Parking lot off of Mt. Tom Road, Exeter, RI ~6.42 miles and 2 hrs 28 mins

This was my first introduction to the Arcadia Management Area in Rhode Island. It is a very pretty area with plenty to explore. We decided to do a loop that Mike found on AllTrails. We followed the Mt. Tom Trail from the trailhead parking (white blazes) to the Escoheag Trail (blue blazes) and then Sand Hill Trail. There was an orange or red blaze, for one of the turns, but I don’t remember any after that.

The trail is a mix of forest floor, (with red carpet through the pines), rock, quartz, fields with tall grass, and a section that felt like we were walking in sand. It is an easy hike with no notable hills. I believe we had to cross a main road twice, but the vast majority of the hike is in nature.

The mountain laurel had passed, but there were still other wildflowers, blueberries, more whorled yellow loosestrife and butterflies and dragonflies. I tried identifying the red flower with my app. It called it black huckleberry, but when I look at other images of black huckleberry, the flowers are bell shaped, so I am not certain what the red flower is, but it was pretty.

Adventurers included: Jes and Mike