Hike #1116; Hempstead to Massapequa
3/31/18 Hempstead to Massapequa with James Quinn, Jennifer Berndt, John Pershouse, Gina Zuvich, Captain Soup (David Campbell), and Alex Gisser
Our next hike would be the next in the Long Island series, which has been quite an interesting journey.
The Long Island series is intended to connect us from Brooklyn all the way out to the eastern end of Long Island, Montauk Point. I laid out some hikes prior to this incorporating a lot of beaches, and then to the east we will be able to take Paumanok Path, a 125 mile long hiking trail that leads all the way there. However, in order to get to that point, we will have to figure out a good route to connect.
A lighthouse in Hempstead? Apparently warning us to keep out of Long Island!
Things haven’t gone as planned in Long Island in the past. We were able to follow the beaches as far as Point Lookout, but from there we were halted because it turns out we’re not allowed to walk the Parkway bridges. Instead, I organized another hike back from Point Lookout to Long Beach, and then came up with a route to the north that led us through towns, and along creeks and little parks heading north to the town of Hempstead.
I was not very excited about the next hike in the series. Still disheartened from my experience having to cut short at Point Lookout, it meant I had to do two or three hikes to make up for that one section we missed. The sections didn’t look like they would be good.
LOL
To my surprise, the first hike ended up being a pretty fun time. I was very happy with the route and the experience, but this hike was still something that just didn’t look as interesting. I kept looking over the maps seeing if I could find anything worthy. The best I could find were college campuses with paved pathways across them to get us off of roads. Still, I continued to study them with hopes that I’d find something...anything that I’d missed.
That very thing happened. One late night I was up studying the aerial images and I spotted a clear right of way. It at first looked to be a simple utility line, but when I traced it, I was shocked to see it was a former railroad bed. How could I have missed this!?
Former Central Railroad of Long Island
I started looking at street views, and could tell it was re-purposed as a utility right of way. The line led right from the area of the colleges and parks I was looking to use, on east directly to the Long Island Greenbelt area, which would give us at least a couple more hikes to do without major road walking. This hike just got 100% better.
College bridge mirror shot
I re-aligned the hike a bit to incorporate the railroad almost entirely between points, and planned the end point as Massapequa Station on the Long Island Railroad. We could meet there, then shuttle with as few cars as possible to Hempstead, right where we had finished the previous hike at the McDonalds.
College pedestrian bridge view
Alex took the train in to meet us at Hempstead, and the rest of us met at Massapequa. Parking was free at the station, and we gathered at a CVS I think it was.
We shuttled in my van to the starting point where we would begin our hike by heading east.
The first part of the hike would be the worst part. We didn’t follow a rail bed from the get go. We started by simply heading east following Peninsula Blvd, which turned slightly north. This took us over to Fulton Avenue. We continued on that sort of heading northeast.
College pedestrian bridge
While we walked, we came upon a yard sale on the right hand side. Of course, we had to go over and check it out. There was a bunch of junk of minimal interest sitting around there, but then I noticed a very nice greenish brown pair of Newbalance shoes for only six dollars.
Surreptitious drinking in the weeds
I didn’t have any cash on me, but Jen was willing to lend me the six I needed for the shoes. They almost looked like boots, and I knew I could get away with wearing those for work. Good comfortable shoes like that, in my size, aren’t typical to come by at a yard sale!
I put the shoes in my pack, and we headed on our way to the east a bit more to a strip mall at the corner of Hendrickson Ave. We stopped there for snacks and drinks, and they had a couple kinds of Four Loco I’d never tried before.
Hofstra University area
I typically avoid drinking Four Loco at this point, even though so many of my friend act as if I am their spokesperson. It had been a while since I’d had any of it. Still, there was one that was called “Black” (even though the drink was green), and another orange flavor. I couldn’t resist trying some of it anyway.
I poured the stuff into my Arizona RX Energy can and we continued on our way to the east to Courtenay Road. We turned right and followed it to a left turn on Cherry Lane, which led toward a college campus.
No pedestrians allowed...but there's a stile over the median!
