.
Original Putnam depot
We continued down toward town where the old station is still standing. The original 1870s station is no longer there, this was a replacement built in 1906 or so.
Historic view of Putnam Station shortly after completion
There is a restaurant in it, and I would have loved to eat there, but we didn't have a lot of time.
Putnam Station today
We got another late start this time, and I wanted to get to where we could have a hotel again the following night. After a short while, I kind of gave up hope of that as well, because we weren't doing good on time.We walked from the station through town, which was actually quite pretty. Jillane didn't have anywhere she wanted to eat at this point, so we continued on through to the Price Chopper at Putnam Shopping center. I went in first and got myself a sandwich and a couple other little things. I had something for later I recall as well. Jillane went in and got whatever she wanted as well. I also packed some more power aid because she'd drank most all of it that I'd brought already. It was a good thing I got it because we'd run out before the next opportunity to get some.
Historic Putnam postcard
While I was waiting for her, guys would come up and talk to me. It seems like everyone up in that area smokes cigarettes more heavily than in New Jersey.
Putnam Station today
The one guy was trying to talk to me about driving a truck and breaking it, and how now he's taking the rest of the day off work, and how they put guys without enough experience behind the wheel. I guess the guy really wanted someone to rant to.
Historic Putnam postcard
When we were finally ready to go, I headed out to May Street in back. We were able to go up slope slightly and get on the active railroad tracks there. The Norwich and Worcester and the New York and New England both ran closely parallel with each other at this point, almost on the same right of way. By following these tracks, we could turn off when the Air Line turned off more directly and avoid walking some roads. It was a nice change walking the tracks for a bit.
Historic Putnam postcard
It had clearly been over four tracks wide in the heyday. We passed beneath Providence Street, passed a vacant warehouse to the left, and then crossed Little Dam Tavern Brook on a bridge. The old Air Line railroad used to turn away from the Norwich and Worcester first in this area. The Quinebaug River had been rerouted somewhat, I believe by the railroad, in this area. The original river course is more to the right, and the old Air Line route goes around it back there through a cut in a single track alignment. It was probably moved when it was double tracked through the area. I went off of the tracks to go back over to it for a closer look. The cut is impressive, and it makes a harder turn than the later line, but it's full of water and weedy, so we were better off just staying on the active tracks at first. When the line came back in from the right, it wasn't far beyond there that it broke off again to continue east. We passed a business that had stuff along the right side, and I found a path onto it. I continued walking ahead on it while Jillane stayed on the tracks so I could be sure it remained clear to a point where we'd have no coice but to turn off.
Bridge deck
We were good for a bit, and Jillane came up as the grade gained elevation away from the active track, which continues north. There was an impressive stone wall to the right, on a slope that might have been for loading or something. The rail grade got to be pretty overgrown as we approached where it would have crossed Route 12. There was a little foot bridge back there, so it must have been at least slightly developed at one time. We fought through this rough spot and made our way out to Old Rt 22, in Mechanicsville where there would have been a station stop. The old highway goes to a dead end with a large building used as a sort of apartment building. People were picking their kids up from the bus along the point at this time, so it seemed kind of weird that we were sitting there with large backpacks. It started raining a little at this point, so it seemed miserable. Jillane didn't want to go on, and I thought we were just going to uber out and end the trip, but we pushed on. We turned right on the highway briefly, and then left into a new parking area where the trail had recently been developed. It was brand new, like it was probably done this year, same as the section further down in Portland that we'd been on. We headed down a slope from where there would have been a bridge, or maybe the highway was rerouted after it was already abandoned. There was one of those little painted rocks on the sign that read "Hope", and sometimes I wonder if those things are sings. I suppose they can be. I chose to just keep it in my mind because it felt better at the time. The trail passed Acme Pond, which was just across the highway, which we were now parallel with, then cut to the east a bit to cross Thompson Road in view of an old cemetery.
ugh
We continued ahead, somewhat parallel with Rt 395, and we crossed over an on ramp to it from Rt 12 just ahead. I was surprised that this one didn't have huge fences blocking people from falling off or throwing anything off. Even more surprising was that the old metal grated walkway that was supposed to be next to the tracks was left open so it could be walked over. I went out on it and watched traffic from it. It started raining pretty heavily at this point. The forecast wasn't calling for much more till after 7 pm, but it was getting bad. We pushed ahead, and I had to get my rain jacket out or I'd go hypothermic. Another message was there for me scrawled on the bridge: "Suffer Forever". I don't know what to make of that. The trail remained kind of close to the highway, and the better surfacing ended. The area was more obviously used by ATVs, and we even passed two guys with dirt bikes, one of which had stalled and they were pushing them back in the rain. We next passed under Rt 200 and took a break. There were piers, behind which we could probably get away with setting up a tent and remaining dry. We considered it, but there was another underpass where the trail went under the interstate itself not far ahead, so we gambled on that to see if it would be something better to spend the night. We weren't going to find anything great, that's for sure either way. Thompson Station was located somewhere near this underpass I believe.
