Third Paumanok Path Inventory Hike
Third Inventory Hike- Paumanok Path; 4/9/15
Halsey Manor Road to Suffolk Community College
The following is a record of the continuing initiative to determine what we need to do so that hiking the Paumanok Path is an even more beautiful adventure for hikers.
Photographs arranged in order of text. Will reference them in “comments.”
While reading you can follow our progress on these maps. After reading this, study the maps to find:
The first map is the inventory of trails, that I GPS’ed (1) when I first started the Manorville Project. Note the aggressive segmentation of these 3000 acres of Pine Barrens Core. More than half of the trails were illegal dirt bike-created trails. Since the Project began, half of the illegal trails are being reabsorbed into the woods. The gentle users are displacing the more destructive ones. A gentle user realizes that you don’t use natural open space as a consumable resource.
This is the trail network we now have in Manorville County Park (1a). Can you pick out the trail segments I incorporated into the new network of trails? Can you guess which trails are being reabsorbed? Do you see how the safety trails provide access to emergency vehicles and also serve to orient hikers?
If you compare the map Gregory Senyszyn sent me (1c) to the Larry Paul map (1b) you can make a pretty good guess where the missing erratic is, a short distance east of Toppings Path. Larry’s map shows where the trail was, before it shifted.
The last map (1d) shows where the Paumanok Path was before County Parks enabled me to move the trail away from the L.I.E. and towards the Hot Water Street trail head.
On Thursday, April 9, Bob, Phil, and I entered the Paumanok Path from the large parking area (2) where the trail uses Halsey Manor Road to get over the L.I.E. At the entry next to the sign saying “NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES” there is a deep trench dug out by the wheels of numerous dirt bikes entering the trail here. Over the last couple of decades both the County and the Pine Barrens Commission have promised to put a gate here, but it has not yet happened. Most of the tracks head onto the old Paumanok Path that runs along the Expressway. County had me re-route the trail south to visit the new trailhead at Hot Water Street. In a future post I’ll describe the network of trails in this park. I hope in the meantime the attached map will entice some of you to visit. A few dirt bikers consider the logs across the new trail to be a challenge, but most just ride on the original Paumanok Path in the deep ravines they created running east along the Expressway. As soon as the new trail was cut and blazed, it was badly abused by the dirt bikes, but after installing the kissing gates, it has begun to heal nicely and is a pleasure to walk (2a). Pass by a small pond, and a deep kettle, both of which appear to me to be the result of human industry. My guess is the pond was created to access water for a farm, and the kettle was a sand pit, but now they are lovely experiences along the Path. We soon cross Safety Trail 1, the first of six fire and survey roads that run north – south through Manorville Hills County Park. These trails are marked with blue and white numbered plastic blazes. They afford access to emergency vehicles and are also useful in helping orient the hikers.
About a mile in, the trail cuts across a once heavily used dirt bike trail. I was surprised to see no fresh tracks on it. When I was working on the re-route I steered the trail away from a scenic highpoint that the illegal trail visited. I look forward to modifying the trail here, when we become more effective in keeping those motorized vehicles off of our gentle use trails.
When we reach the kissing gates where the PP crosses the equestrian trail, again I was amazed that no “illegals” have tried to work their way around the gates recently. The trail climbs to a couple of high points from here, so it is very vulnerable to damage. A few of the switchbacks and climbing turns were almost immediately straightened out by illegal use, before the gates were installed. It is mild damage, and a trail crew of three, with shovels and saws (need one water bar) could repair this with about 12 hours work. This will keep this trail sustainable.
After passing a large erratic (2b) we turn onto what looks like a colonial carriage road. Before the post and rail gates were erected, this trail was abused by all sorts of large and small vehicles. It is stable now with an inch of duff on it. Pass through another kissing gate, and soon we turn left onto what was once an old farm road (2c), if you were to turn right you would shortly find yourself at the Hot Water Street trailhead. Again the trail tread is healing from massive abuse, but you would never know it, it is a pleasure to walk.