When we reached the intersection with Duncan Road though, there were fences and we could not walk onto the campus. This was disappointing, so we turned to the left toward Fulton Ave again, and I used the first shade to look at my phone GPS and figure out another plan.
There was really no other good way to go, so we walked along Fulton Ave for a bit further to the east until one of the pedestrian bridges between sections of the college was accessible. We climbed up and crossed the highway there.
Oh no!
I don’t know if it was the sugar or the carbonation or what, but I was starting to feel sick drinking that Four Loco. There was a police officer just behind us when I was looking at my phone earlier and I know he must have seen someone drinking. Captain Soup was using a rather obvious brown bag, but the guy didn’t really bother with us. He came around the corner by which time we were already on the bridge, but we didn’t want any problems.
Historic Lannin House in Eisenhower Park
We turned right and followed the north side of Fulton Avenue further, and soon there were lines of hedges on the left side. I had to pee pretty bad, so I couldn’t wait for one that was out of the way enough to relieve myself. Once that was done with, Captain Soup and I continued to walk away from the sidewalk, behind the buffer of hedges so we could drink our drinks without having any kind of problems. We continud to Earl Owington Blvd and turned to the left. There was a paved pathway along that making for a better walk.
Eisenhower Park
We followed along the road to the intersection with a parking lot, where we cut in and walked over to a parking garage on the left side of it. This was in the area to the south of Nassau Community College, in East Garden City. Nassau Colosseum is supposed to be there, and I think it was the building we were looking at to the right of the road.
We walked to the first building, which I think was a Health-Plex place, and it had a nice parking garage I decided we should climb up to get some of the view.
Eisenhower Park
Once we got up on the thing, we had to climb right back down. I really had to pee pretty badly again, and everyone encouraged me not to go on the garage floor. It was getting pretty bad though.
We made our way out and walked to the north along the front of the building. It was getting warmer, and I’d have a pretty good sunburn before the end of this hike. We crossed Charles Lindbergh Blvd and continued following that to the east a bit. There was a line of trees right there where we got on the road where we could relieve ourselves.
Tree climbing
Whilst in these weeds, I came across a shopping cart. I decided to pull it out and walk with it for a while, talking silly in my Jerry Jackson voice, calling it my “Supermarket trolley what people ‘as discarded because they came from the broken homes”.
We put our packs into the cart and continued with it to the east a bit. There was a reasonable side walk on our side, and no pedestrian crossing allowed, although at one point they had a stile with steps over the railing in the highway median for people to cross, which looked silly.
Captain Soup tree climbing
As we walked, the walkway beside the road came to an abrupt end, and we saw a “wrong way” sign, just as we got to the Meadowbrook Parkway. We had no choice but to continue straight, so we went over, then reached Merrick Avenue. My plan from here was to cut directly into Eisenhower Park, directly across, but unfortunately the entire thing was gated on the west side, and we could not get in. The only choice was to go to the north and see if we could find a way in up there. We turned left and watched the park to the right, which had a nice little pond in view very soon.
Soup in a tree
The park was originally the Salisbury Golf Club, developed in 1917 by Joseph J. Lannin, owner of the Garden City Hotel, Roosevelt Air Field, as well as the Boston Red Sox.
Tree soup
In 1928, Lannin died mysteriously, from a fall from the Hotel Granada, another of his land holdings, in Brooklyn. The home of his daughter, Dorothy, as well as the carriage house still stands in the park today, and we saw and admired it from beyond the fence along the road going by.
The railroad bed we were to try to follow to the Bethpage area, where we would pick up the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt and Long Island Greenbelt, passed through the Eisenhower Park also in this area. This was originally part of the Central Railroad of Long Island, which was established in 1871, and became part of Long Island Railroad in 1876.
Nassau County Photo Archive photo of the railroad and station at Salisbury Plains, 1955. The station was torn down 1985
Irish born entrepreneur Alexander Turney Stewart first proposed the railroad from Flushing to Hempstead and Garden City in 1869. When it opened, and Stewart was selling land in the present towns, he offered a year’s worth of free rides on the railroad to all buyers, with the guarantee of fifteen trains per day in one direction alone.