We continued ahead, and it seemed like a good distance. We crossed Sunset Hill Road, and then after that Lowell Davis Road. Just beyond there we passed under Rt 395. The spot was not as good as the previous one we had seen. It was wet and muddy almost completely under both north and southbound bridges. I went up slope on both sides looking for just about anything that would do. Nothing was really looking good. I went back to the previous bridge again, the southbound one, and eventually had the idea that I would climb up under the bridge and get handfuls of dead leaves from the slope to create a bed for the tent to lay on, in the section that was most dry from the mud. This seemed to work out actually pretty well, or as well as it possibly could in the circumstances. We were literally right on the edge of the trail, and we'd just have to hope that we wouldn't have an ATV barrel through and hit us in the night. Despite it being in really an awful, desperate spot, I slept better this night than any night out. I even slept in until about 9 am, which was something I was dead set against due to location.
DAY 4
One of the things that woke me up was someone going by on a bicycle. I figured there would be more of them so I tried to get Jillane up earlier. We still didn't head out until about 11, but what really got us moving was a work crew up on the bridge. They were throwing rocks off the road and down the slope of the bridge. It looked like they might come down beneath it too, possibly, so we hurried on out.
Scene on the trail
We continued from here northeast and passed under the Thompson Road bridge. It's a good thing we didn't try to go further with hopes that this one would be better, because it would have been worse. We continued ahead to a lovely farm just past there where there was an underpass for wagons and such.
East Thompson wreck
From here, we moved on along more lovely wetlands, and then across Sand Dam Road. Just beyond, the trail was somewhat more recently developed. We continued a bit further on from here and took a little break when we reached East Thompson, at the road of the same name.
East Thompson
On December 4th, 1891, this was the location of the Great East Thompson Train Wreck. This was one of the the largest wrecks in history, and the only train wreck ever to involve four trains. There used to be a junction at the site with a branch line to the north. This was the last town we passed trough before entering Massachusetts. We continued on across the road, and there was a house to the left that looked almost like a train station, but reportedly the old station was smaller, and was demolished.
East Thompson
Just beyond, there is an old wooden cattle bridge that still spans the railroad, adding to the historic character of it. This was my sign to take a side trip I'd read about. The Hermit Cave is an interesting back filled cave located just up and away from the railroad bed on private land. It was constructed using an old method called "Corbelling" with the stones placed together to form a rough inside arch. Some say it was built by the railroaders to stash their stuff. They, after all, were mostly Irish and from the lands where these were known to be made. Other theories say that it was made much earlier, either by Native Americans, or more ancient Celts or Vikings that visited or for a time inhabited the area. Carbond dating on an old fire pie next to the site showed the age of over 750 years. It's interesting to imagine it could be that old.
Hermit Cave
I made my way back down to the rail bed and caught up with Jillane. We continued from here to the Massachusetts border where the character of the trail changed a bit. We reached a side trail to the right that traveled 0.6 mile to the tri state corner between Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. This would be the ninth state I'd add to the list of ones I'd connected to. Jillane continued ahead, and I took to the rocky trail gradually heading up hill.
Tri State Marker
I arrived at the tri state monument, and for the third time on these hikes I was able to occupy three states at once (the first time was NJ, PA, and NY, and the second time was PA, DE, and MD). The boundary marker was placed in 1883 and apparently considered to be accurate, although boundaries everywhere else along are all in dispute it seems constantly, and have been since the 1600s. I made my way back down the way I'd come, and reached the railroad bed to continue east. In Massachusetts, the trail continues at the Southern New England Trunk Line Trail, which I don't care for the name of even more since I found that there was another rail line that actually carried that name running closely parallel much of the way. I continued along the trail, which had a lot of runoff in this area. The Rocky Brook was below to the left, running very heavily and dispersing through the woods at pretty much flood stage. When I got to where the brook passed beneath the rail bed, Jillane was already laying in it relaxing. I ran down a side trail from it to take a dip naked without getting my shorts wet, but then I went in the same spot as Jillane anyway.
Autumn swamp view
It was a nice relaxing spot, so we spent some time here. The swamp lands that drained into the brook in the area had beautiful fall foliage, more so than in other woods around.
1872 culvert, Douglas SF
We soon moved on along the grade, still on a causeway within the swamp lands for a bit. The brook crossed again in a wooded area, and then a trail came in on the right that looked like it might have been another railroad grade. I knew there was one that went to Wallum Lake just ahead and I thought this was it, but in fact it was the Massachusetts Mid State Trail. The Mid State Trail in Massachusetts is just shy of 100 miles long. It passes through about sixty miles of public land, 15 miles of private land, and 17 miles of back road walking. It travels from Rhode Island into New Hampshire, across Massachusetts. I'd love to do this trail. We crossed the trail, which surprisingly didn't have any signage, and I didn't see any. It's apparently in blazed yellow triangles. To the north, it connects to the Wapack Trail in New Hampshire, and to the south, it connects to the North-South Trail which leads all the way across Rhode Island to the Atlantic Ocean. I salivate at the thought of doing all of them. We continued to the east from here, with Aldrich Pond to the left. The railroad spur I was looking for to the lake appeared on the right, as another side trail. We continued ahead, and passed into a cut after the ponds before passing under Wallum Lake Road. There is still an original 1872 stone culvert carrying the road at this point, which is quite a rarity because most road bridges have all been replaced with more modern structures. Since this one is in Douglas State Forest, it is probably one of the reasons it survived.We passed another little shelter to the left, which was something like the Hermit Cave, but totally different rock construction that had no corbelling. Just past that, we came to the former site of a bridge overpass.
