Sunday, May 3, 2015

Hike Six: Red Creek Park to Kurt Billings Park

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!
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Thank you Eric Woodward for your response! This is the kind of feedback we need. Great to know that this is getting into the right hands. 

Ken, great to see the blog on the inventory hikes. It is useful when
new eyes look at some of our same old patterns. Also none of us in the
trails group can cover all this ground. Thanks much. Here are some
specific things that may help:

•            entrance to Squiretown Park: from your blog; "… 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. Attached is an aerial screenshot. Could you possibly mark this
up with an indication where you are suggesting the trail should come
out and where the blowdown is? Since this is a town park perhaps we
can get the town to do the maintenance required. Thanks.

•            Regarding Newtown road you say "We need to find a way to
encourage hikers to walk in the direction facing oncoming traffic." I
haven't seen where the flex the stakes are placed but I assume they
are only on one side of the road and that it would be excessive to
actually stake both sides. Or maybe they did try to place the signs on
both sides visible only for hikers going either eastbound or
westbound. I don't think a sign would be effective. What are your
thoughts?

•          So reaching the canal you say "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."
I agree that the trails awareness at the Parks and Recreation facility
could definitely be upgraded. I haven't been there for some time but I
also recall thinking that the trail could also travel further along
the canal and into the Parks and Recreation grounds through a gate, as
shown on the markup map attached. Also note you mentioned Canoe Place
inn being torn down but the town did approve the area redevelopment
plan which will save the Canoe Place Inn. Of course it's restoration
will undoubtedly involve major replacements but presumably it will
qualify as restoration.

•          Continuing you say, "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." As I emailed you before I anticipated this might be
a rough spot. It turns out that Hillside shows in the towns tax
records as being privately owned. The trails group is working on legal
justifications to use private roads elsewhere in Shinnecock Hills and
hopes to make progress on this issue soon. Since Hillside might be
more controversial to the neighbors we will bring up the issue
elsewhere first. Also, we are hoping to secure passage along the
existing trail that heads east just north of the railroad tracks at
Hill Station Road. There are difficulties there also---as seemingly
everywhere in Shinnecock Hills.

•          Into the Shinnecock Hills preserve you say, "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"/.  The red ribbons we recently installed are closer to the
railroad tracks. If you had found them you would have not come out on
the highway in till just before the intersection with Tuckahoe Road.
(Just east of the recharge basin) this route will get blazed later
this year. Note we are also working with getting the county to make a
safe passage alongside the highway for the last few hundred feet
before Tuckahoe Road. In the meantime we think this trail section
should be labeled "under construction". Your blog could suggest people
look for the red ribbons which lead to the south fence of the recharge
basin. There is a reasonably clear existing trail over there.



Note I could've put this all right in your blog comments but I thought
it was a little too detailed for that. Note I have also copied Glorian
so she can think about what we might want to bring up to the wider
trail group. Thanks again for getting these getting these inventory
hikes together. Can you forward this to Bob Beattie - I do not have

his contact info. Eric Woodward

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