Near a huge old walnut tree the trail turns right onto safety trail 2. Follow the safety trail a short distance, and turn left through another kissing gate (3). Again the trail is healing so well that you can’t see any evidence of earlier vehicular impact. Cut across the 12-mile mountain bike trail, mostly the product of the efforts of Mike Vitti and his excellent trail crew. Pass a Tom Stock log bench, pass through another couple of kissing gates, and cross over safety trail 3. There are truck tire treads on safety trail 3. This was an asphalt road that Sperry built for access to a large radio tower that was subsequently dismantled. Pass another Tom Stock bench, and enter a copse of white pine. When I was doing the initial inventory of the park, my friend Ken Spadafora pointed the copse out to me as we walked the Sperry Road, so when it came to cutting the trail, I asked Ken to cut this beautiful short section of trail. At this point I mention to Bob that I would like to list all the people who volunteered their time to help me with these trails while I was working for the County, but the list is dauntingly long. Thank you to all these volunteers!
Pass through another kissing gate. Ken Spadafora built this first gate of the Manorville Project to protect his little gem of a trail. Here we reach the 8 mile hiking loop, a favorite of many cross country runners. We continue straight, and the PP follows a segment of the orange trail. There is a fresh dirt bike track on the orange loop. After crossing safety trail 4 the impact of illegal use becomes more obvious (4). I adopted this segment from an old dirt bike trail. A kissing gate won’t work here because there is an open understory, and it would be easy to ride around a gate. About a half mile of trail needs to have soil pulled into its belly, and water bars installed, or it needs to be closed down and re-routed. This would be an excellent place to start the “Foot Friendly Trails Restoration Project” I have submitted to my fellow LIGTC Board members. It would take about six days work for a crew of five. I re-routed where the trail climbs to a scenic summit, but the climbing turns were cut across (4a), a gully has formed. Water traveling straight down a steep incline will soon turn this into an ugly and uncomfortable to walk ravine.
At the summit, we pass another Tom Stock bench.
At the bottom of this hill, we reached the short yellow trail that cuts the orange loop in half. Bob noticed that I broke convention and put a yellow turn blaze here (4b), instead of erecting a sign (4c).
After crossing safety trail 5, the level of damage decreases to an acceptable level. I used safety trail 5 as part of the six mile equestrian trail. Some equestrians find the challenge of this section exciting; unfortunately it seems to be popular with the dirt bikers as well.
The PP leaves the orange trail here, then crosses safety trail 6. The next section of trail has seen very little abuse since I built it five years ago. It is an exhilarating experience to walk this trail through archetypical knob and kettle topography.
When we re-join the orange trail, this is also where we re-join the original Paumanok Path, cut about fifteen years ago. Over the last five years there has been a decrease in illegal traffic and the trail is characterized by a foot deep trench with duff accumulating in the belly of the tread. The duff would all be thrown out of the trench by motor bike tires, if it was still being heavily used. Bob points out a few ankle twisters, but overall it’s not bad to walk. We pass a couple of large erratics (5), and then the trail is characterized by washboard-like bumps (5a). By accelerating and jumping into the air from small bumps in the trail the powerful machines kick up the dirt and create troughs between the bumps, creating larger bumps. Bob remarked that this is very rough on runners. It was certainly jostling my kidneys. We crossed the bike loop again. PP blazing needs to be refreshed west bound here. There is a ridge north of the trail that would make an excellent re-route. We might consider this because it is very hard to level the bumps. Roots populate the bumps rapidly, the soil is rich with nutrients; mineral soil is pulled up and mixed with decaying leaves. Making an old trail disappear is very necessary, and extremely labor intensive. It would take three people working for a couple of weeks to repair this half mile between where the re-route connects with the old Path, and where it crosses the bike trail.
The aggressive tread of dirt bike tires create ravines, then foxes dig dens in the sides of the ravines (5b). Soon after digging these dens the foxes abandoned them (5c) because the loud machines freak them out. I’ve watched this process numerous times. Also, I’ve seen frogs, turtles, snakes (5d,5e), even young birds that must have been surprised and squashed in these unnatural grooves. Where the trail is churned up by dirt bikes, turtles like to bury their eggs because the ground is sandy, and easy to dig in (5f), but later in the season the aggressive tires rip the eggs up.