Remnant abutment of Southern New England RR
I was fascinated by this Southern New England Railroad and where exactly it went. I hadn't initially noticed it until it came up when looking ahead at where we were walking. It was an obvious grade, but it wasn't on all of the USGS historic maps. I couldn't quite figure it out. Upon further research, I discovered this fascinating line was part of the never completed Grand Trunk Railroad. It was another "air line" that was to offset some of the other railroad monopolies. Some sections were built with bridges and such, but it was never really put in service. The line was chartered in 1910, the brainchild of Grand Trunk Railroad President Charles Melville Hayes. Sadly, Hayes went down with the Titanic in 1912. Despite his death, the railraod continued construction unil November of that year. A construction contractor threatened litigation for breach of contract against the Grand Trunk, and so work continued and almost all grading was finished in Massachusetts, but not so in Rhode Island. World War I was considered a setback, but work did not continue after the war. We're left with an amazing scar of a railroad that never came to be. I spotted another connecting grade to the let from here, but I'm not sure what that was. I suppose it will take a bit more research.
We continued ahead through Douglas State Forest toward the town of Douglas. We had another little break along Morse Pond to the left, which would have had a good swim spot, but I didn't bother at this point. I wanted to keep moving on. I still wasn't sure if we'd try to push on to the next hotel, or if we would try to camp.We reached the main crossing in Douglas, where there apparently used to be a station at South Street. We took a brief break, and then continued on across. We crossed East Main Street, followed by Yew Street. The time between these crossings went fast. After that we crossed Franklin Street, followed by Depot Street which was apparently another station. There was still wood in the crossing where the rails used to be. The road no longer goes through there, and instead is a dead end with pedestrian only access to the south side.
Crossing, Douglas MA
We crossed Martin Road next, followed by Monroe Street. It was starting to get dark, and the trail was getting more secluded. The path got narrower, and there were plants growing in tightly to the open part of the grade which made for some nice walking, but I was worried how that would get as it got darker. We had a long undeveloped section, then crossed West Street. Beyond was another long section with nothing. We could hear the animals around us on that, and Jillane spotted an animal stalking us to the south side of the grade. The Emerson Brook passed below the grade at a high fill to Lewis Pond below, which we could barely see through the night. Jillane took a flashlight out from my pack to see better through this section. Eventually we got to where we could see the lights from the cars crossing the next road, which was where we would turn off to get to the hotel. I had already called to confirm that rooms were available at this point, so we were going for it. This ended up being our longest day out. We turned left on Chocolog Road when we got to it, headed down hill and passed beneath Route 146. This area was known as South Uxbridge. We headed to the right on Rt 146A to the Quaker Inn and Conference Center. Really, it was more of just a motel with a sort of closed conference center section that hasn't been used lately. When I went to check in, I was wondering about food, and the Quaker Tavern was just south of the inn, within sight.
East of Douglas
Strangely, the only bar in town closed at 9 pm! What kind of bar closes so early??? It was getting close to that time. We had maybe a half hour remaining. I hurried over there and left my pack at the steps of the check in room in order to get something. Jillane already told me she wanted Pasta Primavera, so I knew something to get. I walked into the place, and the girl at the door took my to go order. She then told me to sit at the bar while I waited. Jillane arrived outside, but left my pack out there. I had my camera and such in it, and I didn't trust the look of the people hanging around outside of the place. I asked her to bring my pack back to the room and I'd take care of the food. I ordered her dinner with chicken, and I ordered myself Chicken Cordon Bleu. For an appetizer, I got us steak quesadillas. I'd forgotten to get her a drink, and so I had to order it from the bar which was expensive. I had to spend a certain amount for another check, so I just got myself a glass of Grand Maurneir, which I hadn't had in a while, to make up the difference. When I got the food, I headed back to the hotel, where we had a very nice room with an inside access, out near the end. I inhaled the food from being so hungry. Fortunately I felt rather stuffed after that and didn't require more.
DAY 5
There was nothing to do in this area either, and there was no continental breakfast again. I did some more reading until Jillane was ready to go, and we checked out. Jillane headed to nearby Aldrich Street and returned the key cars, and that would take her direct to the rail bed. I instead went back the way we had come because I didn't want to miss any significant section of it.
Home for night three
Jillane was waiting for me when I got to Aldrich Street, and we continued south. We were passing through a cut at first. It was wet on the section that I had walked, but after Aldrich was alright for a while. To the right, I could see some of the never finished railroad grade on a slope. It was particularly prominent when we got to a power line crossing. The entire section was closely parallel with Rt 146, and continued to get closer to it. We eventually passed through a cut with bits of rolled up fence, and then a steep drop down to the edge of the wide highway. The railroad is overtaken by the highway for a time here, so we had to walk the edge of it to the south to Elmwood Ave. We turned left under that, and on the other side right on Ironstone Road. I could see the highway made use of at least one of the old railroad culverts from the road, which carried the outflow of the Ironstone Reservoir.
