Dan's Papers -November 21, 2008 - Take a hike

A few months ago, I met Rollo Sicoco on a hike and learned about his new hiking group. It's a web-based meet-up group called Long Island Trail Enthusiasts (LITE) longislandtrailenthusiasts.com. According to Rollo, "LITE is a group of Long Islanders and friends who share a passion for trails and nature. The group explores the many trails and beautiful natural sites Long Island has to offer. We also travel, camp, backpack and hike to many beautiful places in the mountains of the Northeast and beyond." One of the features I like about the LITE Web site is the many photographs posted there.

Recently, East Hampton Trails Preservation Society and LITE collaborated to schedule a hike in Hither Hills. The listing read as follows: "This basically flat, dual-distance hike at a moderate pace features beautiful woodlands and great water views. Hikers electing the shorter route will visit Waterfence and Fresh Pond, while others will continue on the seven-mile route that will include Goff Point, Walking Dunes, and Nominicks. Meet at the Hither Hills Overlook in Montauk on Rt. 27, about one mile east of the split with Old Montauk Hwy."

When I arrived at the Overlook on the morning of the hike, leader Richard Lupoletti and another EHTPS hike leader, Richard Poveromo, were there. They, along with some late arriving hikers, all communicated using cell phones to coordinate the two hikes. I was assigned the sweep position. I walked at the rear of Lupoletti's seven-mile group. It was my job to make sure that we didn't lose any stragglers. From my vantage point, the hike seemed to progress seamlessly. I was aware that we left some hikers at the Waterfence to be picked up for the short hike led by Poveromo. We met that group again near the end of the hike, by the Walking Dunes.

My group entered the trail through a cut in the middle of the guardrail surrounding the parking area. We followed the Parkway Trail east a short distance, then made a left turn and were on the Serpent's Back Trail. A left turn then put us on the Ocean View Trail. After a half-mile walk, a left onto Old North Road took us to Fresh Pond Landing Road. After turning right onto this wide, sandy road, we followed it across the Old Tar Road and across the railroad tracks. Just before reaching the Napeague Bay beachfront, we turned right up a short slope marked with the white rectangles of the Paumanok Path; then a quick left took us to the Waterfence Overlook, with its beautiful views of shoreline and bluff. Three hundred years ago, when livestock was a major industry in Montauk, there was a split rail fence built here to keep the cattle from returning west. Now in its place, you'll see a fence of poles, with a net, running out into the bay. It is used to trap fish.

Next, after walking down Fresh Pond Landing Road, to the shoreline, we walked west about a mile and three quarters towards Goff Point. William Mulvihill in his book, South Fork Place Names, explains that this point "on the eastern outlet of Napeague Harbor to Gardiner's Bay, is named for William Goff, an English judge who had condemned Charles I of England to death and had fled to the new world to save his own head. Tradition has it that he landed in this area, then left for New England."

Just before reaching Goff Point, we cut across to the harbor side of the isthmus and followed the (State Parks-constructed) Walking Dune Trail in reverse to its trailhead on Napeague Harbor Road. We walked up this road to where the white-painted rectangles of the Paumanok Path crosses it and turned left. According to William Wallace Tooker, the 19th-century expert on Algonquian Indian languages, the term Paumanok originally applied only to eastern Long Island and it meant "land of tribute." This was because the Montauketts were forced to pay tribute first to the powerful Pequots of southern New England, and later to the white settlers. We followed the trail a short distance and took a well-defined detour to our right, out to a vantage point on the Nominicks (Montaukett for land that is seen from afar) where the hills of the moraine rise from Napeague. We then followed the Stephen Talkhouse portion of the Paumanok Path east to an intersection, where we continued straight, leaving the Paumanok Path to cross the railroad tracks. We crossed over Old Tar Road to Elisha's Valley Trail. We took a quick right onto North Trail, and a left onto the Petticoat Hill Trail, and then followed a recent reroute back to the scenic overlook.