Red Creek Park to Kurt Billings Park
Sixth Paumanok Path Inventory Hike: Red Creek Park to Kurt Billings Park
Wednesday, April 29
This segment of the Paumanok Path is mostly road walking. The goal is to get more of this segment into the woods.
When we arrived at the parking area at Red Creek Park, Matt, Bob, Jim, and I were greeted by a Town trail sign and an occupied osprey nest. We walked between the basketball court and the baseball diamond to pick up a map from a box at the trail opening. We walked along the outer edge of the fitness loop and saw a lot of dead pitch pine trees, many of them fallen.
We turned right on the wide dirt Old Squires Road. At this point we chose to follow the blue loop (instead of heading straight north on a yellow trail) because even though it took us a bit out of our way, it passes two pretty kettle holes with vernal ponds on the way to the Paumanok Path. The maps we picked up at the opening to the fitness circuit would be adequate for getting us onto the Path, but the old PP blazes need to be removed. When I last walked this part of the PP, those old blazes marked the trail. Bob Beattie was familiar with the re-route so we continued on the blue loop, passed a permanent wooden hunter stand, and then reached the revised Paumanok Path. The turn is marked by a post, with the number 3 on it.
We passed a poorly constructed wikiup and soon found Squiretown Park, a Girl Scout camp that Southampton Town recently purchased. The tendency here is to cut directly across Red Creek Road and head through to the gated driveway. The entry to the trail is offset to the right. If the Town owns the land 70 feet east along Red Creek Road, we should have the trail come out there instead. A big blow-down unfortunately hides the trail as we enter the new park. We passed a guinea hen coop. Is this a Town project? The winding trail going through the old Girl Scout camp offers us a panoramic view of Squires Pond and the Great Peconic Bay. The PP intersects the Park’s yellow loop trail for a short distance before exiting through a gate onto West Landing Road.
Cutting across West Landing, we head towards a flexi-stake that leads to a trail that runs for a short distance along the south side of Petrel Lane. The trail follows Petrel, left to Red Creek Rd. with a very skimpy shoulder to walk on. The next left took us onto Newtown Road, with a painted shoulder that becomes dangerously narrow where the road curves. We need to find a way to encourage hikers to walk in the direction facing oncoming traffic.
There is no blazing after Newtown Road!
Newtown took us under Rte.27 and the train tracks; then we turned left onto Gate Street.
This brings us along the west side of the Shinnecock Canal where we stopped and looked into the water, marveling at the large schools of fish.
To our left we entered the grounds by the Town of Southampton Parks and Recreation building. An updated map of the Paumanok Path needs to be in the kiosk, along with information about the Paumanok Path, the land managers, trails groups, and other environmental organizations who are contributing to this cooperative project. The kiosk is in need of some maintenance. There is parking and a restroom; there are also benches and picnic tables. The trail cuts across the grounds, past the soon-to-be demolished Canoe Place Inn, to the ramp off of Newtown Road, onto the Montauk Highway bridge, and across the canal.
As we cross the bridge we look back at two turkey vultures circling the field by the Parks Department, and catch a strong scent of decaying flesh.
Montauk Highway has a bike lane that cars cut across where there are curves in the road. When some cars came too close, I realized that the bike lanes are offering a false sense of security. We passed the Ocean View Terrace Inn, Edgewater Restaurant, and finally we bear left onto Peconic Road, with less frightening traffic. At the Highway Department, we turned right onto Longview Road for a long boring road walk - noisy but safe - on a straightaway with a wide painted shoulder. We passed the Ocean Breeze Hotel and turned left onto Hills Station Road.
As we continued to walk the roads highlighted as being the PP on the SH Town map, we turned right onto Hillside Rd. The only turn we found before Hills Station Road intersected with Sunrise Highway. It looked like a dirt road. It had branches, brush, and Christmas trees strewn across it. We walked around the debris, to the left. I saw what looked like the road. It ended up being a driveway going to Hillside Road. I didn’t enjoy being on someone else’s driveway uninvited. Bob suggested that this could have been a heavily used bypass during times of traffic congestion. That could be why the neighbors allowed a short (approx. 200 ft.?) buffer of trees to grow where a street is drawn on the SH map. If this is indeed a public road, we should be able to walk on it. Perhaps kissing gates at both ends of a clearly marked narrow trail would satisfy everyone.
Still walking the highlighted streets the turns become a bit tricky. The street signs are missing, so where you make the right on Arbutus before turning left onto Shinnecock Hills Road, is confusing.
We entered The Nature Conservancy’s Shinnecock Hills Preserve, small capacity, but presently unused parking area, and walked through well constructed kissing gates. We then followed the southern portion of the no longer blazed trail. We saw a few of the Nature Conservancy’s plastic blazes on fallen natural wooden stakes. We followed some yellow ribbon looking for a way out closer to the Tuckahoe Road crossing. We ended up making our way through catbrier down a steep slope to Rte. 27 / 39, then walking a distance on the skimpy road shoulder.
It took two more miles of walking on pavement to reach our destination. There is very little traffic on Tuckahoe Road, and there is a nice view from the top of the hill. At “five corners” we took Sebonac Road past where the Paumanok Path used to enter the woods, to Kurt Billings Park. I think Kurt would have appreciated this gesture made by his friends. It doesn’t seem so long ago, that Kurt and I walked this segment of the Paumanok Path. The only time we encountered roads, was when we crossed them.