The rail bed
When we came to the end of the dead end road, the rail bed was already out from under the highway and obliterated somewhat through development, but we turned to the left behind a strip mall where we stopped for lunch at Baker Boy Town Grill Diner. This was a nice little sit down lunch spot where we got some sandwiches. I forget what it was, but I had some sort of special thing. From here, we turned right on Rt 146A to where the railroad used to cross a short distance southeast, and climbed up the bank on the other side. It looked like we'd have an undeveloped grade again, but then we had nice split rail fencing on the top. In a short distance, the trail became newly paved with an access from the right. This section is now the dual Blackstone River Greenway and Southern New England Trunkline Trail. It had mile posts and such along it as we walked. Marble posts with a train insignia on it served as bollars at all of the road crossings. In a short distance, the unfinished Southern New England Railroad came in on the right side, sometimes visible. The area we ate lunch was known as Ironstone, but the town area we were going into was known as Millville.
Along the trail in Millville
We crossed Central Street near the intersection with Hope Street where there was parking and interpretive signs. I was really interested in the Blackstone Canal, the earlier area transportation mentioned in some of the signage. Apparently there is a lock nearby in good repair. The canal opened in 1828, was forty five miles long, and overcame 451 feet of elevation with 48 locks. It also relied on slack water navigation of the Blackstone River for about 10% of it's length, much like many other canals I've explored. The canal operated until about 1916, and afterwards some sections continued in use as industrial power canals. A side path to the left would have taken me down to a nice canal lock. I should have gone and looked. We continued ahead, and I could see grading and structures associated with the unfinished railroad to the right for a time. It wasn't far before we made it to our first crossing of the Blackstone River. This was an interesting spot, because the rail bridge was uniquely rebuilt with wide deck and points at either side where one can observe the bridge from the edge. Below, the Providence and Worcester Railroad is still active, and I think the name is at least somewhat closely related to the historic name for that line. I still have so much more researching to do to find it all out.
Bridge
Above us on the former air line right of way, and the active line below, the abutments and some footings and a pier for the unfinished Southern New England Railroad were still in place. I tried to imagine a trestle over that at the time, because I didn't know at the time that it had never been completed. Ironically, the information kiosk on this also had not been completed, as it was vacant below the pier of the unfinished railroad. It looked as though the trail in this section also had only somewhat recently been completed. I peered over the edge toward the Blackstone River below, and immediately was annoyed to see someone had tossed their dog shit bag onto the pier. I'm so sick of seeing those things. We continued along the trail, and a lot of people were going by. Occasionally one would ask me where we were going and where we came from. Typically, they'll ask if we're doing the Appalachian Trail, or training to do the Appalachian Trail, to which we have to explain the completely different initiative.
Canal lock site
We soon crossed over the Blackstone River again. The Blackstone Gorge is south of this point, but this was I believe something of a river channel created for the Blackstone Canal. In the yard of a house just before the bridge, I spotted what might have been a lock or sorts. We crossed the river, or the canal, whichever it is officially, and continued across it another time just ahead. To the right, there appeared to be a likely canal lock where it narrowed to drain into the downstream. The canal certainly did not go into the Blackstone Gorge below, so it's logical to assume this was all canal infrastructure. We passed beneath Church Street with a new culvert, then through an old looking stone lined cut out to Mendon Street, where there was a nice modern playground on the left, with no chips or anything for surfacing. It was all a spongy stuff. It was actually among the nicer new playgrounds I've seen. There was a sign on a building to the right for "ice cream", and it was the first store right on the trail we'd come across in a while, so we went in for snacks and drinks. The place didn't really have ice cream, just stuff in freezers, and then regular mini mart goods. The building it occupied was an historic former fire house.
Undecked...
We took a break and ate our snacks at a park bench for a bit. We then moved on ahead along the trail, which crossed Main Street and Canal Street, followed by the Blackstone River again. Some of the canal must have been filled in in this area, and some must have been slack water navigation. The active railroad was still parallel with us all of this time, usually most visible at the bridge crossings. There was a nice deck truss bridge on that at he last crossing. We passed a parking area and then crossed St. Paul Street. All of a sudden, the trail abruptly ended. At the fencing, I went around, and saw that a trestle still exists spanning the old Blackstone Canal, which is watered down there, and Canal Street. I could cross it on the beams, but I knew Jillane wouldn't want to do that. We would have to backtrack and descend to Canal Street. The plan for the entire trip changed in this section. I had planned on a side trip after walking the railroad bed further to stop at the Woonsocket Motor Inn, a motel with crummy reviews on line. Jillane didn't like the look of it, but she didn't mind going further south if it meant we could stay at the much nice HOliday Inn on the south side of Woonsocket RI. The next rail bridge over the Blackstone River is missing entirely, and so we would have to go around to continue on that. The trail does continue then to Franklin State Forest, but we wouldn't be doing that this time as originally planned. I would have to work out the details changing later, but I was happy to have the opportunity to see more of downtown Woonsocket and do some more miles. We headed down a slippery slope and I fell in the grass, to Canal Street. We then turned right to St. Paul Street again where we'd turn left across the watered canal, then right to continue on Canal Street. In a short distance, we passed beneath the wrecked old bridge that carried the rail bed over us. This was the last we saw of the old "air line" on this trip.We continued following Canal Street along the Blackstone Canal and soon crossed the border into Rhode Island. A channel to the left went under the road and drained the canal into the Blackstone River, while the original canal was to the right as sort of a swampy mess. The road was narrow and busy, and we barely had any room to get off when cars went by. This is technically the route of Blackstone River Greenway at this point, but it's not particularly safe.
