Steve Fagin: No broken hearts (or bones) on Breakheart Trail
Jan. 25—Halfway up a steep, rocky path in Rhode Island the other day, I took an exaggerated deep breath, turned to my hiking companions and observed, "No wonder this is called Breakheart Hill."
Legend has it that colonial farmers came up with the ominous moniker because oxen struggled to climb the 492-foot slope at the Exeter-West Greenwich border. In truth, most hikers needn't fret about broken hearts, or even sprained ankles, while ascending this moderate grade.
Phil Plouffe, Maggie Jones, Marco Barres and I chatted happily while clambering up Breakheart, which rises in the heart of 14,000-acre Arcadia Wildlife Management Area.
All of us had hiked on trails here previously, but this we time decided, more or less spontaneously, to follow a route that covered new ground. Rather than adhere to a set itinerary, we paused at each trail intersection, checked the map, and chose a direction.
"What's the rush? We have all day," Marco noted.
This navigation procedure sometimes results in less-than-desirable consequences — slogging through muck, flailing through brambles, tramping way too many miles, or simply losing the way — but our freestyle approach wound up leading us through verdant evergreen groves, across sparkling whitewater streams, around a sun-dappled pond and along a rare black spruce bog.
We began on a frosty morning at the south end of 44-acre Breakheart Pond, following Breakheart Trail in a counter-clockwise direction along the east shore. This part of the mostly flat path, flooded in sections following recent heavy rains, overlaps with an abandoned forest road for several hundred yards before an unmarked trail to the east leads to the summit of Breakheart Hill.
"Does everybody want to go to the top?" Maggie asked.
"Why not?" we agreed.
After cresting the hill, we scrambled back down on another unblazed but well-trod path to rejoin yellow-blazed Breakheart Trail, turned right, and resumed hiking to the north end of Breakheart Pond. We then continued on Breakheart Trail as it bent west, coinciding a short distance with Newman Trail, before veering north again.
Breakheart Trail eventually sweeps west in a wide arc, climbing gradually toward Penny Hill. The footing improved dramatically here, transforming from jumbled rocks and puddles to sandy soil covered with pine needles.
"This is more like it!" I exclaimed.
"I feel like we're in Maine," Phil said.
Maggie could barely contain her joy as we approached the black spruce bog, normally found much farther north
"This is amazing! I don't think there's another one like it in southern New England!" she exclaimed.
We also stopped to observe a mixed flock of golden-crowned kinglets, ruby-crowned kinglets and chickadees. They feed in numbers for safety, keeping wary eyes out for predatory hawks, Maggie explained.
Kinglets can survive in extreme northern climates, using sharp beaks to extract frozen caterpillars beneath bark, she added.
Soon, we turned south on white-blazed Shelter Trail, which connected with unpaved Austin Farm Road. Here, we turned east, crossed the Flat River, and strolled the final mile on smooth, wide gravel before reaching Breakheart Pond, where our car was parked.
Dozens of unpaved roads, single-track footpaths and blazed trails spread throughout Arcadia, Rhode Island's largest recreation area — we easily could have cut our hike short or extended it by several miles, and headed in any direction.
But all of us agreed: We had picked a perfect route.
To reach Breakheart Trail at Breakheart Pond, about 35 miles east of New London, go east on Route 165 past Beach Pond in Voluntown, continue five miles past the Rhode Island border, and turn north on unpaved Frosty Hollow Road. Follow 1.5 miles to the end of the road, turn right on unpaved Austin Farm Road (also known as Plain Road) and follow until the road ends at a parking area near the south shore of Breakheart Pond.
