Take a hike with Ken Kindler

School House to Val Shaffner House

Park on Northwest Road 0.3-mile south of Alewive Road at the School House Plaque parking area and follow the Paumanok Path west. A short walk will bring you to the place where we left off in the last column. Directions: On Montauk Highway heading east you will see the Wainscott Town sign. Turn left (north) onto Stephen Hands Path. Bear left onto Old Northwest Road. Stay on Old NW Road until you reach Northwest Road. Turn right onto Northwest Road. Park by the School House Plaque parking area on the right side of Northwest Road.

As you head south, note that the white pine seedlings are finding enough sunlight in the understory to thrive. As you continue south the pines are larger. Soon mature pines become interspersed with oak and hickory trees. It appears that the pine forest is expanding.

Soon the hiker encounters Standing Rock, a large glacial erratic "standing" on the edge of a kettlehole depression. This is an excellent place to stop for a snack, or just to contemplate nature. As you head south, the knob and kettle topography becomes more pronounced, and soon the trail travels a ridge above Samp Mortor Hollow, a lovely deep kettlehole with a vernal pond.

Alewive Brook

Where the trail cuts across the wide intersection of NW Road and Old Northwest Road, it is difficult to find the trail openings. As you watch for traffic from three directions, walk diagonally across the intersection and you will find the opening. Shortly before reaching the intersection there is a bypass route for mountain bikers. This section of trail is for foot traffic only. The huge old straight trunks of the white pines in Wilson's Grove support a vaulted evergreen ceiling with a plush pine needle carpet below. This is a sacred, solemn place where sound, wind, and footsteps are muted.

Continuing south you will encounter Chatfield's Hole, a beautiful coastal plain pond that changes its shape with the seasons. Here the NW Path runs left onto Foster's Path. It follows the red blazes of Foster's Path a very short distance, then a right turn takes you up to an excellent viewing point above Chatfield's Hole. The NW Path crosses Two Holes of Water Road, 200 feet southeast of the roadside parking for the Foster's Path trailhead.

The trail tread is eroding in some places here; watch your footing and be alert for a left turn, where the NW Path crosses another trail. Once again, the dominant trees along the trail are oak and hickory, but here also you can see the pine seedlings flourishing in the understory. It is unusual to see pines expanding into a hardwood forest; usually succession works in the other direction.

Where the trail crosses Route 114, Edwards Hole Road is the southern terminus of the 6.5-mile Northwest Path. There is a new parking area here, with a kiosk featuring a comprehensive trails map. It is difficult to see where the PP continues; crossing Route 114, the trail opening is offset to the left.

Soon after passing a large erratic, the trail crosses Wainscott NW Road. A quarter mile after crossing the road, be alert for a hard left turn that is easy to miss at a "Y" intersection onto the Miller's Ground Loop Trail. Just before it begins to head back northward, a left turn takes you off of the loop trail and across the wide, straight, dusty Town Line Road. After a short distance, turn right onto the LIPA right of way (ROW). At one point the trail leaves the ROW, comes back to it, and then immediately makes a sharp right back into the woods.

As the trail approaches Sagg Road, the trail corridor grows narrower and is nearly pinched off between two houses as you approach the road. Turn right onto Sagg Road and then turn left onto Widow Gavitts Road. There are no blazes to follow here. After almost a mile on Widow Gavitts Road, there is a right turn blaze leading you into the Long Pond Greenbelt and onto a Trustee boat ramp access road that runs parallel to and then becomes the ROW.

Cross Sprig Tree Path and turn left onto the old Railway Trail. When you see Crooked Pond to the left, and post and rail fencing on either side of the Railway Trail, look for a trail cutting across and turn right. The parking area along the driveway to the Val Shaffner House is 100 yards up this trail.

Ken Kindler is a Trails and Open Space Advocate working to help the trails groups and land managers care for our "Natural Island." If you would like to learn more about our trails or help care for them, visit the Hiking Long Island website. www.hike-li.org

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