The Escoheag Boulder is 15 feet tall with routes u...
Description
This little area around a spur off of the dirt Plain Rd. offers some bouldering on a juggy overhanging ledge (probably needs recleaning), some easy slab and a few eggs, including the excellent Escoheag Boulder. The overhangs are found before you get to the end of the spur, off to the left, where there is a small two car parking space.
To get to the Escoheag Boulder, take a wide unmarked trail directly off the end of the cul de sac, not the white dot trail, but one that starts to the right. Follow this and pass just to the right of the pavilion. Continue on another minute and you should see the 15 foot tall boulder in front of you.
Recently (early 2012), more rock has been found by following the white trail east. After dropping off the ridge line below the pavilion you will cross a stream. There is a boulder to the left in the stream bed with a low traverse seam. Continuing on the white trail, as you cross a second stream and come to another ridge 5 minutes in, the Great Wall is facing you off to the left. It is about 12 feet high by maybe 50 feet wide with rougher rock than the rest, very featured, which should provide a bunch of quality moderates when cleaned up.
Continuing on the white trail over the ridge, just before yet another stream crossing, off to the left again a hundred feet or so are few boulders and roofs that look to have potential. If you kept going in that direction, a ledge develops, but most of it is wet and mossy. Maybe a few easy highballs could be found.
If you stay on the white trail across the stream, on the next ridge the trail will climb up to the Long Wall, an approximately 100 foot wide X 10-15' tall ledge with great looking horizontal traversing seams. From the parking, this is about 10 minutes to get to at most. The Swamp Boulder is off to the left a few minutes, just below the Long Wall ridge. Hunting about mostly to the north of the trail will reveal a few more scattered things. East, past the Long Wall and up to Plain rd seems to get pretty sparse.
Getting There
Drive west on Rt 165 past Mt. Tom and take a right on to Escoheag Hill Rd. In approximately a mile take a right into the horseshoe shaped entrance of the dirt Plain Rd. with a red log park building in the middle of it. Immediately take a spur road to the right and drive to it's end.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Escoheag:
Towards the right end of the face, start on a good scoopy hold a few feet right of the beginning of The Seam. Head up and a bit left on the good holds. You can do a sit start from the low flake to the right to the lip and move into it, but it is awkward getting you feet on the wall over the large rock at the base...[more]Browse More Classics in Rhode Island
I ran into two old guys riding trials motorcycles. The told me that there were some big overhangs (one said you wouldn't want to climb them without a rope) about a mile or so down the white blazed trail that you can take from the end of the cul-de-sac. I didn't have time to hike out there but it souneded interesting.
By M Sprague Administrator From: New England Feb 28, 2012
Thanks, Joe. That area is roughly where I wanted to scout next. I saw some possibilities on Bing down below the known overhangs and also the ledges they must have been talking about. I'm loving Bing, but it is funny, one of the best erratics we have found recently is completely invisible on it from any angle. I might even check it out this afternoon. I'll give a report if I find anything.
By M Sprague Administrator From: New England Feb 28, 2012
I didn't find any big overhangs that would require a rope, but I did find some good stuff, including a wall right on the white dot trail that is about 80+ feet wide and 10- 15' tall. There could be some easy traverses on it. The rock quality in this area is really nice. it is the same band running down from the Lost Boulder; excellent rock that has been smoothed from when the streams running between the ridges must have been rivers. Another ledge is about 40+ feet wide and when cleaned up will be the nicest wall that I have found in the area for tons of good moderates. I didn't find any really big erratics, but there are smaller ones with some good lines on them and some sections of other ledges that should be good, with a few roof problems. I have one problem on an erratic that I can't show anybody until I do it :)) It's gooood.
I pretty much scoured the area north of a line running east from the Escoheag Boulder contained by the dirt Plain Rd. The white dot trail runs about 1/2 mile through it to Plain Rd and there are also lots of other trails from the trials guys.
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