Steve Fagin: Finally finding our way on Arcadia's unmarked trails

Jan. 6—Sunshine sparkled the frozen surface of Browning Mill Pond at Rhode Island's sprawling Arcadia Management Area the other morning, as four of us hiked along a rocky, evergreen-lined shore.

Phil Plouffe pointed to gnawed tree trunks near toppled saplings.

"Beavers," he announced.

Isn't it wonderful that such industrious animals can thrive in their native habitat, Maggie Jones, her son, Clancy Philbrick, and I rhapsodized.

A moment later, though, our group crossed a wooden footbridge spanning Roaring Brook, and found the path flooded by a dam constructed of sticks and bark.

"Blankety-blank beavers!" Clancy sputtered in mock anger. He really wasn't mad, noting, "They were here first."

And so we splashed 50 yards through pools of icy water before reaching dry ground and resuming the hike. Our mission: Successfully navigate trails — most of them unmarked — that loop around the 50-acre pond.

A few weeks earlier, we had taken a wrong turn and strayed miles out of the way. As darkness approached, we gratefully accepted a ride back to our car from Kyle Ellis, who lived nearby and had just finished a walk with his dog, Ruby.

Determined to redeem ourselves, we returned to the Appie Crossing parking lot on Route 165 in West Greenwich, R.I., and set out on Round Two of our Arcadian adventure.

"You brought a map this time, right?" Phil asked. I reached into my pocket and fished out a document I had downloaded from my computer that highlighted our route in red ink.

Maggie also had packed a map of the 14,000-acre preserve, Rhode Island's largest recreational property, which is crisscrossed by miles of forest roads and single-track trails.

In addition, all of us carried smartphones that we could use to pinpoint our location or, worst case scenario, call for help. We had taken not just belt-and-suspenders precautions, but belt, suspenders, buttons, zippers, duct tape and baling wire backup.

Yet only 10 minutes into the hike, we were stymied. The path branched out in four different directions, only one of them marked — the Mount Tom Trail. This was where we messed up the last time.

"Well, we're not going on that way," I said.

We studied both maps and agreed that the path veering slightly to the south likely was the one we wanted, the Dove Crest Trail. Happily, we made the right choice.

The narrow track rose gradually through a corridor of white pine seedlings and mountain laurel, passing several unmarked side trails. At each crossing, we pulled out maps and determined we had to stay the course.

"Would it have killed them to put up even one trail marker?" I grumbled.

In about a mile, we reached Summit Road, a wide, packed-gravel thoroughfare that led us past the Tomaquag Indian Museum in the tiny village of Arcadia near the junction of Richmond, Exeter and Hopkinton.

The museum, founded in the 1950s by a Narragansett Wampanoag woman named Princess Red Wing and Groton historian Eva Butler, serves as a reminder that native tribes roamed these woods long before the arrival of European colonists. Butler also had helped establish the Indian and Colonial Research Center in Old Mystic.

After crossing Roaring Brook, we veered onto another unmarked path that led to the shore of Browning Mill Pond, formed by a dam made by humans, not beavers.

This is where John Browning built a small cotton mill in 1823, which operated for decades under various owners before burning down in 1937.

In 2017, the state announced plans to build a 13,000-square-foot Arcadia Natural Resources and Visitors Center near the site of the old mill, but dropped the idea two years ago following protests and a lawsuit spearheaded by local residents.

Today, Browning Mill Pond is a popular area for hiking, fishing and, evidently, beaver dam-building.

After tramping around its shore, we strolled on a long, wooden boardwalk built to accommodate the handicapped, and then joined a short section of a familiar path: the Rhode Island North South Trail. In 2021, Maggie, Phil and I hiked the 80-mile trail in sections, from the Massachusetts border to the Atlantic Ocean.

This time, we covered only a half-mile or so of the long-distance trail, and veered onto the Bald Hill Brook Trail, which connected back to the Mount Tom Trail and the Appie Crossing parking lot, where we started.

"We made it!" I proclaimed. Phil checked the distance on his smartphone: 7.5 miles.

Arcadia, Rhode Island's largest recreation area, is a wonderland of dense forest, moss-covered ledges, tumbling streams and pristine ponds — in short, a fabulous hiking destination.

But make sure you pack a map, snacks and water — and don't expect to find marked trails.

As Kyle noted during our previous excursion, taking a wrong turn can be part of the adventure.