From where the Paumanok Path leaves the orange loop for the last time to where it crosses CR 51 near the end of our walk the trail needs to be re-blazed in both directions. I was the last person to blaze it properly about 16 years ago. George Fernandez, a college art professor, taught me how to blaze. He would have considered the sloppy unauthorized efforts at blazing “visual pollution. (6,6a).” In the interim the unauthorized painter followed the dirt bike trail where s/he couldn’t follow the faded blazes. That cut out the climbing turns, switchbacks, and other eccentricities, straightening the trail out and making it unsustainable. The resulting fail-line construction resulted in very deep ravines and multiple trails to get around them (6b).
When we crossed over Toppings Path, I was particularly vexed by the disappearance of a large erratic that had a seat to relax in while eating lunch. I want to find it and move the PP back to it. Last year the LIGTC Monday Crew re-blazed a half–mile of the trail east of Toppings Path. Through no fault of the trail crew, we may have to re-blaze the re-blaze.
About a mile in from Toppings Path, after walking in several deep ravines, there is a metal tree stand (7) alongside the Paumanok Path. It is illegal to leave a permanent tree stand.
As we approach High Hill, the trail becomes wide, churned up with long stretches of continuous bumps (7a,7b). A large dead tree hanging over the trail (7c) needs to be taken down. There are numerous turn blazes here, defacing the trees, where only one well placed turn blaze is needed. With the incredibly energetic efforts of the volunteers, we haven’t been able to keep up with the fundamental maintenance of the trails. Even trails that are constructed cross slope, so water can run across them, cannot shed water if they have a deep groove in them (8a). Not only are there too few maintainers, but we also have to repair trails that would normally remain stable with little or no help.
Pass Deep Hollow Kettle (8), with its stunningly beautiful perched vernal pond. At a major intersection, the trail takes you close to Hunter’s Garden. Pass by the Tank Tower, and suddenly the trail damage drops off radically. From where the PP leaves the orange loop to the tank tower is a bit more than two miles. I suggest re-routing this section. We will build it in a way that will be unappealing to the motor bikers. To do this correctly it would take a trails crew at least 6 weeks, and we would have to work closely with DEC, provided we can get their permission.
After the tank tower the trail is very nice, but there are spikes sticking out of the ground. I remember seeing check steps here years ago. The wood decayed, leaving the ends of rebar sticking out of the ground. We need to pull these 3 foot metal bars out of the ground. They can trip a hiker, or as Bob pointed out, damage the foot of a runner wearing thin running shoes.
We pass through one of George Fernandez’s 17 year old kissing gates (9c), it was damaged by a fallen tree. We walked through, then turned right onto the main access woods road that has its origin at CR 51. When we were building these gates, George told me that this gate would protect the mile of PP between the tank tower and the woods road. It appears he was correct. We should put a new gate here (post and rail and a trail crew, half day). There is dirt bike damage where the PP shares the trail corridor with the blue loop, but the trail is not uncomfortable to walk. The geodetic markers on top of Bald Hill (9d) are vandalized (9e,f,g), and we encountered some dirt bikers who look like Darth Vader in their costumes (9h); not what I’d be looking to encounter on a nature walk. The encounter dispelled the feel and spirit of wilderness. This is sacred ground and it is being defiled. As I watched them descend the steps that the LIGTC built with hard earned grant money, I see that their continued abuse has ripped most of these check steps out, and the trail is reverting back to the ravine it was before the steps were constructed.
The trail between Bald Hill and CR 51 is trashed, and I’m not sure how to fix it. The blue loop by the college is also badly trashed (9j-9u) It seems to be a race track for dirt bikes. After the “students blue loop” the short yellow trail that takes us back to the parking lot is very pleasant to walk.
Access Manorville Hills County Park Hot Water Street Parking Lot and Kiosk
Take L.I.E. east to exit 70 (County Route 111). Turn right onto Rte. 111 heading south towards the Hamptons. Travel 2 miles, look for the Shrine sign for Our Lady of the Island on the right side of the road, and some small Manorville County Park signs. Turn right onto Eastport-Manor Road. At stop sign turn left to traffic light. From ramp, cross two lanes in less than 0.2 miles, be careful this is a hazardous maneuver. Enter park at large County Parks sign. Proceed in, and follow signs to parking area.