We could see some of the old industry of Woonsocket coming into view and the Singleton Street bridge ahead. I knew this was going to be an interesting one to walk through. The area of Woonsocket was first purchased from the Coweset and Nipmuc tribes by Englishman Roger Williams. In a letter, he referred to the lands as "Niswosakit". Other possibilities are native words "Woonksechocksett" meaning "Fox Country" or "Wannashowatuckqut" meaning "fork in the river". It may also have to do with the largest falls of the Blackstone River which is in the area. Edward Harris opened the first of many textile mills in Woonsocket starting in 1831. Using water power, other mills and small communities sprung up along the Blackstone River. They slowly merged together to become part of Woonsocket. Today, much of this intustry appears to be closed down, although some still appear active. At Singleton Street, we continued straight on River Street. Jillane commented that she wished she had a shopping car for this section to the hotel, because we always find them and it would make it really easy to continue through town with.
Historic postcard image of the station in Woonsocket
Just after we passed one particular industrial area, sure enough she found a shopping cart behind a large trailer to the right of the road. I went over and got it for her, and she put her pack in it to continue on. There were some really awesome old warehouses along the way, I assume all part of the old textile industry. One on our right had some old masonry about it, and on our left there was one apparenlty fire damaged with a section of collapsed roof. Soon after these, we crossed the Blackstone River on the road bridge. We then crossed the active tracks we'd been following, followed by the former New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, also active. Both of these lines crossed the Blackstone just to the right of the crossings. We continued to the left on High Street and headed up hill a bit, then down the other side to a handsome old railroad staton. This was a
Historic station
NY, New Haven and Hartford Station built in 1882 to replace an earlier one.We continued straight into an awesome little town center area with taller buildings. They were built into slopes and had a lot of character. Always present were more industrial looking buildings on the outskirts. We continued straight across the Blackstone River again, and parallel with us was a really cool looking still active railroad trestle with old stone piers. It looked like something that would typically have been replaced, but this remained. We had some good views on the river crossing, which included more old masonry mill buildings on the right. We continued along Hamlet Avenue to the east which took us into more town area. It must have looked silly with the shopping cart. As we got into the busier part of town before, I took over pushing the shopping cart, and had both of our packs in it. It was hard at times because the heaving of the sidewalks wasn't always good for pushing carts. Still, I got through it and over the bridges, where Jillane would take it briefly while I ran back and forth across to get photos. We stopped in town when we got to a liquor store, because I figured if Jillane wanted something, we might not find it later. She got some Angry Orchard Rose cider drink, and had one right away. In town, she had to kind of hide it because there were police everywhere. In Connecticut you can have an open container, but I'm not sure what the Rhode Island laws are. We crossed the tracks again, and then the Blackstone River one last time. There was a cool old brick building to the left just before the crossing. I didn't see any remnant of the canal through this area, but on line it says most of it remains intact. I'm not sure what the state of it was here. There was a political ad that at first I thought was an offensive ad, but then realized it was actually the guy’s name running for office.
Thought it was an offensive sign at first...
We headed across the bridge and turned to the right on Route 122. A skinny young black guy came up and asked to use a phone, and mine was about dead. Jillane let him use his, and fortunately he was able to get hold of whoever he needed to, and we were on our way up the road. This section seemed to drag on a while. It was hard to push the cart along a lot of it too. We eventually found our way to "Lil General Store" where we got some snacks and such. I wasn't sure if we'd find anything else along the way. I don't recall what I got. We continued down hill and checked out a pizza place to consider ordering, but we ended up not doing so.Soon, we reached the Holiday Inn, and I took the cart down a weird hill and partly spilled it. I went into the front of the hotel and left the cart out of sight, and the girl checked me in for a nice room. She also told me about hiking Mt. Washington and having bad knees and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. Once I had my key card, I pushed the shopping cart right through and into the elevator, up to the room. It seemed so weird to have this shopping cart in the nice bedroom.I don't remember if I ended up eating any dinner at this point. I'd had enough earlier, and then I went back down the stairs and had some cookies at the front counter the girl gave me. I went to the pool room and took a swim for a bit, which felt great, and then I went to use the computer in the front of the hotel.
Room cart
It was at this point I started planning out what we would do next. We were not going back across Woonsocket to the air line. Instead, we could cut from where we were directly along a power line clearing through the properties of the CVS world headquarters along the hill, and have only a short road walk to Diamond Hill Park. There, the Warner Trail, a thirty some mile trail from Rhode Island into Massachusetts leads to connect with the Bay Circuit Trail, one of the other major Massachusetts trails, and give us a direct connection to Boston. I felt like this was going to be a much better trip for it, because Warner Trail looked like one of those oddball ones like I like to follow. The Warner Trail was a project was devised by Charles H. Warner and John Hudson of Appalachian Mountain Club prior to World War II. Development has encroached on a lot of it, but it's still a great walkable route between Boston area and Rhode Island. While I was printing out all of the maps as well as the text of the guides, the girl behind the counter brought me the remainder of the cookies that she'd had sitting out. I went to bed with a good idea of where we were going, excited about doing this new trail into a new direction. Every step we would take would be the furthest east I'd ever connected to.
DAY 6
I woke up in the morning refreshed and headed down for continental breakfast. This was about the best continental breakfast I'd ever seen. Usually there's a waffle machine, fruit, cereal, some pastries. This one actually had a pancake machine that was really good, but also omelottes! I had probably four cheese omelottes and two vegetable omelottes which were great, then four or more pancakes. They even had two kinds of sausages I had. I also had pastries and such. I brought some up for Jillane to have.
