Hike #1190; Seaford to Plainview Long Island

Hike #1190; Seaford to Plainview Long Island

1/6/18 Seaford to Plainview with Jennifer Berndt, Jennifer Tull, Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen, Dan Asnis, and Alex Gisser

Our next hike would be the return to the Long Island series, this time continuing with the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt to the north.

Tackapausha Preserve's north entrance

This series has been a lot of fun, because there’s been so much diversity in it, from beaches and waterfronts to railroad beds to surprisingly secluded feeling woods, despite the fact we were in urbanized Long Island.
It’s taken a good amount of research to figure out what I wanted to do in this series. My plan is to walk the entire length of Long Island, but to do so in the most interesting way possible, covering all of the substantial trails and greenways as best we can.

Ivy strewn path in Tackapausha Preserve

The series first brought us from Brooklyn south. The second hike took us from the Verrazanno Narrows down to Coney Island. The third was between there and Floyd Bennett Field. A fourth was between a point we’d reached on Belt Parkway and Howard Beach.

Tackapausha Preserve

Another was from Howard Beach down to the Rockaway Beach area to the eastern area of Long Beach.
Unable to cross bridges from there, we had to head inland. We had an aborted hike to figure this out, and then the sixth hike was from Point Lookout back to the bridge crossing up to Hempstead.
The seventh took us from Hempstead east, through weird routes to an old Long Island Railroad branch, then to the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt.

Tackapaucha Preserve: no dogs

The eighth hike took us to the south end of the Massapequa Preserve, then out to Jones Beach. That was where we left off.
There were two hikes we could have done this time.
The first one was entirely a beach hike on Jones Beach, heading east as far as we could go. I really want to do this section, but it’s sort of a pig tail to nowhere. From the end, pedestrians are not allowed on any of the bridges, and so it would not get us further along.

Tackapausha Map

I had considered doing this one as a Summer hike, since it would be only on the beach, but then I realized that Jones Beach is the most heavily used beach in America. It really made no sense to do that. Alex was saying that I should do it as a Winter hike, but there was also the chance of it being really cold, and that’d be no good. Jen had said it would probably be a good hike to do in the earlier Spring. We could walk in the tide and not have a problem, and we would probably not have the biting wind up against us.

Tackapausha Preserve scene

The hike we ended up doing was to follow the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail itself. The trail is over twenty miles long from the bottom end of Massapequa Preserve to Cold Spring Harbor. It’s a simple white blazed foot path that meanders through narrow open spaces.

Some sort of gate valve thing at rail underpass

The last time we were in this greenway, we followed the Bethpage Bikeway, which is a paved alternate to much of the trail. They are relatively close together much of the way, but completely different experiences. I figured both would be a good route to do. We did the paved trail in two segments on the last two hikes.
This time, I wanted to do only the foot path section northbound. I initially wanted to do the entire Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail in a day, until I realized how much more there was.

Long Island Railroad underpass

Many side trails branch off all over, and the most significant ones were at a point that I decided to end this hike, in a settlement known as Plainview.

LIRR underpass

Similarly, near the southern end of the greenbelt, we had previously happened upon the Tackapausha Preserve. We realized that this was a more substantial route than we did initially, and I didn’t want to just let it go. I wanted to walk it.
I decided to tack Tackapausha on to the front of the hike, walk the few blocks between the two after a southbound walk, and then continue north. I could then do the north end of Nassau-Suffolk in the future and add some of those other trails on to that route.

Tackapausha Preserve

There was a good parking area for a few cars directly on the trail in Plainview, at the corner of Washington Ave and Executive Drive. This was our meeting point.
We shuttled in my van from this point to our staring point, which would be on Jerusalem Avenue at the Seaford/Massapequa boundary. From here, we could simply get out of the van and walk directly into the Tackapausha Preserve, which is a fenced in narrow greenway.

Tackapausha Preserve

The Seaford Creek flows directly through the preserve from Jerusalem Ave heading south. We parked directly in front of a church where a lot of people were using on street parking.

Tackapausha Preserve

This area was founded by Captain John Seaman of England, who also apparently helped the settlement of Hempstead in Connecticut, in the 1600s. He named the area Jerusalem South, although it was widely known as Seaman’s Neck, and a road in town still bears that name. The name was officially changed to Seaford in 1868, in honor of the captain’s home town in England. The area grew with the development of Long Island Railroad in the mid 1800s, followed by the construction of the Sunrise Highway in 1929.