Note last photo, 8A bus furnishes public transportation to SCCC parking lot.
Halsey Manor Road to Suffolk Community College
The following is a record of the continuing initiative to determine what we need to do so that hiking the Paumanok Path is an even more beautiful adventure for hikers.
Photographs arranged in order of text. Will reference them in “comments.”
While reading you can follow our progress on these maps. After reading this, study the maps to find:
The first map is the inventory of trails, that I GPS’ed (1) when I first started the Manorville Project. Note the aggressive segmentation of these 3000 acres of Pine Barrens Core. More than half of the trails were illegal dirt bike-created trails. Since the Project began, half of the illegal trails are being reabsorbed into the woods. The gentle users are displacing the more destructive ones. A gentle user realizes that you don’t use natural open space as a consumable resource.
This is the trail network we now have in Manorville County Park (1a). Can you pick out the trail segments I incorporated into the new network of trails? Can you guess which trails are being reabsorbed? Do you see how the safety trails provide access to emergency vehicles and also serve to orient hikers?
If you compare the map Gregory Senyszyn sent me (1c) to the Larry Paul map (1b) you can make a pretty good guess where the missing erratic is, a short distance east of Toppings Path. Larry’s map shows where the trail was, before it shifted.
The last map (1d) shows where the Paumanok Path was before County Parks enabled me to move the trail away from the L.I.E. and towards the Hot Water Street trail head.
On Thursday, April 9, Bob, Phil, and I entered the Paumanok Path from the large parking area (2) where the trail uses Halsey Manor Road to get over the L.I.E. At the entry next to the sign saying “NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES” there is a deep trench dug out by the wheels of numerous dirt bikes entering the trail here. Over the last couple of decades both the County and the Pine Barrens Commission have promised to put a gate here, but it has not yet happened. Most of the tracks head onto the old Paumanok Path that runs along the Expressway. County had me re-route the trail south to visit the new trailhead at Hot Water Street. In a future post I’ll describe the network of trails in this park. I hope in the meantime the attached map will entice some of you to visit. A few dirt bikers consider the logs across the new trail to be a challenge, but most just ride on the original Paumanok Path in the deep ravines they created running east along the Expressway. As soon as the new trail was cut and blazed, it was badly abused by the dirt bikes, but after installing the kissing gates, it has begun to heal nicely and is a pleasure to walk (2a). Pass by a small pond, and a deep kettle, both of which appear to me to be the result of human industry. My guess is the pond was created to access water for a farm, and the kettle was a sand pit, but now they are lovely experiences along the Path. We soon cross Safety Trail 1, the first of six fire and survey roads that run north – south through Manorville Hills County Park. These trails are marked with blue and white numbered plastic blazes. They afford access to emergency vehicles and are also useful in helping orient the hikers.
About a mile in, the trail cuts across a once heavily used dirt bike trail. I was surprised to see no fresh tracks on it. When I was working on the re-route I steered the trail away from a scenic highpoint that the illegal trail visited. I look forward to modifying the trail here, when we become more effective in keeping those motorized vehicles off of our gentle use trails.
When we reach the kissing gates where the PP crosses the equestrian trail, again I was amazed that no “illegals” have tried to work their way around the gates recently. The trail climbs to a couple of high points from here, so it is very vulnerable to damage. A few of the switchbacks and climbing turns were almost immediately straightened out by illegal use, before the gates were installed. It is mild damage, and a trail crew of three, with shovels and saws (need one water bar) could repair this with about 12 hours work. This will keep this trail sustainable.
After passing a large erratic (2b) we turn onto what looks like a colonial carriage road. Before the post and rail gates were erected, this trail was abused by all sorts of large and small vehicles. It is stable now with an inch of duff on it. Pass through another kissing gate, and soon we turn left onto what was once an old farm road (2c), if you were to turn right you would shortly find yourself at the Hot Water Street trailhead. Again the trail tread is healing from massive abuse, but you would never know it, it is a pleasure to walk.