Tree soup
After the line merged with the Long Island Railroad, there was redundant service between different branches. The original line apparently was redubbed the Central Branch, which passed through today’s park, which was known as the Hempstead Plains. The line only saw passenger service through 1939. The eastern portion of it was sold for World War II scrap. Rails were then relaid in 1946 to aid with the construction of Levittown a little further along the line, as well as service to Michel Field, which was where some of the college area is today (I’m not sure where it was, but we walked on and near some of another branch of the line further down by Hofstra University).
Tree in Eisenhower Park
Long Island Railroad wanted to completely rebuilt the line to serve the new town of Levittown, but the developer did not want the train in town.
The line was again torn up in 1953 never to be relaid.
The Salisbury Golf Course was once the host of PGA Championship in 1926. During the Great Depression, the owners were unable to pay taxes on the property, and it was taken over by Nassau County.
Historic Salisbury CC image
Nassau County Park at Salisbury was the original name when it was established in 1944, with the vision of being to Nassau County what Central Park is to Manhattan.
Eisenhower Park
The park was officially dedicated in October of 1949. In October 1969, the park was officially re-dedicated Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Park, just a few months after the death of the 34th President.
Eisenhower Park
We walked north up Merrick Avenue until we could get into the park at the intersection with Park Blvd. There was a very cool giant tree at the intersection, which we decided to take some time to climb.
It was an interesting sort of Larch tree. It was probably a Tamarack, also known as an Eastern Larch.
Captain Soup went the highest in the tree, and swung around from the branches. He told us a story about how when he was a kid, he and his friends would jump from high up in a tree and land on the ground, and that everyone was scared until he was the first one to do it and made it uninjured.
Eisenhower Park
While we took a break, there was a mini mart or something across the intersection, so most everyone went over to pick up a little something. I could see Captain Soup’s frustration with the light, and he ran across through traffic.
We hung out at the tree only for a little bit, and then started to head back to the south again for a bit. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the paved trail or road at the top of the hill north of the lake was actually the railroad bed for most the way. We continued down hill to beside the lake, and then turned left.
Eisenhower Park
The pond here is the home to the Nassau County 911 Memorial to the people from the county who died in the attacks. We continued around to the east side, and then up some steps.
We went by the veterans memorial on the other side of the lake, and then up along a parking area before cutting to the left. We walked across an open area and then reached Park Blvd again. We crossed directly into more parking lots on the other side.
Eisenhower Park
The building at the end of the lot was some sort of event center, and associated with the Eisenhower Park Golf Course. We cut diagonally across the course, and then went looking for restrooms. One guy told us to go to the area where they rent golf carts, but when we got there we were sent back to the building we’d just been at.
I immediately got the feeling we weren’t supposed to be in this place. It’s kind of a posh course. There were people walking through, some with strollers, but I think it’s tolled.
Eisenhower Park veterans memorial
I wasn’t about to pay some exorbitant toll to walk across a short section of golf course. We used the restrooms, and I tried to turn us from there away from signs saying not to walk through, and followed a path taking us to the north a bit. It really wasn’t that far to go from there to Salisbury Park Drive where the Eisenhower Dog Park is. We managed to reach that point, then turned to the right on a pathway parallel with Salisbury Park Drive to the east. The old railroad bed was across the center of the course.
Former Long Island Central Railroad at Hempstead Meadows
There’s a golf cart path that follows the former railroad bed, which I’d have loved to walk, but I didn’t want to chance having any problems.
Eisenhower Park golf course
We followed Salisbury Park Drive to the east, and soon saw an historic marker denoting that this was once part of the Long Island Motor Parkway.
This was the first designated motor vehicle only highway and the first limited access highway in the world. It stretched forty five miles from New York City to Lake Ronkonkoma.
The road was developed by William Kissam Vanderbilt II, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, because he was a fan of motor racing and created the first major racing competition, the Vanderbilt Cup, in 1904. It was run on the streets of Nassua, Long Island.
The old parkway
Injuries to spectators as well as drivers and liability with other residential issues such as horses led to the 1908 development of the Long Island Motor Parkway, or Vanderbilt Parkway.
