Escoheag Trail, Arcadia

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Rule 1 of Leave No Trace: Plan Ahead and Prepare.

This rule is first for a variety of reasons. It highlights the intersection between protecting the environment and protecting yourself. Most people who get into trouble in the wilds do so because they do not plan ahead. A hiker in trouble does not concern themself with low impact camping. If there is anything I can impart on my young scouts, it is the importance of this rule.

I've faulted myself on occasion for being too prepared. I've gone on a two mile day hike with a medical kit, extra food, clothing, and water, flashlight, and gotten weird glances from fellow hikers carrying a half liter of water and a banana. So why do I bring this up? On a well planned cub scout hike, I forgot the book. Weekend Walks in Rhode Island somehow never made it back into my pack or the car.

Using my crappy work-issued blackberry, I manged to find direction to the trail head and took extra time to locate it. Once there, of course, I didn't have a trail map. We did things by committee. "Which way do you want to go?" Three cub scouts, two other parents, two siblings, and I made our way through the woods for a couple hours.

Due to my bad planning, we missed many of the highlights of the trail, most notably the Steppingstone falls, my favorite Arcadia feature. I can't help but see my misstep as a knock on my outdoors trail cred, but still, the boys, and the siblings (teenage girls) enjoyed themselves. I did better the next time. And I may add a photo or two once I find my camera's data cable.

How do you pronounce "Escoheag", anyhow?

North South Trail, Roaring Brook Pond to Hazard Road

This blog has been neglected. I've been doing my share of hiking, just not posting about it. I intend on remedying that.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

That's right. April 9. And again, because unrelated youths are involved, only one photo.

Nine scouts started at beautiful Roaring Brook Pond in the southern section of Arcadia. This time five brand new boy scouts were along for their first big hike. That is huge for me because they were graduates of my Webelos den. I knew the boys well and expected this eight miler to be a challenge they would rise to.

We didn't start off too well as we began at the smaller pond near Browning Mill and ended up hiking on the road for the first mile or so. My fault. From there we followed more roads in rural neighborhoods until we crossed Ten Rod Road (Route 165), touching woods only occasionally. We continued until our halfway point, Old Barber Farm. Here we finally entered the forest proper.

Soon we approached the highlight of the Ben Utter trail: Stepstone Falls. Here we passed more hikers, one a cub scout parent I knew. We took a break on the rocks and had a light snack, before continuing our journey. We had a little over a mile left to go.

The last mile is frequently the most dangerous. You are the most exhausted and one tends to become careless. On a wide forest road, one of my new recruits failed to see a basketball sized rock. He kicked it within sight of the car. We enlisted our older scouts to practice the buddy carry to bring him in. The end result was no serious damage to the foot, and we need more practice with the buddy carry.

Despite this, my former cubbies did me proud. They learned a lot (one carried way too much in his pack) and will be better prepared for the next one.

The single biggest issue of the hike was logistics. After dropping off several scouts at the beginning, I trusted Google Maps to navigate me to the end to drop off a car. The path we followed added almost an hour to both the start and the end of the day. After the hike I realized we could have simply followed Hazard Road south to Ten Rod Road and cut the delay in half. Google Maps doesn't usually fail me, but when it does, watch out. Next time, I'll do a little but more preparation.

Next time will be another eight miler between Hazard Road and Place Farm on Plainfield Pike. As this leg is almost all road, I suppose the rout to and fro should be rather obvious. Still, I will do more to be prepared.

Powder Mill Ledges, Smithfield

Sunday, January 9

On a clear and snow-filled day, I took 15 cub scouts and siblings, along with 9 or so parents to the Audubon Society's Powder Mill Ledges wildlife refuge for our annual winter hike. I gave them my brief Leave No Trace lecture as well as spoke about the importance of the buddy system. The property is cut in two by power lines and because of some National Grid construction going on, the second half (the yellow trail) was off limits.

We saw signs of animal life including animal prints, woodpecker holes, and a few birds. Afterwards, there was hot chocolate. I believe the children really enjoyed themselves.

We took many photos but I've decided not to include them here for privacy sake. I'll get parental approval to use photos to promote the Pack in the local media, but not for this blog. It's been a while since my last post because it's been a while since my last hike. And with the recent and predicted snow fall, it may be quite a while until my next.