The weather continues to be spring-like. We had planned a different hike but were forced to change our plans when we came up against a big traffic jam on the way to Arcadia State Park. We settled on Tillinghast Pond which is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy. The management area hosts 13 miles of trails which wander through a variety of ecosystems. You can also paddle Tillinghast Pond which seems, to my eye, rather large to be called a pond.1 People also hunt and fish depending on the season, turkey season now, so we wore hunter-orange vests.
I have visited this area a few times over the years. However, this time as we set out on our counter-clockwise loop it seemed to me that things were different. The forest didn’t seem as dense. Part of that could be put down to the time of year.Previous visits have been in the summer or perhaps early autumn. We passed through an area that had been deliberately cleared. We passed the remains of a homestead (water heard in the distance; in or out-flow of the pond) then wound our way along the twisting trail into the first of several dead zones. I don’t know what types of trees they were (some hemlocks and pines; many deciduous) but I do know the trees were all dead. Had I taken a photo it would show a ravaged scene with some signs of new low-growing life coming up in the much more open area. Cycles of life: but I find myelf wondering if this cycle was caused by something that should not be present. The way the dead zones change the feel of the area is remarkable.
THe Flintlock Trail winds through a variety of ecosystems. Sometimes you move through a somewhat wetter area; sometimes drier; glades appear now and then sometimes clearly man-made. It seemed to me that there were far fewer birds about than we experienced in the woods at Maxwell Mays earlier in the week.
The big boulder of the day. The Flintlock trail wiggles a lot before reaching Tillinghast Pond. Sometimes it passes through stretches with exposed boulders but none as large as this one.
--May 14, 2020 at 11:32 AM. West Greenwich, RI, United States
Eventually after some climbing and descending (about 110 feet over the course of the whole loop - spanning the Flintlock Trail and the white-blazed trail) we caught our first glimpses of the almost glass-smooth Tillinghast Pond. We curled around the eastern end of the pond and soon came to the edge of the meadows and small dock that juts out into the pond. What a fine spot for a snack break.
Sitting on the dock of the pond, watching ripples roll away... We had a nice snack break here on the northeastern tip of Tillinghast Pond. A lone kayaker works his way west and we heard a hiker talking as he walked along the far shore (he and his fluffy white big dog caught up to us later).
--May 14, 2020 at 12:16 PM. West Greenwich, RI, United States
The medows are yet another ecosystem that you could cut across to save time but it is against the rules. The Nature Conservancy wants people to let the nature be and that is understandable. I wonder if there is an explosion of wildflowers in the meadows.
The pond appears and disappears from view and after a short road walk we dipped back into the trail network for the final walk back to the car. We saw a lone paddler and two walkers and one dog. A fellow was standing by a boat in casting his fishing rod. I am sure there were more people about because we counted 8 cars evenly split between the put-in point and the parking lot where we parked.
You won’t get a serious hiking workout in this area but you will enjoy yourself as you walk through forest, meadows, glades, and along the shores of a large pond.
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The dividing line between when a body of water becomes a lake or pond is a bit squishy. This article provides some interesting insight into the terms. I don’t know how deep Tillinghast Pond is but suspect it isn’t that deep which is a big part of why it is a pond and not a lake even though it is likely about 12 acres in size. ↩︎
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