Small Adventures: Fort Nature Refuge

A couple weekends ago Maddie and I went for another hike and, this time, Danny joined us.  This time, our destination was the Fort Nature Refuge located in North Smithfield.

The little maps which we found at the trailhead (and which are also available online at the link above) informed us that there were three major legs of the trail, each identified with their own color.  Impending evening plans led us to agree that we would limit ourselves to the Blue Trail (which would take about 1.5 hours to complete, according to the map).

It became obvious pretty quickly that this trail was significantly better maintained than the Veronica Geddes trail.  We also found colored markers nailed to trees spaced out along the trail, making this one also significantly easier to follow.

The first leg of the walk revealed a pretty standard forest-y area; very pleasant, very relaxing, with a few well-placed benches along the way.  Like on the Geddes preserve, we also found small patches of wet-land.

When we reached the spot where the Yellow Trail begins (half-way through the Blue Trail loop) we were a little surprised that it had only taken us about fifteen minutes to get there (as opposed to the approximate 45 minutes the map had led us to expect).  Our faith in the map's estimated times shattered, we decided that we could easily do the entire trail in the time that we had, so we marched on to the Yellow trail.

We were met with wetlands, giant ponds, and, most interesting to me, clear signs of the presence of beavers.  Along the banks of various ponds we found numerous trees that had been obviously chewed down in that tell-tale fashion.  We even encountered a few of what appeared to be beaver dams.

I don't exactly know why the concept of having beavers about surprises me so; perhaps I just never thought of Rhode Island as beaver territory.  Either way, the signs were interesting to see.

It wasn't long before we reached the far end of the Red Trail, a journey which didn't take up much more than 45 minutes, and we were heading back towards the trailhead.

Along the way, a piece of the trail branched out with a sign at the outset saying "Pond Overlook".  This little path brought us out to the edge of one of the larger ponds.  The view was actually quite lovely.

A little tromping into the surrounding area revealed a stream that fed off from the pond, partially curtailed by another (fairly impressive) beaver dam.  The area along the stream looked like it would be fun to explore, but perhaps on another adventure.

The water level in the pond had somehow risen significantly, stranding the convenient viewing bench some ten feet out in the water.

Of course, Danny saw this and thought, "Challenge accepted," resulting in the following picture.

Once we were back at the trailhead, I saw that the entire trail (rests and meandering included) only took about about an hour and a half and we covered something like 2.5 miles according to my iPad's little GPS tracker.

The trail was very easy to follow, easy to hike and, while very pleasant, not exactly physically challenging.

To see all of the photos I took on this hike, go here.

I've added a similar link to my entry on the Geddes hike.