The highway was designed to have no intersections through use of overpasses or bridges. The state of NY stepped in in 1910 and banned any non-track racing after more injuries had occurred. It was also reportedly the first concrete highway in the United States.
Weird stuff along the road
By the 1920s, the highway was already becoming obsolete, and Robert Moses was already designing the parkways we know today. The original highway was too narrow for use as part of the new parkway system, and so it was sold to the state of New York in lieu of paying back taxes.
Some of the original parkway in Queens is now a trail, as is the section we were walking beside the Salisbury Park Drive. Other sections are now used as utility rights of way, while others are still roads, and some are even built over with homes.
Historic image of Long Island Motor Parkway
The historic road route in many places closely parallels the railroad bed we were planning to follow, and there are plans to eventually turn the parkway into a recreation trail.
Central Railroad of Long Island bed
We followed Salisbury Park Drive east and reached Carman Ave on the east side. We could have turned right and gotten to the railroad bed earlier, but that would be a greater distance. After all of the wandering around and extra mileage I’d not planned on from earlier, I was happy to just go more direct by staying on Salisbury Park Drive.
We followed the road into a more residential area with a bit of a park on the left, and continued straight on Old Wesbury Road, but immediately reached the rail bed.
CRRLI
This first section we walked was immediately parallel with Salisbury Park Drive, and clear.
CRRLI
There was a lot of junk laying around, including more shopping carts. I think there were five of them altogether.
Alex was commenting on how I seem to find shopping cars just about everywhere I go.
We continued on he grade through woods parallel with the road, and had to deviate when we got to an area in chain link fences.
We had to return to Salisbury Park Drive and cross over the Wantagh State Parkway, and then could get back on it when we got out to Newbridge Road heading east.
The railroad bed
There was a paved trail down along the parkway I would one day like to hike, but we weren’t going to get to that this time. It was part of my original plan however.
Rail bed in Levittown
When I discovered that the railroad bed went through most of the way, I eliminated the parkway path plan that I was going ot use before.
After crossing Newbridge Road to the east, we had a very nice and easy section heading on through neighborhoods, where it was simply used as a utility right of way. Immediately to the left of us was actually the route of the Long Island Motor Parkway, though I didn’t know then.
Entering the original Levittown
Alex started talking a bit about the Levittown history, which is quite interesting, as we made our way along the rail bed to the east, and how it was the “first planned community”.
Old Levittown advert
I argued that Alexander Hamilton’s Paterson/Silk City was the first planned city, or planned industrial city, and one might argue others like Roebling New Jersey came first.
The rail bed in Levittown
This was was different though, it was the first planned residential only area.
In the years following World War II, returning veterans and their families sought attractive homes away from the congestion of cities, and William Levitt, and his company Levitt and Sons, recognized this.
The Veterans Administration and Federal Housing Administration guaranteed homes to veterans at a fraction of rental costs.
The railbed in Levittown
Houses were put together on an assembly line style, with twenty seven steps. Each worker would be assigned one step, and if everything went right, one house per day could be constructed.
The first homes in Levittown New York were sold in 1947. They were advertised as each having white picket fences, green lawns, and modern appliances. A staggering 1,400 homes were sold within the first three hours. Levittown New York was constructed and built out between 1947 and 1951.
The rail bed in Levittown
Levitt and Sons was started by Abreham Levitt in 1929, and his sons, William and Alfred, served as company President and Archictect and Planner, respectively, when the Levittown development began taking place.
The Levitts did not stop with their success in Long Island. They next set their sights on a Philadelphia suburban area along the Delaware River and began constructing Levittown Pennsylvania (another place we’ve hiked through) between 1952 and 58. Design was very similar and it became Philly’s largest suburb.
Old railroad pipe underpass
A third Levittown was started in New Jersey, in what would later be renamed Willingboro, although colloquially still known as Levittown. This was followed by Levittown, Puerto Rico in 1963. Levitt and Sons continued developments in Bowie, Crofton, and Largo Maryland.
More shopping carts
William Levitt, in conrol of Levitt and Sons starting in 1954, is considered to be the Father of Modern US Suburbia.