Near a huge old walnut tree the trail turns right onto safety trail 2. Follow the safety trail a short distance, and turn left through another kissing gate (3). Again the trail is healing so well that you can’t see any evidence of earlier vehicular impact. Cut across the 12-mile mountain bike trail, mostly the product of the efforts of Mike Vitti and his excellent trail crew. Pass a Tom Stock log bench, pass through another couple of kissing gates, and cross over safety trail 3. There are truck tire treads on safety trail 3. This was an asphalt road that Sperry built for access to a large radio tower that was subsequently dismantled. Pass another Tom Stock bench, and enter a copse of white pine. When I was doing the initial inventory of the park, my friend Ken Spadafora pointed the copse out to me as we walked the Sperry Road, so when it came to cutting the trail, I asked Ken to cut this beautiful short section of trail. At this point I mention to Bob that I would like to list all the people who volunteered their time to help me with these trails while I was working for the County, but the list is dauntingly long. Thank you to all these volunteers!
Pass through another kissing gate. Ken Spadafora built this first gate of the Manorville Project to protect his little gem of a trail. Here we reach the 8 mile hiking loop, a favorite of many cross country runners. We continue straight, and the PP follows a segment of the orange trail. There is a fresh dirt bike track on the orange loop. After crossing safety trail 4 the impact of illegal use becomes more obvious (4). I adopted this segment from an old dirt bike trail. A kissing gate won’t work here because there is an open understory, and it would be easy to ride around a gate. About a half mile of trail needs to have soil pulled into its belly, and water bars installed, or it needs to be closed down and re-routed. This would be an excellent place to start the “Foot Friendly Trails Restoration Project” I have submitted to my fellow LIGTC Board members. It would take about six days work for a crew of five. I re-routed where the trail climbs to a scenic summit, but the climbing turns were cut across (4a), a gully has formed. Water traveling straight down a steep incline will soon turn this into an ugly and uncomfortable to walk ravine.
At the summit, we pass another Tom Stock bench.
At the bottom of this hill, we reached the short yellow trail that cuts the orange loop in half. Bob noticed that I broke convention and put a yellow turn blaze here (4b), instead of erecting a sign (4c).
After crossing safety trail 5, the level of damage decreases to an acceptable level. I used safety trail 5 as part of the six mile equestrian trail. Some equestrians find the challenge of this section exciting; unfortunately it seems to be popular with the dirt bikers as well.
The PP leaves the orange trail here, then crosses safety trail 6. The next section of trail has seen very little abuse since I built it five years ago. It is an exhilarating experience to walk this trail through archetypical knob and kettle topography.
When we re-join the orange trail, this is also where we re-join the original Paumanok Path, cut about fifteen years ago. Over the last five years there has been a decrease in illegal traffic and the trail is characterized by a foot deep trench with duff accumulating in the belly of the tread. The duff would all be thrown out of the trench by motor bike tires, if it was still being heavily used. Bob points out a few ankle twisters, but overall it’s not bad to walk. We pass a couple of large erratics (5), and then the trail is characterized by washboard-like bumps (5a). By accelerating and jumping into the air from small bumps in the trail the powerful machines kick up the dirt and create troughs between the bumps, creating larger bumps. Bob remarked that this is very rough on runners. It was certainly jostling my kidneys. We crossed the bike loop again. PP blazing needs to be refreshed west bound here. There is a ridge north of the trail that would make an excellent re-route. We might consider this because it is very hard to level the bumps. Roots populate the bumps rapidly, the soil is rich with nutrients; mineral soil is pulled up and mixed with decaying leaves. Making an old trail disappear is very necessary, and extremely labor intensive. It would take three people working for a couple of weeks to repair this half mile between where the re-route connects with the old Path, and where it crosses the bike trail.
The aggressive tread of dirt bike tires create ravines, then foxes dig dens in the sides of the ravines (5b). Soon after digging these dens the foxes abandoned them (5c) because the loud machines freak them out. I’ve watched this process numerous times. Also, I’ve seen frogs, turtles, snakes (5d,5e), even young birds that must have been surprised and squashed in these unnatural grooves. Where the trail is churned up by dirt bikes, turtles like to bury their eggs because the ground is sandy, and easy to dig in (5f), but later in the season the aggressive tires rip the eggs up.