Tackapausha Preserve

The Tackapausha Preserve is a narrow, 84 acre tract with a museum and nature center at the southern end, established in 1965.
The trails pass through it from north to south, and there are often two parallel sections, on the east and west side of the Seaford Creek. All of the trails are white blazed.
I parked as close as I could to get us right into the woods, but Jen and Janet went off to get bagels at a nearby deli.

Tackapausha Preserve

I used the time to add oil to my van and Jenny and I waited for them to get back. We walked to the nearby Dunkin Donuts thinking they went in there, but then spotted them at the deli.
This spurred a conversation about how I think bagels suck in comparison to English Muffins or other bready toasted things.
Once that was done with, we headed into the gate at the Tackapausha Preserve, and along the muddy foot path.

Tackapausha Preserve

The name “Tackapausha”, also sometimes spelled “Tackapousha”, was the name of a Lenape chief who was the first native American to sell land on the Rockaway Peninsual to someone of European background. He sold Far Rockaway, to the south, in 1685 to Englishman Englishman John Palmer.

Boardwalk bit

We headed into the woods, and I was immediately impressed by how pretty the ivy was growing all around the trail. This ivy would be found along all of the trails we walked this time. It appears to be invasive English Ivy.
The trail hugged the east end of the park pretty closely. We were usually near the fence and the homes on that side, which wasn’t all that bad. It was still a nice natural surface. The section wasn’t that heavily used, but it wasn’t totally overgrown either. There was trash around, but not as bad as expected.

Tackapausha

This first bit was the longest in the woods of this preserve. I was in phone contact with Alex, who was meeting up with us along the way. He had taken the train to the Seaford Station and was to walk Washington Avenue to the north. Somehow, he got disoriented and started following it to the south, probably because someone he asked told him he needed to go that way. Of course, anyone in public would think that “Tackapausha” was to the south and not realize that there are so many trails connected to it for a couple of miles.

Tackapausha

Eventually, the path took us out to the intersection with Clark Street and Seaford Ave. A turn blaze pointed us to go down Clark Street to the right, then left back into the woods.
There was a no dogs allowed sign at the entrance. It seems like just about everywhere we’ve gone in Long Island does not allow dogs. A little bit later, there were a couple of sections of the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt that allowed them, but not many.

Historical Society of the Massapequas image of the "Red House"

We continued through the woods on the other side of Clark, and I decided we would try to remain on the east side of the preserve to avoid some confusion till we found Alex.

Historic site of the "Red House"

Soon, we came upon him walking toward us on the trail. This was just as we were reaching a pond getting close to the Long Island Railroad tracks.
We stopped here to check out a seemingly abandoned concrete platform with large gate valves on it. There was a tunnel underneath the railroad which the white blazed trail passed through to the next bit of the preserve. We headed through as a homeless man was packing his stuff up.

KITTY!

The trail got busier as we continued to the south, and people were jogging into it from different access points in the chain link fence.
We crossed the Sunrise Highway, and then continued into the woods further. A short bit in there, we came to an impressive wooden bridge across the Seaford Creek leading to the right. Although I wanted to keep to the left, I figured this was worth going over, so we went across it and switched to the west side of the preserve for a little while.

1696 Jones Cemetery

We tried crossing back over at one point, but I got my feet soaked because the water was so deep. We continued on the east side of the preserve heading all the way to the south end, where the trail crosses over the entire thing. This was where we first connected with the route we followed on the previous hike.
Alex recognized it right away. I had been pushing Major Tom in a shopping cart when we got to this area. We turned to the left to head out to the paved trail section, where there is a pretty little pond.

Massapequa Lake

There was a young couple with a photographer getting wedding photos or something taken. I always wonder why couples who spend literally no time outdoors get their photos taken at some beautiful outdoor location. They should just sit in front of Netflix on a lap top.

Massapequa Lake

We continued to the east side of the preserve and exited onto Seaford Avenue where I found another abandoned shopping cart. I picked it up, put my pack in, and started pushing it.

