Paumanok Path Inventory Hike #9
Millstone Road
Wednesday, 05/20/15
Bob, Jim, and I started the 9th inventory hike from the parking area by the old entrance to Golf on the Bridge, on Millstone Road. The trail ducks back into the woods here, the entry needs to be better blazed. Trail tread is good, blazing needs to be touched up and trail pruned. We are still seeing random blotches of red paint along the trail. Perhaps someone has decided that the trail needs to be blazed with red reinforcements. Hiding and/or removing them will be a challenge. The trail needs better blazing for the short turn onto, along, and off of Ruggs Path. Also confusing, is a guard rail with what looks like a white turn blaze on it. That blaze leads you onto the golf course.
Bob, Jim, and I started the 9th inventory hike from the parking area by the old entrance to Golf on the Bridge, on Millstone Road. The trail ducks back into the woods here, the entry needs to be better blazed. Trail tread is good, blazing needs to be touched up and trail pruned. We are still seeing random blotches of red paint along the trail. Perhaps someone has decided that the trail needs to be blazed with red reinforcements. Hiding and/or removing them will be a challenge. The trail needs better blazing for the short turn onto, along, and off of Ruggs Path. Also confusing, is a guard rail with what looks like a white turn blaze on it. That blaze leads you onto the golf course.
East of Ruggs Path, the trail needs to be trimmed back with loppers. Some of the already cut branches need to be cut below ground level. They now are spears set in the ground, ready to impale someone unlucky enough to trip on the wrong knobby laurel root. Using the dead branches for leverage it should be easy to chop these down to root level.
The rolling knob and kettle topography, along with the fact that this is a well-designed trail that has a trail tread thick with duff underfoot, made this section an easy and interesting walk. The trail is almost totally buffered from the nearby golf course by laurel, beech, and oak. The mountain laurel seems very robust this year - we noticed a lot of new growth. The trail tread is in good condition, all the way east until we reached the LIPA ROW west of Town Line Road.
When we arrive at the access trail that runs north to Trout Pond, we once again encountered the ‘Hamlet to Hamlet’ signs. On Middle Line Highway, the PP blazes
could use a retouch, but with the lime green hamlet signs, it is hard to lose the trail. We pass the yellow owl blazes that lead south to the Mulvihill Preserve. We then follow Middle Line Highway across Bridgehampton Sag Harbor Turnpike, between an awning business, and a private residence, into the Long Pond Greenbelt. The trail is still a bit confusing near the old water restoration project, and also crossing over the abandoned rail bed; it needs to be re-blazed in those two places.
By Long Pond, there are a few well-placed logs across the trail, easy to step over, but not easy to drive over or around. (WELL DONE). After traveling between Long Pond, and Little Long Pond, the PP veers to the left. Again we travel between two ponds: Deer Drink and Long Pond. We then walked down Widow Gavitts Road, turning right onto Sagg Road. Gavitts is spelled wrong on the Hagstrom or the SH GIS Town map.
The trail opening onto Sagg Road needs to be marked better. The next mile of trail needs to be re-cut and re-blazed. I recognized the trail because I helped the Southampton Trail Crew cut and blaze it, but it still felt like we had lost the trail.
Bob and Jim missed two of the next three turns, so the blazes along the LIPA ROW need improvement. Better yet, take the trail off of the ROW, and onto the
adjacent public land.
After crossing Town Line Road, we see the upside down “L’s” and powder blue rectangles of the Switchback Trail, and the yellow blazes of the Millers Ground Loop. The PP is well cut, the blazes are new, the check steps built over a decade ago are holding the trail together. There are some short sections of trail, that are fail line construction and could use a rolling grade dip, switch-back, or climbing turn to deter erosion. Hiker crossing signs would be helpful where the PP crosses Wainscott NW Road and Route 114.
The next Paumanok Path Inventory Hike (#10) will meet at 10:00 on Wednesday May 27. We will walk from Route 114 and Edwards Hole Road in Wainscott, to
Soak Hides Dreen Preserve at the southern tip of Three Mile Harbor. There is a small chance of rain in the morning, don’t wear cotton.
