Sunday, June 21, 2015

Hike # 11 Soak Hides Road to Napeague Harbor Road

Paumanok Path Inventory Hike #11


Soak Hides Road to Napeague Harbor Road
The intersection of Soak Hides Road and Springy Banks Road offers two wide grassy shoulders for parking, and is well-blazed. The blazing seamlessly led us into the Cathy Lester Preserve. On Wed. June 10, 2015 Bob, Jim, and I started our walk down a woods road. Just before we turned right, through a post and rail kissing gate we got a glimpse of Gardeners Cove at the southern tip of Three Mile Harbor. We followed the Paumanok Path over Tanbark Creek/aka Soak Hides Dreen, over the Limar Ratsep Bridge. Phragmites are growing through the slats of the bridge; they may have to be cut soon.
The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society (EHTPS) built this 175-foot long bridge in 2000. From the bridge, if you look north, you can see the bay and to the south, there is the clear creek, with its verdant shore. Native Americans would soak cattle hides in the dreen. Twenty eight EHTPS volunteers (whose average age at the time was 60+) built the bridge over the Tanbark Creek. The bridge was financed with funds from three sources. Longtime member of the EHTPS, Ray Hartjen, engineered the project at its culmination, but the original designer was Limar Ratsep, another longtime member of the Trails Society. Mr. Ratsep was stricken with cancer and had passed away several years prior. His widow designated EHTPS as the recipient of memorial donations in lieu of flowers. The Town of East Hampton provided a grant of $2000, and the remaining cost of $2000 was defrayed by the donations and by EHTPS. The bridge was dedicated by EHTPS in the Fall of 2000 with a bronze plaque that bears Limar Ratsep’s name.
After walking through red maple wetlands, we came out onto Gardener Cove Road. The blazing is obscured by leaves, but even if some branches are pruned back, the blazing is insufficient to lead the hiker along the road and across Three Mile Harbor Road. More blazes need to be added here.
A right turn took us along a dirt road known as Karlsruhe / Cross Highway. There needs to be a left blaze to keep hikers from walking up a private driveway. The trail takes you into the woods, parallel and north of Abraham’s Path. This trail needs to be mowed. After crossing Mashie Drive, a left turn takes the trail parallel to Springs Fireplace Road. At Shadom Lane, we crossed over Springs Fireplace Road and enter the Accabonic Preserve. Here we began to see some dirt bike damage to the trail. The trail takes us a short distance along the road before cutting back into the woods, again the trail is within sight of the road.
We passed an intersection with a trail marked with blue blazes. It branches to the left and intersects with the Paumanok Path further east. Then we followed dirt bike paths around a pair of kissing gates on either side of Old Accabonnac Highway; the branches in front of the gates need to be cleared, and the gates need to be extended and maintained with logs and branches. We see hiker crossing signs and Peconic Land Trust signs as we enter the High Point Preserve. The predominately beech wood with its rolling knob and kettle terrain is beautiful, and the blazing is well executed. By a large glacial erratic we pass an intersection with a red trail and for a short distance we see the yellow dot blazes of the Springs Amagansett Trail accompanying the white PP blazes. Where the yellow trail splits off to the left, it leads to parking at Red Dirt Road. Deb Foster, a retired council person on the East Hampton Town Board, conceived the Springs/Amagansett Trail. She approached EHTPS in early 2006 with a proposal to establish a north/south neighborhood trail that would link the two hamlets. EHTPS built a trail that now runs 4.5 miles from the center of Springs to the center of Amagansett; it was completed in late October 2007. At the Baker Kettlehole, the Springs/Amagansett Trail diverges north. We are now following a gently winding trail with a 10 foot high wire link fence, with signs and camera that tower over the right side of the trail.
As we crossed Old Stone Highway, we were puzzled by the hiker sign facing into the trail, instead of out to the road. We see signs that inform us that we are on Nature Conservancy land. As we cross over Old Stone Highway by Eastwood Court, the trail soon enters what looks like a kettle hole, but isn’t a kettle hole, and then skirts to the right of another depression that likewise is also not a kettle hole. During colonial times, three huge clay pits were dug here. The clay was shaped into bricks and fired in kilns nearby. Across a gated driveway to the Bell Estate, the trail takes you up and around a similar depression. We then cut across Albert’s Landing Road on a diagonal. We didn’t see blazing for a distance after crossing the road, and we encountered some saplings cut a couple of feet from the ground creating a potential impaling hazard. These need to be cut to the ground.
The oak, beech, and occasional holly, combine to form a woods-like environment in a residential area. This well engineered trail travels along a ridge. Just before reaching Fresh Pond Road we encountered the blue-blazed George Sid Miller Trail branching to the left heading to Fresh Pond Town Park, where there are restrooms and a picnic area. The trail takes a steep turn to the left, around a field, and then a quick right turn takes you between two rocks and across Fresh Pond Road. After a short distance, the trail passes by the Isaac Conkling Grave (1747, age 32). The trail needs some clipping here. We then cut across a residential road. A narrow trail parallels, and then a left turn brings you onto Cross Highway to Devon, just beyond a paved section of that road. There needs to be a blaze here. A short walk brings you across Abraham’s Landing Road. The trail is a bit overgrown as you approach Cross Highway by Devonshire Lane.
Cross Highway continues as a dirt road running south until it reaches Cranberry Hole Road, where the trail cuts diagonally across the intersection. After a short distance the trail brought us down to the Old Montauk Highway, originally used as a wagon route across the isthmus of Napeague. It is wide, covered in pine needles and some grass. This trail needs to be pruned back. Note the cranberries, inkberries, high bush blueberry, sphagnum moss, and other wetland plants alongside this trail. During wet periods, this trail can become partially submerged. We walked this trail after a rain, and did not encounter this issue.
After a while, we reached higher ground where the trail tread is pure sand with bearberry, heather, and reindeer lichen growing along side it. We are now walking through the inner dunes of Napeague State Park. Where the trail runs along an abandoned railroad spur, there are blazes on the metal rail. I suggest a flexi-stake or two; a hiker wouldn’t be able to follow this part of the trail after a snowfall. It would be easy to continue by following the tracks, so be alert for the left turn, after a short distance. The trail here is soft mushy sand, but after a while you find yourself on a winding narrow trail through a pitch pine woods. The roots and needles make for a very comfortable trail tread. There are lots of mosquitoes and ticks here, so be prepared for that. The route is obvious, but the trail is sparsely blazed. Soon we see Napeague Meadow Road at a distance to our left, and cross over a woods access road deriving from it, noting that some inconsiderate person dumped several pieces of unwanted furniture where the path crosses this road. The LIRR tracks are now barely within sight to our right, as we cross Napeague Meadow Road and travel up the Art Barge Driveway. At this point I had to tell Bob and Jim to continue up the driveway because there are no blazes. The trail route continues to be ambiguous as we approach the shore, and I have to direct my hiking companions off of a trail leading into the marsh, and instead, over the dunes.
The three of us agreed that an info kiosk by the Art Barge would benefit hikers, The Art Barge, and EHTPS. A blaze led us across a brook, around and past the final bridge, then took us off the shoreline. From that point to Napeague Harbor Road the blazing was easy to follow. I noted that the trail crosses the road by #69. I think if I program my GPS for 69 Napeague Harbor Road it would direct me to the trailhead.
Like · Comment · 

No comments:

Post a Comment

We appreciate all comments!