Early in the summer, I had read about a new trail opening for the Georges River Land Trust called the Frye Headwaters Trail in Searsmont. This recently developed path was 14 miles in length and designed to connect the Ridge to River Trail in Appleton to Frye Mountain in Montville. Now, my hiking buddy and I were by no means up to a 14-mile exploration one way, round trip or in other way but, after our recent experiences with overgrown, tick-ridden trails we felt that a short hike on a brand new byway might not present the same problems. On July 31st, we set out for the Frye Headwaters Trail.
At the trailhead, we found a mowed path through a grassy area with quite a few Black-eyed Susans, Fleabanes and Queen Anne’s lace. Once in the woods, we continued our adventure on a semi-grassy trail, with quite a few Bunchberry plants loaded with red berries, on either side of this road. Continuing our walk we found some Dewberries, a new find for me this year. We also found lots of Haircap Moss.
Pretty soon, the markers made a detour into the woods for a short distance. I assumed that the detour might have been around a wet area. In any case, the woods were very pretty here. There is just something about a path that is lined with pine needles that is not only soothing, but easy to walk on.
Once past the detour, the trail went through some slightly muddy areas which we knew would be quite wet in a normal rain year. For now, there were worn logs laid across these areas to assist in the hikers’ progress, but I wondered if these bridges would be underwater if it ever rained again. In places that were a little more uneven, the trail went along the high ground to avoid the wet areas.
After a while, we came to a rather sketchy looking bridge across a wet area. At this point we seriously considered turning back. The slats were pretty far apart, and I was just not that sure about my balance. While we studied the situation, my friend commented that we were standing on top of a beaver lodge. Sure enough, this bridge went across the lodge and the wet area. Finally, my friend went across the bridge first, then stretched out her hands to support my crossing. It was just having something or someone’s hands to hold on to that gave me the confidence to cross.
As you can probably see from the photo, once over the bridge the trail was pretty grassy. In fact, we were waist high in it. Since it was a very short distance to the woods, we gritted our teeth and went for it, making sure to do a tick check when we reached the clean, dirt path once more.
At this point, we only went a little bit further before turning around. This summer had been pretty hot and humid, and we were both feeling it. During the return journey, I was getting overheated, and we stopped frequently for water breaks. There were many hot days last summer as well, but this year seemed worse, so we just weren’t hiking that much this year as a result. I think this exploration occurred because we both felt the need to be outside, but at this point September can’t come soon enough.