A view on the power line hill
We were late getting out again, and then walked across the street and down a bit to the Cumlerland Farms store. I still had the shopping cart. There was a seating area to the right of the store we hunkered down in and figured out what kind of food to get. I bought a sandwich for later and had some stuff right there. Once we had all we needed, we left the shopping cart there with some sadness in the goodbye. I had gone into the Cumberland Farms and looked at a driving map they had on the wall, and there I saw Diamond Hill Park, our destination, actually extended right to where we were supposed to get off of the power line! If that was the case, we could cut right on through the park and have almost no road walking. I was very happy to see this. We crossed over Park Drive East and then got on the power line heading up hill. This took us to the entrance to the CVS parking lot area. We turned left and then right, and skirted the back of the right side of the parking lot. Jillane found a big jar full of weed there someone had dropped or stashed. Surprising to see someone would lose so much of it.
My trail markers...
We continued out the end of the parking lot into the woods next to a retention pond. It took us to where people were dumping a ton of grass, and so we bushwhacked to the right to get to the power line clearing again. We hit another paved road in the complex from above the power line, turned left, and then picked up another power line access road. This one stayed below it a bit, and then circumnavigated a rock outcrop to the north nicely. We came to an intersection of power lines and continued on the one we were following to the northeast, which was pretty good. It wasn't totally clear, but it was easy enough to follow for us. It came out to another parking area just off of Highland Corporate Drive. We continued on that road briefly to the next little corporate building, and cut to the right on the power line path again just before it. This took us up hill rather steeply. At the top, we had a nice view to the west toward the area we had been. There were galvanized rails there which looked to be part of a former road or something. We came near a parking lot at the top, then descended a bit. The power line path came out on a private driveway, where we scurried to the right briefly to a cul de sac known as Carnation Street. We turned right out to Wrentham Road. From here, we cut directly across into the woods from Wrentham Road. I had gone on my phone and found some poor quality trail maps showing the system that was back in the woods between here and Diamond Hill Park. The one trail I had been looking for first was pretty obscure. Fortunately, the woods were not that dense and we were able to bushwhack it pretty easily. We found a wider woods road trail after bushwhacking a bit past a small tributary.
Warner Trail
The only maps of this area on line were sort of crappy "map my ride" maps superimposed on google maps, all shown the same color, and none differentiated between what was a prominent trail, a woods road, or an indistinct trail. We took the trail to the left, came to an intersection, went right, and tried to follow the next path looking like it was most going east. I was trying to watch my shadow and make sure it was always just over my left shoulder to keep us going the right way. The trails were used by mountain bikers, and so they were all over the place. We found one vaguely blazed blue one, and then one with occasional white arrows affixed. This wasn't helping. When I thought we were going the right way, aerials showed we were going back again. I eventually just went for northbound to the power line clearing again. We would be able to follow that east. It was a relief when we finally got to the power line. I was getting worried about getting onto the Warner Trail before dark, but actually we were doing okay. The power line took us down through what was reportedly an old quarry area, then back up to the end of another person's driveway. We hurried out from that and onto Rt 114. We turned right to follow this.
Diamond Hill Reservoir
Before reaching the intersection with Diamond Hill Road, I found a pair of sunglasses to the right of the road that I wore for the rest of the trip. Jillane found something in that section too but I can't think of what it was. At the intersection with Diamond Hill Road, the right of way of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Branch of the New York and New England Railroad followed closely to Diamond Hill Road down to the park. Unfortunately, it was somewhat clear but not clear enough to walk the distance to the park. We decided to just walk the road. Before going into he park, we made a stop at "The Ice Cream Machine", an ice cream stand directly across from the park. They had very generous portions, and so we were glad we had made this little stop. Once we were done, we headed across the street, through the parking area, and across the old railroad bed. I was looking immediately for the start of the Warner Trail, but I couldnt' find it.
Sunset
The trail is rather oddly marked. It has hiker symbols with an upside down triangle at points, and at others it's just these little circles affixed to trees with nails, much smaller than most standard blazes. They do use turn blazes, which makes it easier at spots, but this area of it was tough. I never did end up finding the west end of Warner Trail. We ended up on a yellow one moving around, and came out to Fisher Road, which the trail hits just a little further down. We did pass where it came out so we knew we were on it. The trail follows Fisher Road to the east through a development, and at the end follows an abandoned portion of Fisher Road toward Diamond Hill Reservoir. The area is heavily posted with no trespassing signs, but even the guide says that for the trail it's allowed to pass through.
