With rain threatening we set off to Fall River and a place I found on the internet called Gina's Restaurant. Gina's is in a residential area just north of downtown Fall River and it is a very popular place, at least on Sunday mornings. We had to wait for a table, not long but things were hopping, and yet the staff were all happy and very friendly. Once we sat down we had coffee and menus immediately. Lots of good things to choose from the menu. Being Fall River I certainly expect to have at least a couple of good Portuguese foods on the menu and I was not wrong. I had the number 1 special, 2 eggs, home fries, toast and chourico meat..not the chourico sausage (which is what I expected) but rather thin sliced pork in the special herbs and spices that make chourico what it is.. oh my goodness what a treat. It was out of this world good...we will be back here again! Nana had an omelet and pancakes (which I helped with) and we both were pretty full when it came time to pay the bill. So my recommendation is that the next time you are in the Fall River area, Look up Gina's Restaurant on Wilson Road and you wont be disappointed. It is fantastic.
Out front
I had spent some time on the computer looking for new places to explore and found the Freetown State Forest, just a few miles from Fall River and Nana and I agreed that it looked like a great spot. We followed the directions that Siri told us and ended up in Assonet where the Forest is and every entrance was blocked off and had 'No Parking' signs posted. this was discouraging, so we decided to head out in another direction when we saw a sign for Profile Rock...and followed the signs. This led us through the village of Assonet and what a charming old New England village Assonet is. Assonet is a village within the town of Freetown and was founded in 1659 according to the sign. After a few lefts and rights we found our way to the parking area of Profile Rock which according to indian legend is the profile of the famous Wamponoag Indian Chief Massaoit. We parked in a nicely maintained parking area and followed a gravel path marked with a blue triangle and were soon overlooking the rock itself. It is a very large rock on a rocky hillside and the profile is very obvious and distinct.
Profile Rock
We watched a young couple scramble down from the top of the hill and began our walk around the rock and through the surrounding woods and within minutes were back at the parking area. This was a nice walk but certainly not a long walk at all so we took off on another trail just across the road from the parking lot, and by the way, that blue triangle that we saw leaving the parking lot was the only trail marker we saw all day. . . but this trail was an obvious trail and was used by motor bikes and ATV's by the tracks left behind. We both commented that there was really nothing distinguishing about the forest here. Most of the places we have walked have a very noticeable personality but his place didn't, the walking was pleasant but, well, just so so. Until... we came to the first bout of muck and running water. As we came around a bend in the trail we began experiencing more and more muddy spots that gave way to large puddles in the path that needed to be negotiated by leaving the path, skirting them to keep dry. We then came to a stream, and although small was not crossable at the path, so we began our first off trail exploration to see if we could find a place to cross. We press on through a lot of briars, this area has a lot of briars, and soon found a spot. Watch the video below.
As you can see we made it across the stream with little trouble. However this is really where the trouble began. We had to fight the briars to get back to the path and by the looks of things on my map the path should join back up with the cleared gas line right of way which leads back to the parking lot, and sure enough within a few minutes we broke out of the forest to the clearing. From here it should be a straight shot back to the car, about a mile of easy walking...so we thought. We soon came to a very wet area, a bog, and very mucky with black mud and lined with briars. I attempted to make a crossing and got somewhat stranded while Nana made her way to the edge of the clearing and began a slow bit of progress along the side. I joined her and the going got very exciting. Technical muck and briar hiking.. we were slowly making little bits of progress and poor Nana had on short pants and her legs were getting sliced up by the briars and feet were getting wet and well it came to an end abruptly when we could no longer make any progress. Frustrated we made the decision to turn and make our way back. Reversing the process, was just as painful, and the frustration was punctuated with moments of laughter at the situation as we really felt as though we were stuck at times. Nana got her walking stick stuck in the muck and it undid itself (we fixed it) and I lost my stick altogether but I snatched it up as it threatened to float away. We made it back onto dry ground and took stock of where we were. I checked and double checked the maps I had (on my phone) and according to the arial view, if we just cut through here we should meet up with the main path. And then there was a path leading off in the right direction..which lasted about 50 feet and just disappeared. Again we were fighting the briars, and although we were on dry ground is was still not he kind of walk either of us wanted to be doing. We gave up again and headed back to the clearing in total frustration and found our way to to path we had originally came in on. The muck and briars had won, we headed back the way we came..which would mean another stream crossing but at least we knew we could do it. When we got to the stream I scouted another route and found a place upstream that had a well placed rock and it was an easy hop across the stream and only a few briars. Now the whole time we were walking it was threatening to rain, and we did get sprinkled on a couple of times, but the rain held off, thankfully and we were soon back at the car where Nana took off her wet shoes and socks and we now know to carry extra dry socks in our packs. All in all I give this walk one star out of five . . . the Profile Rock is interesting but the trails, well they could use some improvement . . even a few trail markers would help. Here are a few more pictures. I wish I had taken some pictures of the muck but I was preoccupied just trying to stay upright.
Base of the hill
Behind the rock
Poor Nana's legs - and this is an early shot...
2.5 miles total - in 1 hour and 45 minutes -slow moving in the muck
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