• Frenchtown Park/Laurel Wood/Fry Nature Preserve
• Frenchtown Road, East Greenwich, RI
• Trailhead: 41°37’35.85″N, 71°30’23.16″W
• Last Time Hiked: April 24, 2013
• Approximate distance hiked: 3 miles
• Easy with some slight elevation and rocky footing.

This hike actually covered three separate properties owned by the Town of East Greenwich and the East Greenwich Land Trust. The trail begins behind the East Greenwich Parks Department building at Frenchtown Park and immediately follows a dam along the edge of Mill Pond. Just after the bridge that crosses the spillway of the dam, a small trail heads off to the right. I followed this trail down to the brook. After taking a look at the spillways flowing water I then continued down this path where it came out to the ruins of  an old factory. At this point I wandered around checking out the area of the ruins before heading onto another path that took me back in the general direction toward, but not quite, to Mill Pond. This path was densely covered with vinca. I then made my way to the main yellow blazed trail known as the Cotton Mill Trail which headed into and through the Laurel Wood property. Parts of this trail were very rocky and there are some areas that are wet. The yellow trail ends at a stone wall at the Fry Preserve property and becomes the red trail. After a short distance into the Fry property the red trail splits. The red trail is a loop and it eventually makes its way back to this point. I opted to follow it to the right. A blue trail veered off to the right about halfway through the loop of the red. I did not venture onto this trail as it was not shown on the map at the beginning of the main trail. After completing the loop I followed the yellow trail back to Mill Pond and then back to the car.

I did not find a trail map online for this hike, however, there is a map at the main entrance. The loop trail on the Fry property is shown as blue on the map, however, it is blazed red. The red trails on the map are not blazed but very easy to navigate.

Vinca In Bloom