A nice spot
We went at the end of the cul de sac and bushwhacked down to the road. I didn't want to go that way initially because the guide didn't mention the "no trespassing" signs. Sure enough, the blazes I was looking for were in place a bit further down. I got to the bottom and passed a girl using a lap top at a nice spot overlooking the reservoir. I saw Jillane to the left making her way down, but she didn't see me and continued the wrong way. When I was waiting for her, and she didn't show up, I had to call her to come back. The girl I saw told me she saw her going the wrong way and said she tried to tell her, but she didn't listen! We got back on the right track and headed out along the trail. There was heavy ATV use in the area, but I never actually saw any. I did hear them though. The edge of the lake was rutted by the ATV paths, and we could see where the trail was supposed to deviate from them. It was just easier to follow the ATV paths at a certain point because the trail was just going needlessly through parallel weeds. After keeping more with the height of the land a bit, the trail then turned to the right and came back down closer to the reservoir along an old woods road. We came to a particularly beautiful spot on the right where it looked like the obvious place to set up. I took my pack off there. I didn't want to set anything up yet, in case someone went by and saw us and caused a problem. I walked ahead from this point along the trail looking to see if there was anything better a little farther. The trail forked where an informal path led up hill to a religious institution, and to the right led down hill to a great little rock outcropping with a view of the reservoir, and rock outcroppings on the other side. It was a great spot. When I got there, a guy was coming up behind me. I was surprised to see anyone. We started chatting, and I told him a bit of what I was doing back there. He had no idea about the Warner Trail, and was interested in it. We talked for a while about trails and the kinds of places we liked to go. He pointed out to me that this spot we met at was one of his favorites, because you can't see any houses from it. Even though it's not particularly secluded, it gives the illusion of such, which makes it great. His name was Nick, and he worked in Boston, so when I told him we were hiking to there, he wasn't that excited about it, he admitted, because of his work. I gave him my website information, and he wrote it down, so maybe we'll hear from him one of these days.
Dusk
I made my way back to our site, it being the best one in close proximity, and Jillane was wading around in the water when I got there. It was a lot cooler out at this point. It was actually the coolest temperature day of the entire trip, but it was still worth getting in the water. I followed her in and went for a refreshing swim before setting up for the night. It was nice to stop with just this much time left before dark. I also liked that we were doing some more rugged hiking rather than just rail trail for this one, so I was in a good mood. I got out our pots and pans, and Jillane prepared this freeze dried food bag thing we had gotten at REI. We figured we'd cook that much earlier in the trip than at this point, but it worked out pretty well because we didn't have any other dinner, and it did turn out being our last night out. It was certainly the best camp site we had on this trip by a long run.
DAY 7
I woke up first as I usually do, and this time had more of an opportunity to go and have a walk around. I didn't want to do too much though because it was a Saturday morning, and people were around like crazy. The first I heard was a mountain biker ride by early on. It's possible they would not have seen us because the tent blends in well, and we were a bit off of the access point to the water to the right.
The best spot
I soon heard dogs barking and running around. I knew they were coming, so I went from the tent way back into the woods away from it and hunkered down till they went by. I didn't want to deal with anyone at that point. They had two off leash dogs that were going all around the tent. Once they were gone, I came back out and woke Jillane up. I started getting stuff packed up as best I could, but Jillane wasnt' ready yet. People with dogs came back, probably the same ones as before, and I said hello to them this time. I let them know what we were doing briefly. I feel it's better to give a legit reason for being there rather than creepily sit there and wait for them to go by. Without an explanation of any kind, I think it comes across as suspicious. If in that position myself, I would call the police and report such a person if they were quiet and kept to themselves, whereas a person that explained what they were doing, and came across as friendly, I would very likely just let be. We got moving eventually, and followed the trail along the reservoir heading north. I loved the trail immediately; it followed along some rocky outcrops, even though they could be bypassed. I did not expect that kind of undulating terrain in northern Rhode Island, but there it was. Jillane bypassed some of the outcrops by way of off trail or ATV paths. I love that the trail just goes over them. The trail eventually did pick up ATV paths again. We crossed an inlet at the north side, and the trail mostly just followed old woods roads. At one point, it came close to Summer Brown Road, but then went back into woods. I got ahead a bit, and when I waited for Jillane she didn't show up. She had made a wrong turn back at another woods road intersection, so I went down to find her.
Rest spot
It turned out to be a pretty good wrong turn, because it was a beautiful spot in a hidden place on the reservoir. It might have been a better camp site, had we gone this far. We took a long break, and we swam for quite a while. I was glad we came to this place, because it was so relaxing and nice. It's the kind of place we find that we just want to stay at for a while. When we got back on the trail, it followed woods roads again for a bit, and only got off for a bit when we reached Indian Brook so that the trail could make use of rock hops to get over. It did become more footpath like as we got to the properties of Camp Ker-Anna, a boy scout camp. We heard kids on the lake across the water the night before which we assume were at the north side of the lake.
Foot bridge at Ker-Anna
After passing around a few rock outcroppings, the trail made it's way to Burnt Swamp Brook and crossed on a nice wooden footbridge. The scout lake was a separate pond just above this. The trail skirted the south side of the camp, and then weaved through woods to come out on Reservoir Road. There were tons of no trespassing signs and such on the trees where the trail emerged. We just walked north on Reservoir Road to where it becomes Burnt Swamp Road. Apparently the trail once went through property of Wentworth Hills Country Club to the east, but was closed down. Now, a parallel road walk is necessary and was described in the guide I printed out. Fortunately, the little roads were overall pleasant.
Adams Farm
When we got to the intersection with Sumner Brown Road, Adams Farm was there on the corner having an event. It was one of those typical fall events with animals out and food and such for sale. We decided to stop and check it out. They had a food truck there, and we had no food really, so this was a great stop. They handed me a napkin that had a hiker on it, with the caption "You're a world traveler! Where will you go next?". We went in, and Jillane and I each had a hot dog and hamburger. Jillane also had a candy apple. We sat on the picnic bench there relaxing, and she looked up to see if there were any hotel/motels available in the area for the night. I figured there would be nothing because it was Saturday night. Monday was also a holiday, so a holiday weekend is even less likely. After eating, we just continued north along the farm and tracing the road walk trail section, which had no blazing on it.
