Hiking and Nature with Angela: Paumanok Path - Section #2 Long Island, NY April 27, 2014

Location: Paumanok Path on Long Island - Manorville and Brookhaven sections
Mileage:13.70 on Paumanok, 1.46 side trails
Terrain: Flat
Difficulty: easy-moderate
Type: Out and Back (but can do a car shuttle)
Sightings: Bumble bees, one snake, deer, tick, brush fire wreckage

In the quest for completion of the entire Paumanok Path this year, this weekend's hike led me to Part 2 of the Path. The entirety of Part 2, (in the link below), is 7.8 miles. I chose to start it from the trail head off route 111 at the Pine Barrens Trails Information Center. It is just a bit north of the LIE on the right. There are some blue and orange blazed trails to start off with here in order to get to the white blazed Paumanok trail. I wasn't quite sure which trails led to the white so I estimated and luckily came upon it. At the trail head you will start on the blue blazed trail that is nicely paved with benches along the side. This will eventually diverge to the orange trail. At each divergence, turn left each time. Eventually the white and orange will intersect. Once I reached the white trail I turned on my gps to track the path. The side trails weren't that long and it was only .73 mile to reach the tree marked with the Paumanok sign. Although .73 is too long if it ended up being the wrong trail!

Yay Paumanok!

You will walk for about a mile or so until you reach the first street crossing at the train track. You might also notice there is a yellow blazed trail across the way, but stay on the white.

The trail is mostly entirely flat, with just a handful of very tiny hills.
I did not see any other hikers at all. The trails out here don't seem to be be very popular, as compared to the crowded parks with bbqs and malls on the weekend. The Manorville Hills County Park is more traversed than this route and still my favorite.


Look closely and you will see the trees are tinged from fire.

Walking though this path, the surroundings have a noticeable change. Most of the trail is cushioned by soft pine needles beneath your feet. Some sections will become sandy and others are grassy. It is definitely nice to walk through and feel these different changes occur. On this particular section though, an unusual change occurred as I looked around I saw many blackened and charred trees. I vaguely remembered there had been a fire somewhere out east in the past, but did not realize it was right here. The last time I was on these trails was in 2011 before the fire.

Close up

So many scarred trees. Have you ever stood in a forest surrounded by deadened trees? It is sad to see, but also burns of a beauty all it's own. It was a fire that raged for a day and half and shows that mother nature is the queen ruler of all.

"On April 9th, 2012 several brushfires joined together to ignite over 2000 acres of woodland around Manorville, Ridge and Brookhaven. By the end of the day, the fires were intense enough to cause a closure of parts of the LIE. As of 5:00 PM parts of Riverhead were placed under mandatory evacuation.
Brush fire burned 1124 acres of pine lands. About 600 firefighters from about 109 departments battled the fire with 30 brush trucks, 20 tankers, and 100 engines. Airdrops of water were made by a State Police helicopter." - from Wikipedia

Observe everything as you walk.

Among the burned trees, stood this sign tacked to a towering tree. I think John Muir would agree with that advice.

Walking amongst some more trees...

This tree was quite big and ghastly.

Some mushrooms growing on it.

It was a nice open area and quite nice to look up into the sky in the quiet of a perfect sunny afternoon.

I really liked this spot above that had a bit of an open field to it. On my way back from lunch I stopped here and munched on my pasta for a bit and felt happy to be there. Pasta and blue skies are a great mix. :)

Bridge crossing

There were a few ant mounds in this section. Watch out for all the red ants!

After awhile you'll reach an intersection with the Brookhaven trail. We're almost to the end of the section.

A snake!

This section after the bridge had been a bit more boring as it passes more through neighborhood backyards. Eventually you will reach the parking lot on Ridge with the below sign. The total distance to here was about 6.85. Now we get to turn around and do that all again!

I decided the bridge was a nice place to have my lunch. Today it was from MaryJane's farm. My favorite from this company is the Mac n Cheese and have been pretty happy with their meals so I'd recommend them. Very easy to prepare. Just boil water and steep for 10 minutes. For this hike I tried out the Alfredo pasta. It was also good. Similar to the Mac n Cheese, but a bit more italian spice to it. Eventually, I'll learn to dehydrate my own meals.

I should say that I absolutely love my camp stove. The pot is a titanium one by evernew and the stove is an MSR microrocket. It comes with a self ignitor so no need to light a match. It's the perfect size and easy to boil water. This spot was a bit windy, but the stove handled well. I'd recommend this stove to others looking to purchase one.

A last photo looking back.

Mileage for the white path only

The mileage between the green and red flags consists of the blue and orange trails.

The Long Island region, especially the east end, is very prone to ticks. Which is not surprising, given the amount of deer here. There are always deer sightings on hikes. I had found one crawling on me when I got home, most likely from the high grass areas. It's a good sized tick and was easy to spot. It had a white dot on it's back. The Lone Star Tick. This must be a populous tick here as it's the second female lone star tick that's been plucked off. I didn't manage to grab a picture of this one. It went straight into the toilet without my camera near by. But here is a photo of one from a few years past which is how I could immediately identify the one I found on me from this hike. These ones luckily don't carry Lyme disease. They are fast crawlers too.