The Pawcatuck flows through the Grills Preserve.

The Providence Journal / Tom Meade

WESTERLY –– On the edge of Westerly, only the sound of airplanes and an occasional Amtrak train punctures the silence of the Grills Preserve. Some loggers have been working in the area, but songbirds and the breeze were the only sounds in the woods last Sunday.

Beyond the entrance gate, a wide trail is blazed in red with the letters XC for cross-country skiing. It passes through a forest of mixed hardwoods with some white pine and pitch pine. The recent logging activity creates a fragrant experience.

River lovers don’t need boats to see some of the most scenic stretches of the Pawcatuck and the woods on its banks; this Westerly Land Trust preserve, which has saved 482 acres along the Pawcatuck, is laced with trails.

The property was purchased from Richard and Michael Grills in 2003 with money from the Department of Environmental Management, The Nature Conservancy, and other sources. It is part of a larger river corridor that includes Burlingame State Park.

“More than five miles of riverfront is protected," said Tom Thompson, chairman of the Hopkinton Land Trust when the Grills property was purchased. “That’s monumental.”

“The whole [Grills Preserve] was known as Big Hill,” said John Maxson, a Westerly High School teacher who grew up in the area. Last year, he told The Providence Journal that he and his friends would spend hours there, playing games and foraging. “We’d pick blueberries, wild strawberries,” he said.

Soon after the entrance, the Blue Trail on the right takes hikers along a lazy stretch of the Pawcatuck. It’s a pretty walk throughout the year, but the river’s shore shimmers with red maples in autumn. The Blue Trail is a loop that takes about an hour to complete at a pokey pace.

To extend the hike and experience a completely different environment, take a turn on to the Yellow Trail, which passes through a bog covered with berry bushes and filled with the fragrance of coastal sweet pepperbush in August. The Yellow Trail loops back to the Blue Trail, which returns to the parking area.

The XC trail that meanders from the preserve’s entrance comes to a turnaround, and a hiker or skier can take a fork to the right to return to the parking area.

All the trails are so clearly marked, with blazes every 50 feet or so, that it is hard to imagine becoming lost here. The land trust’s Web site has a trail map available for downloading at http://www.westerlylandtrust.

org/docs/GrillsTrailMap.pdf, and there is a large map in an information kiosk at the preserve’s large parking area in Bradford. (None of the trails appeared to be suitable for wheelchairs or strollers.)

During the summer of 2008, the Grills Preserve was the subject of BioBlitz, when 115 scientists and team members observed 1,111 species of plants, animals, algae, lichen and other organisms in 24 hours. They recorded several rare species including dwarf chestnut, butterfly weed and skunk meadow-rue. They identified 68 species of mosses and liverwort and 91 species of lichen.

Though hunting is limited on the property, the preserve’s rules require visitors to wear blaze orange after Oct. 1.

The entrance to the Grills Preserve is at the end of Bowling Lane in the village of Bradford. To get there from Route 95, take Exit 1 toward Ashaway and Bradford. Bear right toward Route 216. Follow Route 216 to the T-junction with Route 91. Turn right, then bear right at a slight fork at the fire station onto North Main Street. Take the first right onto Bowling Lane (it is unmarked) and go to the end. The parking area is on the left.

For GPS guidance, set the destination for 131 Bowling Lane, zip code 02808. The parking area is across the road from that address.

More information about all of the land trust’s properties is available online at www.westerlylandtrust.org.