Food
We passed back into Massachusetts on the Burnt Swamp Road, and crossed Burnt Swamp Brook. We were supposed to continue north to an intersection and turn right on Hancock Street, but a power line came in from the right, and we were able to follow the power line road to the east for a bit rather than the roads and connect directly to Hancock Street where we turned right. We crossed the brook again, and soon came to the intersection with Cherry Street on the left, and Hancock Road continues to the right. The guide said to go 0.1 mile to where the Warner Trail cut into the woods. I saw woods roads on the left, but I saw none of the white blazes on the way. The obvious route into the woods came to an immediate intersection. At first I looked to the right, then I looked to the left, but that just went back to the power line. I opted to try to the right. After a bit, there was one of the triangular blazes on a tree, but it had been broken. I opted to keep following this. The woods road took us across a power line clearing, and I decided to climb to the height of the land on it. There, at the top, I found the trail. Somehow it had turned off the woods road earlier.
Warner Trail
I backtracked on it because I wanted to see an overlook known as Sunset Rock. The view wasn't great. In the Winter it might be, but it's overgrown now. I backtracked to the power line where Jillane was coming up, and we tried to follow it through the woods on the other side. It got difficult quick. We lost the little blazes and had to look around a bit to find them. When I found them, it took us over more rock outcrops and then steeply down a scramble. It was uneccessary because it then went right across the woods road we'd been on. The trail crossed, went over another outcrop, and then down another steep section. Jillane went parallel on a woods road as I followed the real trail. It took me over a few more rocks and then out to another easier section. It wasn't as wide as the other ATV paths, but it was used by them which made it clear. Jillane was on a path that was about to go down the mountainous area to the right, so I called her over to where I was. This entire area was known as Red Brush Hill. The trail was much better from here. A good foot path through nice woods. We were able to follow it over gently rolling rock outcroppings until it reached a more prominent woods road and turned left on it. We then headed gradually down hill and through some lines of old stone rows. As we walked, there was a hunter with a crossbow coming the other way. I stopped and chatted with him, and he showed me photos of what he had gotten out there in the past. As we talked, a guy with dogs came from the other way, and the overly friendly dogs came up quick and started jumping all over us. That guy passed us up ahead a little bit, and he complained about how the area should be closed to hunting because it was all trails (though only one "official" trail). I knew at this point we must be close to a road because people like this don't go in as far as we were. We passed two more guys hiking in with day packs as we made our way further out. The rough woods road changed to a more sandy woods road as we came out to Green Street. The trail turns right here.
Warner Trail
Jillane was still looking for places to stay. It was nice she was trying to find something to spend some more time out, but I knew if she wasn't willing to camp, the trip was going to be over at this point. We turned right on Green Street, and reached a gravel access road to the Wrantham Premium Outlets through woods to the left. The trail follows this, although we saw no blazes, out to the parking lot for that place. It then follows around the retention ponds, but we stayed in the parking lot to the south side. We continued to the entrance to the Wrantham Outlets, and there is an old railroad bed heading north and south. This was another branch of the old New York, New Haven, and Hartford. The Warner Trail turns left to follow the railroad bed to the north, as per the guide. We waited at the turn as Jillane made phone calls in a last ditch effort to find another place to stay, but to no avail. We then continued north along the railroad bed. Someone had an accident while we were there and the police were all around taking reports. There was a nerdy looking tall white guy and a very pretty young girl. Both are probably screwed in terms of insurance.
Warner Trail on the rail bed
We followed the rail bed beneath Interstate 495, which had some interesting graffiti under it. Apart from names and tags, which were done much more nicely than average, there was a mention of the band Ween, from New Hope PA, and a good depiction of Rocco from the cartoon "Rocco's Modern Life". We continued on the grade ahead, and it switched from a cut to a fill which soon passes over the Hawthorne Brook. Just beond here, we reached West Street. The railroad bed continued clear from here, and a bridge was missing where it went over the road, but the Warner Trail turns right out to Wampum Corner, the intersection of West Street and South Street. We walked across to The Commonweath Barbecue at the corner.
Rocco...
The trail continues south on South Street a bit, and then cuts into part of Wrantham State Forest, but we were finished at this point. There were no hotels, and Jillane wouldn't continue on the Warner Trail any further to find a place to camp. We ordered some food, which was alright, and then just called an Uber to take us back to Willimantic and my car. It was already dark by the time we got to the barbecue place, so finding a camping spot would have been pretty hard anyway. I was bummed to be finishing up when I still had two full days of vacation, but it was alright too. Jillane looked for places to stay out there on the way back, but nearly nothing was open. I ended up just driving the entire way home after getting my van that night. At least by doing that I avoided almost all traffic. From where we left off, the Warner Trail leads through some really interesting looking forest lands, an the Bay Circuit Trail to me looks outstanding. I would absolutely love to do that one. Hopefully, one of these days I'll get around to all of it. In the meantime, it looks like Wampum Corner, Wrantham Massachusetts will be the furthest contiguous eastbound I'll have hiked for the foreseeable future.
HAM
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