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Letterboxing Northeast Border Letterboxes
(Not recommended: one of our earlier letterboxing attempts. By our current standards, these clues are overly vague. The last box in particular has proved unnecessarily difficult for folks to find. Due for an upgrade in the Summer of 2003: the new stamps are carved and ready to go...)
Note: "Wildlife Management Area" is a euphemism for Hunting
Zone. These areas are not safe for letterboxing during hunting season
from Monday through Saturday. We do not recommend letterboxing here even
on Sundays during the hunting season. This is not a multi-use area and
hunters are not welcoming of hikers, bikers, birders, or boxers during
their season. Today's search is at Arcadia Park in Exeter, Rhode Island. Feathers in Your Cap is a long one, a chain of 4 letterboxes linked by strenuous, challenging terrain. Experienced hikers and mountain bikers will be in hardcore heaven, but beginners will think they're on a death march. If brought along, most kids under 12 or 13 will permanently withdraw into a PlayStation universe and never go outdoors again. Arcadia can be strangely disorienting: bring a map, layers, fluids, and energy snacks. Be sure to wear a "blaze orange" hunting sweatshirt in season, and mountain bikers should avoid white helmets (they look just like white-tailed deer to hunters). Figure on four to six hours of travel time on foot and two or three mountain biking. On the south side of Rte 165, almost 3.5 miles from the intersection with Rte 3, park at the "Arcadia Check Station," near a debatably historic old building. Double back east to cross over the river, then turn onto 225 and take your first easterly path, a nice warm up for the work ahead. Stay to the east at a crossing, then, faced with many choices at a small standpipe, choose the trail going 035 . At a "T" go north, then zig 110 and zag 065 . Choose the northerly trail, and settle in for another stretch. Skip the obvious side trail going 065 and keep moving to the north. Begin to watch the sides of the trail carefully for a small squared-in area with several standing stones. Place your first feather in your cap after searching in the southeast corner. You're off to a good start! Resume your route to shortly cross over to the north and travel to another intersection. This time go 060 for a little way before turning 035 . Next, cut back in on 325 , following this path and turning to the obvious 030 at a "T," carrying down to a vista with a natural seat for a rest. Go through a gate to the east, then branch easterly again. Bear left with the main trail when the time comes, and then take the rubbley path at 295 to scenic little cross over. Turn between rocks onto 025 and follow this path to the Old Man's cross trail. Stay with your trail at 315 and climb a rugged distance. Zig 250 and zag 295 . Work to a steep eroded downhill bearing 300 . There is a cross trail just above it: go 045 and watch closely for a little deer trail at 340 . Travel down, thinking "this can't be right," winding a little west and passing through a small rock garden. Keep moving down the hill and watch for two chest high roundish rocks at 215 . Between these rests a second discovery in the woods. And a step or two farther on returns you to your original trail: head down 310 . At a fork, go 310 again, and then 350 to cross a bridge before choosing 260 . Figure out the fake out fork. Then take the trail at 260 at a confusing intersection. Walk a bit to a branch at 155 and a distinctive terrain (yes, it's ride-able!) and then a section of the sweetest of single track. Skip the next left hand forking and go 210 . Climb to a small summit with smooth granite and stunted pine. From about the middle, sight along 095 to find a third success tucked behind a low lying pine. Continue with the trail that leads 300 to a major crossing, and resume 300 again. Zig 335 and zag 265 . Break out into civilization, strangely jarring after these hours in the woods, and turn 235 to a nice rest spot. The marked trail here is one of the finest in Rhode Island, but would be a distraction today. Instead, continue as you came, to find a new direction, 180 , with a new decoration. Follow to a branch onto 205 , to climb and negotiate a serious rock garden (maybe not rid able?). Make another crossing, and pick the one leading 170 . Move up, and ignore any pesky cross trails until you zig 300 and zag 200. Just before the end, watch for a trail leading 140 to another leading 140 again, and down to the overlook. Behind you at 035 is a small ledge, and then another with a little knee-high erratic. Then go 050 to a third ledge to collect your fourth and last feather. Back at the overlook, the quick way home is obvious: head east and it's all down hill. A more subtle path is hidden just 255 from this spot. This one is not all down hill. Hope your day was good and that you enjoy your collected treasures.
