Dan's Papers - October 10, 2008

One mile east of East Lake Drive is the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt County Park. From here, we walk the last and most spectacular six miles of the 130-mile Paumanok Path (PP). Park by Third House, headquarters for the Park and soon-to-be museum. The original structure, built in 1747, was home for the livestock overseer. In 1898, at the end of the Spanish American War, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were quarantined at Third House to recuperate from yellow fever. A short walk up the driveway to the right of the cabins will bring you to a gate chained closed. Beyond the gate, to the left are grasslands and to the right, pasture for Deep Hollow Ranch, the oldest cattle ranch in the USA. On the fence enclosing the pasture are the white blazes of the PP. Unlatch the chain, walk through the gate, and re-latch. Follow the blazes on the fence posts. The trail travels gradually upslope to a grassy knoll that offers a view of Lake Montauk. Follow the trail to the right around a post and rail barrier. For the next mile, blazing is sparse. Walk along the fence looking for a blaze to the left; it takes you shortly away from the fence. Soon the trail leads you through a very tight kissing gate. Follow the fence around another right turn. Here, the trail runs through lush vegetation. Travel upslope to a Nature Conservancy grassland restoration sign; turn right. Continue upslope to Cornergate Ridge, about one mile from Third House. From here, look north to Oyster Pond and the Sound beyond, east to the huge antenna at Camp Hero and South towards the verdant wetlands that feed Ogden's Brook as it winds its way to Oyster Pond. Follow a terraced trail down-slope. Cross a bridal path intersection; bear to the right.

After a short distance, reach a post and rail fence with round blue plastic blazes and a PP right turn blaze. Here the PP is sharing the trail corridor with the Ogden's Brook Trail. As you approach an arm of Oyster Pond, the trail descends into wetlands. Passing Hetty's Hole, phragmites to your left indicate wetlands nearby. It's rumored that Hetty, a Montauket Indian, road her horse into the wetlands here on a cold, rainy night, and met her untimely demise. As we travel along the southern shore of Oyster Pond, the trail intersects two other paths; a "Y" intersection, where the PP continues to the left, and then straight across the wider trail. These two trails run south, join, and lead to parking at the Oyster Pond Overlook. The trail is now marked with the white blazes of the PP and the plastic round blue blazes of the Ogden's Brook Trail. Continuing along the south shore of Oyster Pond, several boardwalks built by State Parks take you through fern-covered wetlands punctuated with boulders, and then over Ogden's Brook Bridge. The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society designed this bridge. The National Guard air-lifted by helicopter, pre-cut materials to this remote location. After crossing a second smaller bridge, the trail brings you along the shore of the pond offering a view of water teaming with a variety of seabirds. Follow Ogden's Brook Trail north along the eastern shore of the pond. Where the trail splits, turn right onto a woods road, south to Montauk Highway.

About three miles from Third House, the trail crosses over the highway offset a short distance to the west. Cross over the guardrail by a flexi-stake marker. Here the round white plastic markers of the Point Woods Trail accompany the white painted rectangles of the PP. For a little more than a mile, this well-engineered trail wends its way south through a jungle of oversized holly, laurel, black birch, beech, and swamp maple. It winds around wetlands, protected from weather and salt spray by the Atlantic facing bluffs. Cross over three wooden bridges, then walk on rocks across a brook. The trail takes you through a gap in a chain link fence, and soon weaves through a jumble of erratics. It then takes you to the Battery 112 trail, to concrete bunkers; be alert for the right turn that takes you back into the woods. Follow rocks across a brook, then cross two wooden bridges; soon turn left onto the wide unpaved Old Montauk Highway.

Two hundred yards beyond the turn, leave the PP, turn right; a short walk brings you out to a spectacular vista of the bluffs and ocean. Returning to the PP you'll find the remainder of the trail sparsely marked. There are several more bluff-top overlooks, just follow your nose for about a mile, and you'll end up by Turtle Cove. Instead of getting onto the road here, you can walk the rock revetment around the base of the lighthouse. I've seen people slip on these rocks; be careful. Several trails take you up to the road; there's a trail parallel to the beach that leads to the trails map kiosk by the side of the concession stand.