Dan's Papers - July 31, 2009

Down's Farm Preserve is located on the south (right) side of the road traveling east, after Elijah's Lane and just after the Peconic Land Trust's North Fork Stewardship Center and Pellegrini Vineyards. Look carefully for the small sign. The Preserve is 9.4 miles east of the CR 105/Main Road intersection. If you pass Moore's Lane, you've traveled too far to the east.

In 1997, the Town of Southold, with assistance from the Peconic Land Trust, acquired the title to the fifty-one acre parcel on Downs Creek. The Down's Farm Preserve encompasses the site of a Native American fort, a dense beech, oak and hickory woods, an old-field successional community, and tidal wetlands. On the southern end of the property, the Preserve includes the remains of Fort Corchaug, a Native American encampment. There was an Indian log fort there in the 17th century, and farmers often discovered arrowheads, spear points, and shards of clay pots. This area is off limits to hikers. The trails here are open daily from dawn to dusk. For more information, visit the Town of Southold website, southoldtown.northfork.net. A very nice trail guide is also available at gailstales.net. Gail Evans maintains this website; she is a photographer who loves the trails on the North Fork. The map she created shows benches, "cut-throughs," and spur trails.

From the parking area, head south towards a kiosk located in front of the trailhead. The building is generally closed to the public, and there are no public rest rooms. The kiosk has a box for interpretive brochures, but it was empty. The interpretive brochures describe the nature features by the numbered stations. Since ecology is the result of a dynamic process, many of the things featured no longer reside at these stations. The trail is blazed in only one direction. Begin by following blue plastic diamond-shaped trail markers. If you look at the map that you downloaded from gailstales.net, it shows two loops, one blue and one red. When Evans and I walked the trails at Down's Farm Preserve last week, we used the map to assist us in walking all of the trails available. We had to walk some of the trails more than once, and one trail opposite of the direction in which it is blazed. We looked behind us to see what trail we were on. In total, I doubt if we walked much more than one mile.

We didn't see any on our walk, but Great Horned Owls have been known to frequent this area. We did see some woodpeckers and hear a wide variety of songbirds. We also spotted the heads of terrapin turtles in the creek.

The trails are trimmed back nice and wide, and the grass is cut. This greatly decreases the chance of picking up ticks and is a very hiker-friendly feature.

A short spur off of the blue trail takes you over a bridge to a wall of phragmites. Perhaps in the winter there is a view of a freshwater wetland. The second spur off of the blue trail takes you to a view of Down's Creek that drains into Great Peconic Bay, and to your left, you can see the green of a golf course. On your way out by the last bench, you can see a nearby vineyard.

This is a great short hike for a summer day. It's kid-friendly too, so pack up the kids and take a hike! Dogs on leashes are also allowed here.

For more information about this and other open space recreational opportunities in the Town of Southold, please contact the Southold Preservation Office at (631) 765-5711.