On our last hike we followed the Paumanok Path through the Northwest Woods to the intersection of Springy Banks Road and Soak Hides Road.  Soak Hides Road connects Three Mile Harbor and Springy Banks Roads in East Hampton.  The Paumanok Path originally bypassed Tanbark Creek via this road.  The first 3.5 mile segment of this walk takes us to where Paumanok Path intersects and follows the Springs / Amagansett Trail for a short distance.  This trailhead is on Red Dirt Road about a half-mile east of Old Accabonac Highway.  From here, you can follow the Springs / Amagansett Trail a quarter-mile south to the Paumanok Path.

There is a large grassy shoulder located across from the dirt drive that leads into the Cathy Lester Preserve.  This wide, dirt drive gives access to Gardiners Bay, at the southern end of Northwest Harbor.  Just before reaching the water, the trail turns right, taking the hiker through a post and rail kissing gate.  Here we cross Tanbark Creek or Soak Hides Dreen on the Limar Ratsep Bridge.  The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society (EHTPS) built this 175 foot long bridge in 2000.  From the bridge, if you look north, you can see the Bay and to the south, there is the clear creek, with its verdant shore. Native Americans would soak cattle hides in the dreen. 28 EHTPS volunteers, whose average age was over 60, built the Tanbark Creek Bridge, dedicated as the Limar Ratsep Bridge in fall of 2000.  The bridge was financed with funds from three sources. Longtime member of the EHTPS, Ray Harjen, engineered the project at its culmination, but the original designer was Limar Ratsep, another longtime member of the trails society.  Mr. Ratsep was stricken with cancer and passed away several years earlier.  His widow designated EHTPS to be the recipient of donations in lieu of flowers.  The town of East Hampton provided a grant of $2000, and the remaining $2000 was defrayed by these donations and EHTPS. The trails society dedicated the bridge in Ilmar Ratsep’s name with a bronze plaque. 

Travel a short distance through red maple wetlands, and then come through another set of gates onto Gardiners Cove Road.  Follow Gardiners Cove Road a short distance to the end, and cross Three Mile Harbor Road.  A right turn takes you along a dirt road known as Karlsruhe / Cross Highway.  The trail takes you into the woods, parallel and north of Abraham’s Path.  A left turn takes the trail parallel to Springs Fireplace Road.  At Shadom Lane, cross over Springs Fireplace Road.  Walk a short distance along the road before cutting back into the woods, again within sight of the road 

A right turn takes you into the Peconic Land Trust’s Accabonac Preserve.  The trail now enters a vast beech woods.  The aggressive shallow roots push out competition from other trees, and the dense leaf canopy blocks the sunlight.  The understory is shaded and covered in beech leaves.  This is a lovely place to stop for lunch.  A trail marked with blue blazes branches to the left and intersects with the Paumanok Path further east.  A narrow trail takes us to a wide straight dirt road.  After coming out of a deep kettle, cross Old Accabonac Highway, and enter the High Point Preserve through post and rail kissing gates.  Entering the preserve, the PP once again intersects the blue trail: turn right.  For a short distance there are oak / hickory woods, now beech once again predominates.  The trail runs along the ridges of a rolling knob and kettle topography of the Stony Hill Preserve.  

For a short distance, we see the yellow dot blazes of the Springs Amagansett Trail along with the white PP blazes.  Where that trail splits off to the left, it leads to parking at Red Dirt Road. Deb Foster, a retired council person on the East Hampton Town Board, conceived the Springs/Amagansett Trail.  She approached EHTPS in early 2006 with a proposal to establish a north/south neighborhood trail that would link the two hamlets.  Her original idea was for a 10 mile trail to run from Maidstone Park in Springs to the ocean beach in Amagansett. It was found that many land parcels were not readily available, however they did build a trail that now runs 4.5 miles from the center of Springs to the center of Amagansett, and it was completed in late October 2007.  Over half the trail was created from existing trails with little cutting or disturbance to land parcels.  Eventually this trail may be expanded to the original plan.

After making our way to the Springs / Amagansett Trail, The Paumanok Path traverses the rolling hills of the Peconic Land Trust’s Stony Hill Preserve, a short distance south of Red Dirt Road. We now continue another 7 miles to Napeague Meadow Road.

Following the yellow dot blazes of the Springs / Amagansett Trail, we approach a large glacial erratic where the trail leads to the right.  Follow the white painted rectangles of the Paumanok Path and yellow dot blazes for a short distance. At a sharp left turn, we leave the Springs / Amagansett Trail and continue east on the PP along a wide dirt woods road.  After a 10 minute walk, a left turn leads to the Archery Trail that travels through land recently purchased by the Peconic Land Trust.  A right turn takes the hiker up and then around the ridge of the Baker Kettlehole.  We are now following a gently winding trail with a 10 foot high wire link fence, with signs and camera that tower over the right side of the trail. 

As we cross over Old Stone Highway by Eastwood Court, the trail soon enters a kettle hole, that isn’t a kettle hole and then skirts to the right of another depression, that likewise isn’t a kettle hole.  During colonial times, three huge clay pits were dug here.  The clay was shaped into bricks and fired in kilns nearby.  Cross a gated driveway to the Bell Estate where the trail takes you up and around a similar depression.

Cross Albert’s Landing Road diagonally to the right.  The trail widens and straightens, but the tread on this almost woods road is undisturbed and covered in leaf litter, and the oak, beech and occasional holly combine to form a woods-like environment in a residential area.  Be alert for a sharp turn at the junction of three trails.  Cut across Cross Highway to Devon.  Pass a trail branching to the left heading to Fresh Pond Town Park, where there are restrooms and a picnic area.  The trail takes a steep turn to the left, around a field, and then a quick right turn takes you between two rocks and across Fresh Pond Road.  After a few minutes, the trail passes by the Isaac Conkling Grave (1747, age 32).  Cut across a residential road.  A narrow trail parallels, and then a left turn brings you onto Cross Highway to Devon, just beyond a paved section of that road.  A short walk brings you across Abraham’s Landing Road.  There is a Private Property sign as you approach Cross Highway by Devonshire Lane.  If you stay on the trail, you are not trespassing. 

Cross Highway continues as a dirt road running south until it reaches Cranberry Hole Road.  Cut diagonally across the intersection.  Take a short trail down to the Old Montauk Highway, originally used as a wagon route across the isthmus of Napeague. It is wide, covered in pine needles, some grass.  Note the cranberries, inkberries, high bush blueberry, sphagnum moss and other wetland plants alongside this trail; during wet periods, this trail is partially submerged.  After a while, we reach higher ground where the trail tread is pure sand with bearberry, heather, and reindeer lichen growing along side it.  We are now walking through the inner dunes of Napeague State Park.  Where the trail runs along the railroad tracks, there are blazes on the metal rail.  It would be easy to continue by following the tracks, so be alert for the left turn, after a short distance.  The trail here is soft mushy sand, but after a while, you find yourself on a winding narrow trail through a pitch pine woods. The roots and needles make for a very comfortable trail tread.  As you cross over two small bridges be alert for a blue-blazed trail that diverges from the Paumanok Path and then rejoins it.  There are lots of mosquitoes and ticks here, the route is obvious, but the trail is sparsely blazed.  A bit less than 2 miles after the turn by the tracks, and before reaching Napeague Meadow Road, the trail reaches an access road to an electric sub-station.  Turn left, leaving the Paumanok Path, and follow that driveway a short distance to an excellent parking area on the wide Napeague Meadow Road shoulder.