Massapequa Lake

We turned left on Merrick Road and started heading east. On the corner of Merrick and Seaford, there used to be a house that was known as the “Red House”.
The home was built about 1850 as a country home for NY City entrepeneur James Meinell, who owned a prominent Broadway theater.
Meinell would have lavish parties for the well to do folk; galas in the theme of Bacchus, god of the grape. The home survived on the site until 1954 when it was demolished. Now there’s a strip mall there.

Weird growing tree at Massapequa Lake

We continued down the street, with the plan of stopping when we got to a food place, because there really wasn’t much we’d be passing at all on this hike.

Bridge

We walked by a pet store or rescue place or something, and this adorable young cat was standoffish, but curious about us. It came up to the window to greet us, and then we realized there were tons of them in there, most relaxing in some sort of bed or on a cat tree. Of course, we had to spend some time looking at the cats and talking to them. There were people inside, and one would think they’d invite us in if they had some sort of adoption thing going on, but they didn’t acknowledge us.

Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt

We headed from here a bit further down the road to a strip mall. There wasn’t a ton to choose from, but we chose to go into Uncle Giuseppe’s Market.
I pushed my shopping car, from another store, probably a Stop N Shop or something, right up to the front. A young cart pusher wearing clothing that our friend Craig would hike in (high visibility) came up to me and said “Whoa, that’s a first! You brought your own cart to go shopping!”. The carts belonging to the store were black double deck things.

Puncheon

The guy asked me where I’d gotten this cart. I told him “uh...over there” pointing back toward the road. I said it was just along the road when he grilled me more. He must have thought I pulled it up because I was going to go into the store with it, but then I left it right at the entrance!
He looked more confused than ever! He asked something to the effect “are you just going to leave that here?”. I just walked away from it, and when we came back out, he had pushed the cart all the way back out to the sign by

Puncheon

In the store, I bought a really good ham, egg, and cheese wrap thing for breakfast. I was going to buy this tiny little chocolate candy thing, but it came to a whopping four dollars, and I said no way.
The others got some snacks to have prior to lunch, like marinated meat stuff with cheese and olives or something.
We headed out of the store and then back onto Merrick Road heading to the east. Along the way, we passed by the old Jones Cemetery, also known as the West Neck Cemetery, established in 1696.

Another LIRR underpass

The cemetery was founded by members of the family of the first settler, Major Thomas Jones, for whom Jones Beach is named to the south.
We continued from here a few more blocks to the east, to the corner of Merrick and Ocean Ave, where the triple blaze signified the start of the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt.
We paused here for a moment so I could explain what we were doing and where we were going. I wanted to be sure everyone knew to follow the white blazes to the end.

Dam in Massapequa Preserve

This was the southern end of the Massapequa Preserve, where there was once an ice skating area associated with a large hotel, just barely south of where we were standing.

Massapequa Preserve

“Massapequa” was one of the Lenape tribes that inhabited Long Island at the time of the first European settlers.
The Bethpage Bikeway continues very closely to the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt, and the latter comes out to follow it several times as well. This first bit especially, the trail goes out along the edge of Massapequa Lake, and then comes back out to the paved path again, only to leave in a few moments.

Massapequa Preserve

The constant back and forth, as well as constant side trails, blazed and unblazed, make it important to make sure we can see the next white blaze wherever we turned.

Massapequa Preserve

We went back and forth for a bit, and then cut to the right into some deeper woods, farther away from the bike path or any other trails in the Massapequa Preserve.

Foot path section

It was extremely muddy at times. We had a tough time not getting our feet wet. There were constantly sections of wooden puncheons for us to walk on, but not really enough of them to keep us dry. Further, the wet wood was very slippery, and several times we almost too spills trying to stay on.
The trail weaved around and soon came back out to cross the Bethpage Bikeway. I recognized these spots from when we hiked that before. We continued along the trail to the north, and came out to Sunrise Highway.

Wet area and puncheons

We emerged onto the Bethpage Bikeway again just before reaching the highway.
Officially, the trail turns right along the highway and crosses at the next traffic light, but traffic wasn’t that bad. We just dashed across all of the traffic lanes and continued on the trail on the other side.
The Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail and the Bethpage Bikway are one for a time here, as they both pass beneath the Long Island Railroad bridge, and then reach the dam for a second lake.