Through friends who have lived in Long Island, I’ve heard over and over that it’s a terribly racist place. Through reading the history, I find that it dates back to the Levittown developments and maybe even before.
One of the stipulations by Levitt and FHA lenders was that buyers of properties in Levittown was that it only be to those of the Caucasian race.
The rail bed in Levittown
This stipulation is unheard of by today’s standards, but they felt it was necessary because white families would not want to purchase a home knowing that they had black or other nationality neighbors.
Levitt claimed it was strictly in favor of having good business. Such discrimination from a Jew at the end of World War II is quite surprising. Said Levitt: “As a Jew, I have no room in my heart for racial prejudice. But the plain fact is that most whites prefer not to live in mixed communities. This attitude may be wrong morally, and someday it may change. I hope it will.”
The rail bed in Levittown
In addition to the racial policies, some other stringent policies were imposed on residents, including “no hanging of laundry on Sundays”. Properties were to be well kept, and may have had some effect on nationwide local ordinances.
The racial issues did eventually go to court, and it was found that the Levitts could not legally continue to sell with Caucasian favoritism, but the area to this day still is predominantly white.
The rail bed in Levittown
The rail bed continued straight as an arrow to the east. It’s a good thing it wasn’t too hot out yet, because it provided us with really no shade. I think I still got sunburned on my face.
The rail bed
We continued across Hilltop Road, and then over Strawberry Lane. The grade was always pretty level, so there was hardly ever any evidence that this was a railroad bed. We did come across a giant cast iron pipe that was meant to carry water beneath the grade, but things like this were few and far between.
Everyone was getting pretty hungry, and there was really no areas with businesses in Levittown. I watched my google maps and tried to find where things might be, but there wasn’t much.
Rail bed in Levittown
We continued walking to Jerusalem Ave, where there were some businesses just to the north adjacent to a park and pool.
There was a small strip mall, and a bar and grill to the far left side called Father Flannigans as I recall. There was that and a little deli, but not many other choices, so we gave it a try and had a good lunch break. I forget exactly what I had, but it was probably a burger or something. I had some kind of beer, I forget what also.
Abandoned Long Island Motor Parkway
We walked back down Jerusalem and got back on the railroad bed heading east from here. We crossed over Neptune Lane and followed the bed a little further out to North Wantagh Avenue. There was construction going on straight ahead, so we had to circumnavigate.
Former Long Island Motor Parkway Bridge site
We turned left for a bit, and there was just no way to get out to the next road until we headed almost all the way up to the intersection with Hicksville Road. We turned right through the back of a business to cut a little bit of a corner, then turned right on Hicksville heading south toward the railroad bed ahead.
The rail bed was clear again on the otehr side of Hicksville Road. We probably could have cut through the construction site to make things quicker, but it wasn’t all that bad. We followed the bed to the east.
Power line path
We had another good clear shot on the railroad bed all the way out to Stewart Avenue. I had gotten ahead a bit, so we regrouped here. To the left, there was a slope that at first I thought must have been part of the railroad bed. Straight ahead, a tiny path led into an area where pond, maybe a retention pond of sorts, had been put on the railroad bed.
The slope was interesting, and it had concrete in teh top of it. It was rather obviosly not the railroad, and appeared to be a bridge site. I didn't realize it at first, but this was one of the many overpasses and a little remnant of the Long Island Motor Parkway.
Bethpage Bikeway
To everyone else, climbing up this thing probably seemed pointless, but I knew there must be something to it. It's so much cooler now that I've read about it more and looked over the maps.
We climbed down from the old parkway route, and then followed along Arthur Avenue to the north. We then came to the intersection with Broadway from which point we could turn to the right and get back on the rail bed again heading to the east.
Bethpage Parkway and path
We weren't on it for very long when we got to the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway. We weren't going to dash across that. We'd have to circumnavigate again.
We turned to the left, and fortunately that's where teh power line turned to. We were able to follow a clear path along it right on out to Cental Avenue, and cut across the King Cullen parking lot just before reaching it. We'd then turn right on Central Ave, beneath the active Long Island Railroad, and then over the Bethpage State Parkway.