WE WILL MEET at the intersection of Springy Banks Road and Soak Hides Road.
Directions: Traveling east on Route 27, pass Stephen Hands Road, continue past the hard left turn at the light. Pass Hook Pond on your right and C.R.114. Immediately before the windmill in the Village of East Hampton take the left onto N. Main Street. Take N. Main Street to the Springs Fireplace / Three Mile Harbor Road fork in the road, bear left onto Three Mile Harbor Road. Continue on Three Mile Harbor Road approx. 11⁄2 miles. Bear left onto Springy Banks Road, then after a short distance you will find Soak Hides Road located just under the southern tip of Three Mile Harbor. From Route 27 westbound: turn right at the Hook Mill on North Main Street and bear left onto Three Mile Harbor Road at the fork.
Link: http://
The rolling knob and kettle topography, along with the fact that this is a well-designed trail that has a trail tread thick with duff underfoot, made this section an easy and interesting walk. The trail is almost totally buffered from the nearby golf course by laurel, beech, and oak. The mountain laurel seems very robust this year - we noticed a lot of new growth. The trail tread is in good condition, all the way east until we reached the LIPA ROW west of Town Line Road.
When we arrive at the access trail that runs north to Trout Pond, we once again encountered the ‘Hamlet to Hamlet’ signs. On Middle Line Highway, the PP blazes
could use a retouch, but with the lime green hamlet signs, it is hard to lose the trail. We pass the yellow owl blazes that lead south to the Mulvihill Preserve. We then follow Middle Line Highway across Bridgehampton Sag Harbor Turnpike, between an awning business, and a private residence, into the Long Pond Greenbelt. The trail is still a bit confusing near the old water restoration project, and also crossing over the abandoned rail bed; it needs to be re-blazed in those two places.
By Long Pond, there are a few well-placed logs across the trail, easy to step over, but not easy to drive over or around. (WELL DONE). After traveling between Long Pond, and Little Long Pond, the PP veers to the left. Again we travel between two ponds: Deer Drink and Long Pond. We then walked down Widow Gavitts Road, turning right onto Sagg Road. Gavitts is spelled wrong on the Hagstrom or the SH GIS Town map.
The trail opening onto Sagg Road needs to be marked better. The next mile of trail needs to be re-cut and re-blazed. I recognized the trail because I helped the Southampton Trail Crew cut and blaze it, but it still felt like we had lost the trail.
Bob and Jim missed two of the next three turns, so the blazes along the LIPA ROW need improvement. Better yet, take the trail off of the ROW, and onto the
adjacent public land.
After crossing Town Line Road, we see the upside down “L’s” and powder blue rectangles of the Switchback Trail, and the yellow blazes of the Millers Ground Loop. The PP is well cut, the blazes are new, the check steps built over a decade ago are holding the trail together. There are some short sections of trail, that are fail line construction and could use a rolling grade dip, switch-back, or climbing turn to deter erosion. Hiker crossing signs would be helpful where the PP crosses Wainscott NW Road and Route 114.
The next Paumanok Path Inventory Hike (#10) will meet at 10:00 on Wednesday May 27. We will walk from Route 114 and Edwards Hole Road in Wainscott, to
Soak Hides Dreen Preserve at the southern tip of Three Mile Harbor. There is a small chance of rain in the morning, don’t wear cotton.
WE WILL MEET at the intersection of Springy Banks Road and Soak Hides Road.
Directions: Traveling east on Route 27, pass Stephen Hands Road, continue past the hard left turn at the light. Pass Hook Pond on your right and C.R.114. Immediately before the windmill in the Village of East Hampton take the left onto N. Main Street. Take N. Main Street to the Springs Fireplace / Three Mile Harbor Road fork in the road, bear left onto Three Mile Harbor Road. Continue on Three Mile Harbor Road approx. 11⁄2 miles. Bear left onto Springy Banks Road, then after a short distance you will find Soak Hides Road located just under the southern tip of Three Mile Harbor. From Route 27 westbound: turn right at the Hook Mill on North Main Street and bear left onto Three Mile Harbor Road at the fork.
Link: http://
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