Trails of Blackall and Ballou

One of the lesser-known gems among Land Trust trails is the Blackall Family/Ballou Farm Preserve in Cumberland. It's also one of the newest; the trails have been maintained there by the Cumberland Land Trust just since 2016.

You'll find the trailhead parking in a gap in a stone wall at 8 Old West Wrentham Road. The entry trail, blazed white, will take you to the first of two extensive loop trails, blazed yellow. Take a right: you'll wander through stands of mature forest -- one of the largest I know that's nearly all hardwoods. Crossing a small stream, you'll pass by other stone walls, as well as a mysterious flight of steps that leads nowhere and a tree-platform or two. Take a right when you come to the red-blazed trail and descend along another stone wall before crossing past a small pond onto the other large loop, blazed blue. Here you'll pass by several 'sentinel' trees -- old oaks planted at or near stone walls, which date back to the time when this land was farmed.

Black mud, stones and roots, on creek bed

The farm here, operated by the Ballou family, can trace its origins back to Obadiah Ballou, one of three Ballou brothers who moved to the Cumberland area in the 1820's. In addition to them and the Blackall family, the area was also home to early settlers the Cook family, who arrived in 1632; several of their homes remain and can be seen on Old West Wrentham road (this is an older link from just before the current trail system and improvements were made -- you can get a sense of how much work it took to save and conserve this property).

About halfway along the blue trail, you'll come to a spur, also blazed white; it follows the path of a stream and eventually climbs up via a soldily-built staircase to the Cumberland Village shopping plaza. If you're considering taking larger groups on the trail, this could be an alternative starting spot, with plenty of parking.  Continuing along the blue loop, you'll return by the red trail once more; take a right at yellow and you'll finish the shorter part of that loop; return to you car via white. It's a good three miles to do both loops, and you won't find a more thoughtfully laid-out trail system anywhere in Rhode Island.