Not recommended: needs an upgrade of stamps, logbooks, and clues. The store bought stamps are sucky and the trails out between #2 and #3 are way confusing...hopefully we'll rekindle our romance with this beautiful area in the Summer of 2003.
Note: "Wildlife Management Area" is a euphemism for Hunting
Zone. These areas are not safe for letterboxing during hunting season
from Monday through Saturday. We do not recommend letterboxing here even
on Sundays during the hunting season. This is not a multi-use area and
hunters are not welcoming of hikers, bikers, birders, or boxers during
their season. Blurred Borders is a string of 4 linked letterboxes in Arcadia Park in Exeter RI. This hike runs about 12 miles over technical terrain. This part of the forest straddles the Connecticut and Rhode Island line: 1 or 2 of the boxes are in Connecticut and 2 or 3 are in Rhode Island (hey, the borders aren't all that clear in the woods!). For mountain bikers, the loop will be about 80% rid able: I love cycling here but friends have been heard to grumble and murmur over the amount of portaging necessary. Please remember your blaze orange sweatshirt or vest in hunting season (October-February): Arcadia is a multi-use park and is very popular with hunters. Park at the hiker's parking lot on the south side of RI Rt. 165, 6.5 miles west of Rt. 3 and just opposite the Beach Pond recreation area. Find the trail with combined yellow and blue blazes on the north side of the road just east of the beach parking lot. Follow it up and along the hills above the pond, taking the blue blazed Pachaug trail at its' junction with the yellow Tippecansett. At a trail side mailbox, sign or stamp in if you'd like, and then continue left (northwest) on the main Pachaug Trail, avoiding the blue blazed shortcut leading to the right. When the trail dips down by a quiet cove, look for a dock across the way and for power lines overhead. The trail turns right, and 25 steps from the water, turn to 155 and scramble up a small hill to the back of a clearing. Then go about 10 paces farther on a heading of 065 to find the first letterbox under rocks between two trees. Return to the Pachaug Trail and continue along. Hike through twisting trails to skirt a large cliff face heading southwards. Wrap around the end to travel northwest and travel uphill until you come to a fairly level area. Leave the trail and bushwack over the hill at about 060 , following the contour of the land to the cliff's edge, overlooking the path you came in on. Now swing northwest along the cliff line to a small rocky knoll. Look closely for the second letterbox and stamp in. Then cut southwest to pick up the Pachaug Trail again, turning northwest and traveling into Connecticut. At the boat launch parking area, head north and regain the blue blazed trail. Travel to a slot in the cliffs, and again find yourself skirting the edge of even more massive cliff lines. Stay with the blue blazed Pachaug Trail through this area, saving the other trails for another day.-Eventually you'll come to a well traveled dirt road: let the blue Pachaug Trail go off to your left. Head right following the dirt road and the white blazed Canonicus Trail for a quarter mile, then turn left with the white blazes onto a park road. After less than a mile, come to the dirt road again and go left for a short distance before turning left again onto another park road. Half a mile later, stay right with the Canonicus Trail at a fork, heading generally north to northeast and passing more ledge on your right. Crest a small knoll and trend more easterly down hill to an intersection with a distinct trail heading north. Glancing around, you may spot the border markings separating state park lands from a private hunting club. Standing in the intersection, lined up with this new trail, spot a waist high erratic at 235 . There is another just beyond on the same heading, where you'll find box #3, clearly into the public property line. Now continue southeasterly on the white blazed Canonicus Trail, climb an eroded jeep trail, pass a house to emerge onto paved Escoheag Hill Road, and head east. After 1/4 mile, with a cemetery on your left, turn right at the yellow blazed Tippecansett Trail, and head south past a lookout tower. It's almost all downhill from here! Keep with the yellow blazes, zig zagging left and right at a well marked intersection, then right at a crossroads. Pass the white blazed Deep Pond Trail and continue with your yellow blazed woods road to an old iron-gated cemetery on your left. At the northeast corner, hop over the wall and check for your fourth letterbox. Complete the loop by continuing south, cutting right with the yellow blazes into the woods again. Pass a gate and down to the Pachaug intersection you left 3 or 4 hours ago. Zig zag left and right, and follow the trail home.
(Missing...)