Bethpage Bikeway
The railroad we were following continued just ahead to Bethpage Junction, on the west side of Farmingdale, where it joined the lines that are still active.
We continued across the overpass, and then found a path down the right side that would take us down to the Bethpage Bikeway. This was one of the major connections I'd been wanting to make while planning my cross-Long Island series. This section guaruntees at least that I have three or so more good hikes before I have to come up with something else to get through to the next interesting bit. We got on the paved pathway and started heading south.
Bethpage Bikeway
There are actually two versions of this hike I can do. There is the the paved Bethpage Bikeway, and then there is the white blazed Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail. This 19.5 mile trail leads from Massapequa near the south end of Long Island all the way to Cold Spring Harbor on the north. It's really a lovely route, even just on the bike path. My plan for this time was just to use the bikeway section in the name of being faster. We went out and around so much earlier in this hike that it added some substantial miles, so I wanted to try to get done a bit quicker. The foot path version is quite a bit longer.
Pretty vines on Bethpage Bikeway
The white blazed foot path version often comes on and off of the Bethpage Bikeway, and is co-aligned with it at points where necessary.
Pond view on Bethpage Bikeway
Much of the section we were walking is the narrow right of way between the Bethpage Parkway and the communities to the east. Still, the foot path verson meanders and was very enticing to me. The next hike I do out there where we'll take the foot path will be that much better because it will be so much less pavement.
We walked the trail soon beneath Rt 24 and continued south. There were pretty vines and some signs of Spring along the way. Captain Soup and I were motoring ahead and talking.
Crossing Southern State Parkway
The rest of the group was getting pretty tired. We would probably end up doing over twenty miles by the end because it was so much longer than expected.
We continued south and went beneath another underpass below Merritts Road, then cut across one of the on or off ramps from the parkway. Captain Soup and I kept pretty far ahead until we got to a point with several trails going off in different directions. Since we weren't following the white blazes really, we had to be sure everyone knew where to go.
The bikeway
One route crossed the Bethpage Parkway, another went off to the left, and another went straight ahead and soon crossed Southern State Parkway, which was the way we needed to go. The white blazed trail from this point leaves the bike path and heads to the west side of the Massapequa Preserve that we were about to enter.
The Massapequa Preserve is named for part of a tribe of Lenape Algonquin speaking Native Americans that occupied this western part of Long Island. The aboriginal people of eastern Long Island spoke a different language and were more closely connected with the tribes within Connecticut.
The trail along Massapequa Creek
The preserve is focused around the Massapequa Creek, and contains remnants of the Pine Barrens that were mostly obliterated in this part of Long Island.
Along the creek and trail
Further to the eat, the pine barrens, much like the ones in New Jersey and northwestern Delaware, are more expansive and preserved.
After crossing the Southern State Parkway, we continued across Linden Street and back into the preserve area. We entered a more deep woods type area and were soon along the edge of the Massapequa Creek, which was quite pretty. There was a little dam to the right, and occasional side trails that led over toward the west side of the preserve where the foot path section is.
Dam on the Massapequa
We started seeing a lot more people was we got to this portion of the trail. There was more parking and access through the area. The trail opened up and crossed a little bridge over a tributary, then came to the edge of a wide open ball field area for a bit. It then went back into the woods and continued along the edge of the creek.
Soon, we came to a large pond area to the right of the trail. It was pretty wide open with reeds and such coming right to the shore. I went over to have a look at the water closer.
Swan coming at me
There were lots of adorable little Mallard ducks in the water along the way, but there was a swan out in this section. As I approached, the swan came swimming over toward me.
Dam on the Massaquequa
As it got closer in the shallow water, the thing started hissing at me like crazy. As if I did something to it, and it continued approaching me! What a nasty bird! The others came over toward me to look at the thing too, and James had some Pringles. He threw some over to it, it ate, and then continued to hiss. I think he said he was going to name it something, but for some reason I got an image in my mind of some pissy loud mouthed southern woman and announced in a southern accent "Imma name her Geraldine...", which for some reason amused me.