From where the Paumanok Path leaves the orange loop for the last time to where it crosses CR 51 near the end of our walk the trail needs to be re-blazed in both directions. I was the last person to blaze it properly about 16 years ago. George Fernandez, a college art professor, taught me how to blaze. He would have considered the sloppy unauthorized efforts at blazing “visual pollution. (6,6a).” In the interim the unauthorized painter followed the dirt bike trail where s/he couldn’t follow the faded blazes. That cut out the climbing turns, switchbacks, and other eccentricities, straightening the trail out and making it unsustainable. The resulting fail-line construction resulted in very deep ravines and multiple trails to get around them (6b).
When we crossed over Toppings Path, I was particularly vexed by the disappearance of a large erratic that had a seat to relax in while eating lunch. I want to find it and move the PP back to it. Last year the LIGTC Monday Crew re-blazed a half–mile of the trail east of Toppings Path. Through no fault of the trail crew, we may have to re-blaze the re-blaze.
About a mile in from Toppings Path, after walking in several deep ravines, there is a metal tree stand (7) alongside the Paumanok Path. It is illegal to leave a permanent tree stand.
As we approach High Hill, the trail becomes wide, churned up with long stretches of continuous bumps (7a,7b). A large dead tree hanging over the trail (7c) needs to be taken down. There are numerous turn blazes here, defacing the trees, where only one well placed turn blaze is needed. With the incredibly energetic efforts of the volunteers, we haven’t been able to keep up with the fundamental maintenance of the trails. Even trails that are constructed cross slope, so water can run across them, cannot shed water if they have a deep groove in them (8a). Not only are there too few maintainers, but we also have to repair trails that would normally remain stable with little or no help.
Pass Deep Hollow Kettle (8), with its stunningly beautiful perched vernal pond. At a major intersection, the trail takes you close to Hunter’s Garden. Pass by the Tank Tower, and suddenly the trail damage drops off radically. From where the PP leaves the orange loop to the tank tower is a bit more than two miles. I suggest re-routing this section. We will build it in a way that will be unappealing to the motor bikers. To do this correctly it would take a trails crew at least 6 weeks, and we would have to work closely with DEC, provided we can get their permission.
After the tank tower the trail is very nice, but there are spikes sticking out of the ground. I remember seeing check steps here years ago. The wood decayed, leaving the ends of rebar sticking out of the ground. We need to pull these 3 foot metal bars out of the ground. They can trip a hiker, or as Bob pointed out, damage the foot of a runner wearing thin running shoes.
We pass through one of George Fernandez’s 17 year old kissing gates (9c), it was damaged by a fallen tree. We walked through, then turned right onto the main access woods road that has its origin at CR 51. When we were building these gates, George told me that this gate would protect the mile of PP between the tank tower and the woods road. It appears he was correct. We should put a new gate here (post and rail and a trail crew, half day). There is dirt bike damage where the PP shares the trail corridor with the blue loop, but the trail is not uncomfortable to walk. The geodetic markers on top of Bald Hill (9d) are vandalized (9e,f,g), and we encountered some dirt bikers who look like Darth Vader in their costumes (9h); not what I’d be looking to encounter on a nature walk. The encounter dispelled the feel and spirit of wilderness. This is sacred ground and it is being defiled. As I watched them descend the steps that the LIGTC built with hard earned grant money, I see that their continued abuse has ripped most of these check steps out, and the trail is reverting back to the ravine it was before the steps were constructed.
The trail between Bald Hill and CR 51 is trashed, and I’m not sure how to fix it. The blue loop by the college is also badly trashed (9j-9u) It seems to be a race track for dirt bikes. After the “students blue loop” the short yellow trail that takes us back to the parking lot is very pleasant to walk.
Access Manorville Hills County Park Hot Water Street Parking Lot and Kiosk
Take L.I.E. east to exit 70 (County Route 111). Turn right onto Rte. 111 heading south towards the Hamptons. Travel 2 miles, look for the Shrine sign for Our Lady of the Island on the right side of the road, and some small Manorville County Park signs. Turn right onto Eastport-Manor Road. At stop sign turn left to traffic light. From ramp, cross two lanes in less than 0.2 miles, be careful this is a hazardous maneuver. Enter park at large County Parks sign. Proceed in, and follow signs to parking area.
Note last photo, 8A bus furnishes public transportation to SCCC parking lot.
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