Note: "Wildlife Management Area" is a euphemism for Hunting
Zone. These areas are not safe for letterboxing during hunting season
from Monday through Saturday. We do not recommend letterboxing here even
on Sundays during the hunting season. This is not a multi-use area and
hunters are not welcoming of hikers, bikers, birders, or boxers during
their season. The Stepping Stone Letterbox is a bridge between the "Feathers in your Cap" and the "Blurred Borders" series. For an exceptionally ambitious day, you could use the Stepping Stone to link the two hikes, finding a total of 9 boxes (or even 10, if you include "Breaking Hearts at Breakheart"). Or, you could add the Stepping Stone to either hike, scoring 5 (or 6) stamps. Stepping Stone is also a stand alone destination in its own right, and would be a terrific box to include in a romantic picnic.
Those old timers knew how to name a place, especially the Puritans and the Mormons. Picturesque Sin and Flesh Brook, at Fort Barton Park in Tiverton RI, flows through this hike with a gentle joy that belies its biblical name. This hike is a delight: an easy 2.5 mile loop with three letterboxes that is great for children, who may giggle and blush at the name. Summer 2008: We have had many reports that the trails around the third box have changed and that the box itself might be missing. It will be some time before we can go check on it ourselves. If you do happen to find it, please let us know if we can edit the clues to be more accurate... Directions: from RI Rt. 24 just east of the Sakonnet River Bridge, take Rt. 77 south through the scenic town. Turn left onto Lawton Ave and drive up the hill to the end. Park anywhere along the "T" intersection on Highland Rd, either at or across the street from the town hall. Just to the left (north) of the parking area is a paved walkway up a short steep hill to Fort Barton, a Revolutionary War era redoubt. Enjoy the views of the Sakonnet River, and then follow the gravel path south and then east to the hiking trail. An access trail dips and climbs due east between a stone wall and a fence along a narrow right of way to the main trails. Today's search will follow the primary red-blazed loop. The trail is well marked, the side trails are not nearly as distinct as our main trail, and it's a small park if you do wander. It can help to keep count of the bridges. Continue along the straight access trail, passing up a blue-blazed trail to the left before coming to an open meeting area with a fire pit. Go left following the red blazes. Just between the first and second bridges (the second has a corner bend in it), you'll pass a large hunk of "puddingstone" on the left. This sedimentary conglomerate looks like a person-sized dollop of concrete. People here on the East Passage love the stuff and frequently incorporate it into their buildings and walls. After the bent second bridge, come to an intersection with double red blazes on a tree: go left for a clockwise trip around a generally east-west tending oval. In a short way, pass through a low stone wall and bear left, walking to a second stone wall. Pass through and turn left 3 or 4 stumbling steps to find the first letterbox in its new hiding place down in the base of the wall (the original spot was just too vague and the box was often missed) Continue along the trail past a jumbled ridge to your right and a small wetland to the left. There are tripping roots underfoot and a large oak with bulging burls by this marshy little pond. Continue east on the red trail. After passing some great split rock formations and a third, more substantial bridge, begin traveling upstream with Sin and Flesh Brook. Just before the fourth bridge at a small scenic stand of beech, cross through a stone wall to your left (northeast), using the obvious pass-through, and find your second reward in the wall just a little further right (southeast). This charming spot is the apex of the loop: spend a few moments and then travel on, curving back westwards. Travel through some lovely flat walking and then over slightly rougher ground and a gentle hill to a "T" intersection with cedar horse fences. Go left on the fainter unmarked trail, past a little knee high puddle of puddingstone on the right, to the brook. Just before the water, on an even fainter deer trail, bushwack a short ways right (west) to another stone wall and letterbox number three. This box is in the wall just to the left of some brilliantly white fungus, with a 5-trunked oak tree bearing 035 degrees and a large gnarly oak at 128. Return to your "T" and head left (west) to a more major looking T with a big block stone wall on the left. Go right (north) here and then left again where a blue trail goes straight, and finally left again, passing through a wall. Walk down a rooty little hill to the beginning of the red loop, and turn left (west-southwest). Walk over the bridge with the mid-span turn, pass your large puddingstone on the right, and cross another bridge. Moving uphill, turn right with the main trail, then right again at the firepit to regain the westward leading access trail. Those Puritans knew a thing or two about naming a place!
...updated Tuesday, July 15, 2008 |
