I began my walk in the woods on the trail that runs southeast from Southwest Main St. From the gate at the road it's an easy, short downhill walk to a sturdy wooden bridge over Rocky Brook. Crossing perpendicularly immediately thereafter is a wide, open trail made from an abandoned Conrail right of way. (This location is marked by point no. 2 on the map above.) I crossed this sandy, rocky strip, continuing eastbound on a now more narrow trail going deeper into the woods. Shortly the elevation begins to increase and the trail becomes rocky. After about half of a mile this unnamed trail intersects the Midstate Trail, which is marked with yellow triangles. Going straight for about two miles would have taken me to the state forest visitor center, at the northern end of Wallum Lake, but I turned right, heading southeast.

The Midstate Trail is not nearly as wide and open as the old Conrail roadbed, which to me makes it a more appealing route to the R.I. border. It is simply a narrow but well-traversed path through the woods. At one point shortly after I turned onto the trail I saw the remains of a small building, just its cellar and foundation still discernable, constructed entirely of fieldstone and filled with decades of forest debris. In fact, I saw more than one of these in the forest. With the rail line close by, perhaps 100 or more years ago this area was developed. There are numerous intact stone walls in the forest, too, and this area of the state is close enough to today's developed areas that it's reasonable to assume that this part of Douglas likely was settled when the Blackstone Valley was bustling with mills and mill towns during the 19th and early 20th century.

Heading south, apparently shallow swamps appear on both sides of the trail, so I never found the stream that I sought as a landmark. Therefore, when I encountered a small trail leading off to the southwest, which I was anticipating only after crossing a stream, I was unsure whether to take it. It looked like it was heading in the direction in which I wanted to travel to reach the Tri-State Marker, so I left the Midstate Trail on this far more narrow, less clearly delineated path. My decision turned out to be the correct one, for after about a quarter mile I encountered a small, granite Mass.-R.I. boundary marker that indicated to me that all I had to do to reach the Tri-State Marker was walk west, following this path. (This location is marked by point no. 3 on the map above, although the trail that I now followed to get to the marker is not shown on the map.)