Blue Pond Hopkinton RI

Yesterday 19 OCT2015 I ventured out to Blue Pond in Canonchet village, Hopkinton RI.

 Blue Pond used to be a local Victorian vacation spot where many people used to camp and fish in the late 1800 and early 1900s. Many of the old timers living in Hopkinton still talk about catching a weeks worth of fish back when Blue Pond was fully loaded and fully stocked.

Access to the pond area is off of Canonchet Road in Hopkinton. If you are heading from RT 95 and RT 3, take Canonchet Rd and go past Green Plastics. You will see Ashville pond on the left and a little further up there will be a parking area on the right. That is one of the entrances to Blue Pond. There is another entrance (that has a steel gate) that goes straight to the old earthen damn in between the parking area and Ashville pond.

Here is a link to the hiking paths in the area:
http://www.mdc.net/~dbrier/yawgoog/trails/img/long-ell-ponds.jpg

In 2009 the earthen damn failed due to the 3 days of heavy rain and flooded all of the Canonchet area. I went out to see the damage for myself a few years later. Much of the old roads were washed out and not suitable for mountain biking anymore. The terrain is very rocky, there are a few downed trees blocking the paths.

A shadow of what Blue Pond used to be. This pond was at least 10 times bigger! 

Notice the size of the earthen dam, It's at least 10 feet tall. 

When I got to the pond I was amazed to see the pond is now about a tenth of what it used to be! The only water left is on the north area. The level of the water is easily ten feet below the high mark of the damn.

This is where the dam failed. You can see the granite slabs at the bottom that was used to control
drainage. This trench is approx. 10 feet deep.

Blue Pond area is still beautiful. There is still plenty of hiking available and lots of water fowl. I do not recommend the area for mountain biking, but it is a good day hike.