This approximately 10-mile section of the Paumanok Path visits some of the most beautiful natural places in eastern Southampton.  It’s tied together with miles of trail created by weaving through narrow residential corridors.

Take this hike with a friend; park one car at the ending point:  Coming from the east, follow Noyac Road; just after the sign for the Whalebone Landing Community on your left, turn right into Northside Hills onto English Garden Lane.  Turn left onto Northside Drive, and then left onto Deerwood Path.  Deerwood Path leads you to the Laurel Valley trailhead on Deerfield Road. 

To get to the starting point of the hike, follow Noyac Road west to CR 39.  Turn right at the first traffic light onto North Magee.  Follow North Magee to an intersection with five corners and turn right onto Millstone Road (road sign missing).  A cleared area large enough to accommodate 4 cars is notched into the side of the road, opposite the opening of Big Fresh Pond Road.  Look for the Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Marguerite Crabbe Greiff Wildlife Sanctuary sign.

Follow the PP blazes through a post and rail kissing gate into a predominately beech wood.  Aggressive tree roots make the trail tread uneven and crowd out other trees, as well as brush and blueberry.  Pass a trail to the left that runs west along Millstone Road. The next marked left turn is where the TNC trail runs into the heart of this 90-acre sanctuary, visiting the Sebonac Creek tidal marsh.  The PP continues straight ahead, turns right into Town land, and then left onto Peconic Land Trust (PLT) property.  To the left of the trail are glimpses of wetlands.  At one place, the trail leads you to an opening that looks out onto a vast expanse of marshland and open water.  Another trail branches left, to head north into the PLT preserve. The PP however continues east across Scotts Road.  Here we start to see oak trees and the brush layer reasserts itself.

After traversing some verdant, undisturbed, rolling hills, cross over Millstone Brook Road.  Pass through open metal gates, up a dirt road that leads to a boat ramp on the north side of Big Fresh Pond.  The day that Phil and I walked this trail the water was boiling with excited fish.  TNC Wolf Swamp is south of the PP, between the west side of the pond and Millstone Brook Road.  It’s a wetland trail, with boardwalks and bridges.  Turn left just before reaching the pond.  The PP soon runs between the Big Fresh Pond parking area and the bathing beach.  Follow the blazes across a clearing, pass the monument to Emma Rose Elliston and back into the woods.  Here the PP follows the route of the Big Fresh Pond Nature Trail (BFPNT) for a while.  This trail runs through the 133-acre Elliston Park along an embankment that allows the hiker to look out over the pond between the trunks of oak, hickory, and maple.  Cross a small bridge and then a larger one that takes you over the “Alewife Dreen” that flows into the pond.

The next section of trail had included deer fencing into catbrier and crossing North Sea Road at a dangerous point leading into the Highway Department “obstacle course.”  Over the last few months, at the Southampton Trails Preservation Society (STPS) meetings, I’ve been listening to discussions of plans to re-route the PP around these obstacles with great interest.  The re-route is a multi-lateral effort spearheaded by STPS and has been approved by the County. Alyn Jackson, of Town Parks, has promised to supply materials for a bridge and short boardwalk.   I asked Ken Bieger, STPS trails planning guru, to send me one of the great maps he is famous for.  It shows the path that the trail will soon take.  Instead of turning right, into the farm fencing, keep walking straight ahead, following the BFPNT, marked with yellow blazes.  Enter woods shaded over by Norway spruce trees.  Walk along the northern edge of an old cemetery, and turn right onto Millstone Brook Road.  A short walk leads across a straight section of North Sea Road, where traffic moves slowly near an intersection.  Cross the road and cut 300 yards through County Parks land; soon, there will be a bridge crossing a small steam.  Turn left and follow a wide grass-covered road. Turn right, follow this grassy avenue to a post with a turn blaze.  The PP will be entering straight in here, instead of entering from Harrison Ave.

Harrison Avenue, when driving east, is a right turn off of Noyac Road.

Cut across Harrison instead of walking north from the Highway Department and then turning right.  Look for the post with the white rectangular blaze of the (PP) in front of what looks like an empty lot.  Follow the fence and continue in that direction, through a thin line of trees, into the Firemen’s Memorial Athletic Field.  Walk on the field that runs along Johnson Ave. The end of Johnson Avenue points across the street at the PP.  Unfortunately, there is no easement between those houses.  The alternative isn’t bad; a short road loop through a pretty, quiet residential neighborhood.  Turn left onto Straight Path, and right onto Old Fish Cove Road.  After about 0.2 miles, the trail follows a narrow easement, on the right side of the street, between two houses and enters into an open space corridor between clustered groups of residences.

The trail first crosses North Sea Drive, then cuts diagonally across Spinnaker Way, and straight across Cove Neck Lane. Cross over Majors Path, and follow the Path along the south side of the entrance road to the Southampton Youth Services Town Recreation Center.  The trail runs along the edge of the woods, then angles into the woods as it approaches the building and comes out onto an overlook with the North Fork and Bay in the distance.  The rolling fields of the transformed landfill are in the foreground.  Damage caused by illegal ATV use between Majors Path and Great Hill Road has accelerated over the last year.  There are red and green arrows nailed to trees; I don’t know what they are for.

To protect the SYS playing fields from the damage caused by the ATVs, a chain link fence was built around the property. This is why the trail is routed through two gates in the fence.   While walking this winding, woods trail look for the yellow owl-blazed trail that leads west, to the Barrel Hill network of trails.  A short distance beyond this split the PP turns left, onto Split Rock Road.  Follow this wide dirt road, posted with Split Rock Gun Club No Trespassing signs, until a left turn blaze leads you to Split Rock.  In the book, South Fork Place Names; Some Informal Long Island History, author William Mulvihill explains that this huge glacial erratic was  split when it was quarried as material to be used for the foundation of the Presbyterian church in Southampton Village.

After crossing Great Hill Road, the path alternates between footpaths and woods roads.  As you approach a well worn T intersection, look for the left turn blaze before the intersection, it leads you onto a narrow trail running upslope.  Come out onto Old Sag Harbor Road and make a right, continue walking, across Water Mill Towd Road.  The turn blaze on the telephone pole leading you left onto Broadway is painted over, as are a few other critical blazes near here. The trail cuts into the woods and travels parallel to Broadway, then crosses Tree Lane and soon cuts across a driveway, turns left around a portable toilet, and crosses the road just before a cul-de-sac.  Note the wetland plants shortly after the trail enters a wooded area.  The trail leads you across Turtle Cove Road and once again, back into the woods. 

Walk over an erosion control net onto Wiedner Road.  Bear right; there are no blazes in evidence until near the end of the road, where a turn blaze indicates to follow the curve of the road instead of walking into a house.  Be alert for fast traffic as you cross over Roses Grove Road.  After a short distance, cross a driveway and bear left onto a woods road.  The woods are changing from oak / pine to oak / laurel woods.  The mountain laurel leaves are discolored by disease.  Walk a while in the woods; follow the PP blazes across the end of Glenview Drive.  Travel up Laurel Valley Drive, cut across Northside Drive and bear left into the woods.  Landscaping debris is being dumped on the trail here.  The PP winds through a lovely knob and kettle terrain, covered in mountain laurel and towering oaks.  Turn right onto Rolling Hills Court West, then west onto Deerwood Path.  Deerwood Path leads you across Deerfield Road to the Laurel Valley County Park trailhead.