1986 Beach Pond State Park (4/26/1986)

Saturday, April 26, 1986

After lunch we headed down I-95 to find Beach Pond State Park near Escoheag in West Greenwich and hike in search of Stepping Stone Falls. We went to the address in the guide book, but found no state park. We saw the state park on the map and found the park, but there were no signs of or to the falls. We parked and took a trail leading to the pond and beach.

Boats were out on the lake with fishermen. The trail led us across a street and southward around the lake. Erich found a stick with a string attached and as he pulled the stick, it dragged leaves out of the pond.

Kyle, Erich, and Kent

Beach Pond

There were bugs flying around, so we put up our hoods. The trail did not follow the edge of the pond too closely. Kent followed an upper trail for a while and intercepted Kyle far ahead. The lower end of the pond was rather marshy and we saw a couple great blue herons and a Canadian goose. Farther along, Kent cautioned us to be quiet, and we snuck up on… a slice of deli ham!
We came upon a white-blazed trail taking us on a detour to a lookout atop cliff-like rocks. On our way down, Erich managed to slip and bruise his bum. Next he pitched forward to skin a knee. Hopefully experience will show him that he can’t walk in the woods the same way he does in the school halls.
We hiked another trail leading back to the lake, and came to a tiny stream that tumbled down some unevenly stepped rocks. We had to be satisfied with these waterfalls. We also noted the stream was wider than we thought, as Kent pointed out where you could hear trickling beneath us, and here and there between rocks covered with moss. There were also holes where the noise was more pronounced.
We continued around the pond and found some large rocks jutting out of the water near the shore to walk on. After I passed the rocks, I heard a loud splash and thought a big fish had jumped. But when I turned around I saw Kent hauling Erich out of the water. Erich was miffed because he was wet. So far I hadn’t brought food or drink, bug spray and the Stepping Stone Falls, and now I hadn’t brought a change of clothes or a dryer, or at least a bridge from the stones to the shore.
We continued following the marked trail and came to a road. We thought to follow the road back towards the pond we thought we were circling, but Kent was convinced it only led to the houses at lakeside. So we went the other way and found the marked trail again, seeing purple butterflies. We seemed to go on and on, and came to a ‘Y’ in the trail, except we were coming in on one of the arms. We ended up taking the other arm because a sign indicated it lead to Beach Pond, 1.4 miles away! We went through a pine forest, then through a wet area with skunk cabbage. Finally we found the road that was within sight of the pond, and returned to the car. We discovered the hike had taken four hours! The kids fell asleep as we drove home, so we skipped the stop for ice cream.