There are times, not often that you find a spot tucked away and hidden. After traversing through it, you know why you've never heard about it and you too want to keep it to yourself. The Mowry Conservation Area is such a jewel. For years I've fished and paddled around Stump Pond in Smithfield, Rhode Island and have passed a small sign for the conservation area and paid it little attention. While dropping store flyers off at the parking areas along Stump Pond this day I decide to check it out. Tucked away on Old Forge Road; the site offers only roadside parking for about three or four vehicles. The 20 acre parcel was donated by the Mowry family in 1979 and had been in the family since the early 1800's.

Walking through the opening in a guardrail, you leave the hectic everyday life and enter a state of tranquility. Giant pine and hemlock block out the deep blue sky. The running water of Woonasquatucket River replaces any traffic noise you might hear and the trail beneath you is cushioned with natural deep evergreen mulch. After a short walk the trail turns left at the small river; here Grady (my Chocolate Lab) and I stop to watch the water pass under an overhanging ledge as the river continues it's course through the woods on it's way to Stump Pond. Crossing the river on a small arched bridge the trail intersects with a red blazed trail. Taking a left onto this trail we hike up a gradual incline and stop at the sounds of a woodpecker reverberating through the woods. Not finding a woodpecker, I do spot a nuthatch and watch it as the bird works its way upside down around a large pine. Grady gets impatient, trots on following the trail as it turns toward the northwest and away from the backyards of a couple houses. I catch up to him just as he enters a mud puddle, rolls around in it with some early growth skunk cabbage and runs back to me with his devilish smile. Making sure I'm in his line of fire, he shakes and now I smell, as Grady does; like a swamp.

A yellow blazed trail connects with the Red Trail heading up a steep rocky slope and we follow. Cresting, the trail turns in a northerly direction and follows the ridgeline. With hardwoods to my left and a gully to the right, we follow the ridge till the trail descends in a switchback manner down into the gully and another wetland. Crossing the wetland on a bog bridge the trail follows the bottom bank of this wooded chasm just inches above the wetland. Making a hairpin turn at the end of the wetland we crosses two small brooks that cascade on either side of a boulder, forming a small island. Soon an unmarked side trail spurs off and the sound of falling water draws me down that path. The footpath ends at the bank of a small pond with a stone foundation and dam. Watching the small waterfall and a pair of mallards I wonder if this was the forge site that the road is named for.

Returning to the Yellow Trail, it weaves its way around several large evergreens before merging once more with the Red Trail. In sight of the bridge, a low flat stone wall heads out to the overhanging ledge. Walking out onto the overhang, I spot a trout swim up stream from under the rock. Sitting for a while listening to the river below, I wonder how I've not visited this conservation area before and how all this could be packed into 20 acres. I'm already envisioning what the area will be like in the fall and winter. Oh yea, because there is only parking for a few cars, I've decided to share my find.