If it isn’t raining, Wednesday, 05/06/15 is the next inventory hike. I’ll post info for the next hike soon - looking forward to it!
Wednesday, April 29
This segment of the Paumanok Path is mostly road walking. The goal is to get more of this segment into the woods.
When we arrived at the parking area at Red Creek Park, Matt, Bob, Jim, and I were greeted by a Town trail sign and an occupied osprey nest. We walked between the basketball court and the baseball diamond to pick up a map from a box at the trail opening. We walked along the outer edge of the fitness loop and saw a lot of dead pitch pine trees, many of them fallen.
We turned right on the wide dirt Old Squires Road. At this point we chose to follow the blue loop (instead of heading straight north on a yellow trail) because even though it took us a bit out of our way, it passes two pretty kettle holes with vernal ponds on the way to the Paumanok Path. The maps we picked up at the opening to the fitness circuit would be adequate for getting us onto the Path, but the old PP blazes need to be removed. When I last walked this part of the PP, those old blazes marked the trail. Bob Beattie was familiar with the re-route so we continued on the blue loop, passed a permanent wooden hunter stand, and then reached the revised Paumanok Path. The turn is marked by a post, with the number 3 on it.
We passed a poorly constructed wikiup and soon found Squiretown Park, a Girl Scout camp that Southampton Town recently purchased. The tendency here is to cut directly across Red Creek Road and head through to the gated driveway. The entry to the trail is offset to the right. If the Town owns the land 70 feet east along Red Creek Road, we should have the trail come out there instead. A big blow-down unfortunately hides the trail as we enter the new park. We passed a guinea hen coop. Is this a Town project? The winding trail going through the old Girl Scout camp offers us a panoramic view of Squires Pond and the Great Peconic Bay. The PP intersects the Park’s yellow loop trail for a short distance before exiting through a gate onto West Landing Road.
Cutting across West Landing, we head towards a flexi-stake that leads to a trail that runs for a short distance along the south side of Petrel Lane. The trail follows Petrel, left to Red Creek Rd. with a very skimpy shoulder to walk on. The next left took us onto Newtown Road, with a painted shoulder that becomes dangerously narrow where the road curves. We need to find a way to encourage hikers to walk in the direction facing oncoming traffic.
There is no blazing after Newtown Road!
Newtown took us under Rte.27 and the train tracks; then we turned left onto Gate Street.
This brings us along the west side of the Shinnecock Canal where we stopped and looked into the water, marveling at the large schools of fish.
To our left we entered the grounds by the Town of Southampton Parks and Recreation building. An updated map of the Paumanok Path needs to be in the kiosk, along with information about the Paumanok Path, the land managers, trails groups, and other environmental organizations who are contributing to this cooperative project. The kiosk is in need of some maintenance. There is parking and a restroom; there are also benches and picnic tables. The trail cuts across the grounds, past the soon-to-be demolished Canoe Place Inn, to the ramp off of Newtown Road, onto the Montauk Highway bridge, and across the canal.
As we cross the bridge we look back at two turkey vultures circling the field by the Parks Department, and catch a strong scent of decaying flesh.
Montauk Highway has a bike lane that cars cut across where there are curves in the road. When some cars came too close, I realized that the bike lanes are offering a false sense of security. We passed the Ocean View Terrace Inn, Edgewater Restaurant, and finally we bear left onto Peconic Road, with less frightening traffic. At the Highway Department, we turned right onto Longview Road for a long boring road walk - noisy but safe - on a straightaway with a wide painted shoulder. We passed the Ocean Breeze Hotel and turned left onto Hills Station Road.
As we continued to walk the roads highlighted as being the PP on the SH Town map, we turned right onto Hillside Rd. The only turn we found before Hills Station Road intersected with Sunrise Highway. It looked like a dirt road. It had branches, brush, and Christmas trees strewn across it. We walked around the debris, to the left. I saw what looked like the road. It ended up being a driveway going to Hillside Road. I didn’t enjoy being on someone else’s driveway uninvited. Bob suggested that this could have been a heavily used bypass during times of traffic congestion. That could be why the neighbors allowed a short (approx. 200 ft.?) buffer of trees to grow where a street is drawn on the SH map. If this is indeed a public road, we should be able to walk on it. Perhaps kissing gates at both ends of a clearly marked narrow trail would satisfy everyone.
Still walking the highlighted streets the turns become a bit tricky. The street signs are missing, so where you make the right on Arbutus before turning left onto Shinnecock Hills Road, is confusing.
We entered The Nature Conservancy’s Shinnecock Hills Preserve, small capacity, but presently unused parking area, and walked through well constructed kissing gates. We then followed the southern portion of the no longer blazed trail. We saw a few of the Nature Conservancy’s plastic blazes on fallen natural wooden stakes. We followed some yellow ribbon looking for a way out closer to the Tuckahoe Road crossing. We ended up making our way through catbrier down a steep slope to Rte. 27 / 39, then walking a distance on the skimpy road shoulder.
It took two more miles of walking on pavement to reach our destination. There is very little traffic on Tuckahoe Road, and there is a nice view from the top of the hill. At “five corners” we took Sebonac Road past where the Paumanok Path used to enter the woods, to Kurt Billings Park. I think Kurt would have appreciated this gesture made by his friends. It doesn’t seem so long ago, that Kurt and I walked this segment of the Paumanok Path. The only time we encountered roads, was when we crossed them.
If it isn’t raining, Wednesday, 05/06/15 is the next inventory hike. I’ll post info for the next hike soon - looking forward to it!
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