Massapequa
There was a really pretty section ahead. We moved on and passed a side trail that went right by the pond, and then a dam that witheld the water in the area. There was a stone lined wall along the creek through this section.
Muscovy
As we walked ahead, there was a Muscovy Duck sitting along the left side of the trail.
Muscovy ducks are probably the ugliest of any duck I’ve ever come across, but they make up for it by being some of the most gregarious. They often don’t seem very afraid of people, and they don’t in my experience come across as very aggressive.
Muscovies are tropical, native to Mexico, central, and south America, but they are able to adapt well to cold.
Massapequa
There are now breeding populations in America, and some of the domestic ones have made their way into areas like Long Island. This one was clearly not afraid of any of us, so was probably a released domestic.
Muscovies are always recognizable by their bubbly, nude heads from bill to around eyes.
This Muscovy also appeared that it might have been injured, and appreciated some of James' pringles as well. It didn't walk away with ease, but also wasn't afraid. Hopefully no kids come along and harm it. There were some park patrons walking by when I was next to the bird, and I gave them a brief little lecture on the birds before we moved on.
Pretty soon after the first pond, we came to yet another one to the right with more birds around. We continued south from here and passed another trail connection, and then soon reached the crossing with Clark Avenue.
From here, the trail crossed the creek at the inlet to yet another lake.
We crossed the inlet, then after that another inlet on the north side. Out across the lake, we could see the bridge for the Long Island Railroad crossing at the far side.
Massapequa
The trail also crossed under the bridge at that point in the distance.
We continued around the lake toward the south side.
The trail cut in land a bit more, and there was a side path to the right where we would leave and make our way back toward the Massapequa Station and our end point. From this point, we are open to doing several more hikes that will be great. The first and most obvious one would be the entire Nassau-Suffolk Trail, which could be done as two hikes because it connects to various other side trails and larger parks near it's northern end.
Lake on Massapequa
We can probably get at least three out of it, if not more.
Lake on Massapequa
The other route would be to the southern end of the preserve, and then with a little road walking and pocket parks, we can make our way across the Wantagh State Parkway bridge, which allows pedestrians, and get out to Jones Beach. It would be nice to be able to have a beach hike on the schedule for somewhere in the Summer. The only thing is I need to figure out how I would work the details. If we start at Massapequa, would they allow us to walk into the beach area later in the day?
The pond
More questions I will have to ask. if we do that, we will be able to extend to another 17 miles of beach to the south.
Swan nesting
There's still the problem of not being able to continue on the beaches though, because the bridge to Fire Island does not permit walking, and other access has been purged by Sandy.
To the north, it's only about seven miles from Cold Spring Harbor to Northport, and maybe 8 or 9 to the north shore from there. We'll easily be able to get on beaches or throughsmall prks from there in order to get to Sunken Meadow State Park, from which point the Long Island Greenbelt will lead us another 34 miles south to the Nicoll Bay, and other greenways with less than half day road walk heading east will take us to the Pomanauk Path route. It's really looking like the remainder of the Long Island series can be greater than what we've already done.
That's me!
I pointed out a swan nesting through the weeds just before we turned away form the Massapequa Preserve for the day.
The trail leading out was pretty busy, and soon emerged in the eastern end of the north parking area associated with the Massapequa Station.
We convened, and Alex was able to almost immediately get a train back home. Captain Soup offered to drive the rest of us that shuttled to the start back to Hempstead. He and James insisted it was a certain way to go back and didn't want to listen to me, so it ended up being quite a bit longer commute back than anticipated, because they ended up going to the wrong McDonalds. Hempstead is actually a huge locality, and one doesn't quite realize until you look how many McDonalds there are apparently! We eventually made it back and were on our ways back home.
History
There's still so much more to see in all of these areas we passed by. The area around Hempstead probably has less parks and such than anywhere in Long Island, so I have high hopes that it's all better from here out, although I don't know when we'll get around to doing more of the series. There needs to be interest to continue branching out, and it's starting to get to the point with any of the hikes that we have to have that guaruntee before continuing too far. We’ll just see how far we get with it, and maybe only branch out every so often with it.
Historic image of Massapequa Station
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