Pond view

I’m not totally sure what the second lake is called, but the park it’s in, or at least this section of it, is known as Brady Park.
We continued on the co-aligned bikway and greenbelt trail to the west, past a structure that was probably for lake pumping, and then continued along the east side of the lake for a bit.
Eventually, the foot path broke off to the right and followed more closely to the waterfront. We continued on this as the slack water gave way to the inflow of the Massapequa Creek, with tons of ducks and Mute Swans.

Foot bridge

We took a quick break along the shore there, and then continued along the west side. The Bethpage Bikeway was in plain view directly on the other side.
It was a really nice section along the creek. We continued to a wide intersection where the main trail went to the left, on a connecting path to a neighborhood, then headed north again to skirt the edge of a small but pretty little pond. We continued from here ahead into more woods.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

Buildings could be more readily seen off to the left of us at this point, but we were still far enough away from them to be nice. We passed several more people on this section of the trail ahead, because there were other access points from neighborhoods.
I was surprised to see several dog walkers on this section as well. Most of the greenbelt does not allow dogs form what I’ve seen on very clear signage, but these certain sections allow them.

Massapequa Preserve

There were plenty more sections with footbridges and puncheons, but it eventually got pretty wide. The path was pretty obvious, even when there were side trails going different directions.
We continued out along a section of creek, and I went off to stand in it. The temperature was pretty good out, so it didn’t bother me. I was surprised that Jen stepped right in as well after me. She had gotten her shoes so full of mud that it was worth it.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

We continued wandering through the preserve and eventually came out to Linden Street. The trail turned to the right on a paved pathway following the street. We turned here for a little bit, but Dan had fallen behind some. We waited for him to catch up here. I think he fell back to lose a layer or something.
When he arrived, we found the next section of the trail went directly across the road next to the access ramp to the Southern State Parkway. It went down a slope into a narrow swath of woods.

Massapequa Brook

The Southern State Parkway was in part the route we drove to reach this hike. It was another Robert Moses plan started in 1925 to improve access from the city to Jones Beach. The first section of it opened in 1927. Other sections opened in the forties and the sixties.
A paved pathway headed up closer to the edge of the on ramp. The foot path headed down and then climbed steeply back up to get to the same paved path.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

The trail turned right on the paved path, and then reached the Bethpage Bikeway and ran adjacent to the Bethpage State Parkway.
The Bethpage State Parkway was another Robert Moses plan for giving access to the park lands from the city. Work began on this one in 1934, and it opened in 1936. The Bethpage Bikeway built along side of it, and continuing in both directions a bit, had it’s first sections opened in the 1970s. It continues to be extended to this day, with more proposed.

Taking a dip

There are other paths going in other directions after crossing Southern State Parkway. The first one goes hard right as a paved path. Another goes sort of left around a little pond.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

Yet another path turns to the left and crosses over Bethpage Parkway in order to reach Albany Ave. We just had to be sure we were only following the one with the white blazes.
Everyone almost continued on the middle one along the pond that had no blazes at all.
We continued on the path to the north, and soon the foot path broke away from the bike path to the left to follow a very narrow swath of land.

The trail reaching the road

This is the most narrow section of the entire greenbelt in terms of land. The highway was always pretty close to us on the left. To the immediate right, the Massapequa Brook was right there, getting smaller as we made our way to it’s head waters. Just to the right of that, almost always in view, was the Bethpage Bikeway that we had hiked on our first time out here. Just barely beyond that were the residential areas off of West Drive.

Just after Southern State Parkway

This section was particularly nice, despite the sound of traffic. In the Spring or Summer, it would have the illusion of much more seclusion.
We came out a couple of times to the paved trail, and then were back into the swath of woods to the left of it until we finally emerged on it near West Avenue, and before the Merritt’s Road crossing. The white blazes followed the paved path, which soon crossed Northwest Drive.

Pond view by Southern State Parkway

We turned to the right at this point to leave the trail for a bit. The area to the north was the only one where we’d have an opportunity to stop for lunch. There was no other practical place along the way to get any food.
We passed a couple of businesses, then entered a large parking lot where the first thing we saw was a large CVS. Behind there, there was another upscale grocery store looking place called Best Market Farmingdale. There were a few other options in the area. There was a Chinese place, a deli, not much else.

Boardwalk thingy

We started getting our hopes up when we saw a pizza place, but then realized that it was not yet open. It was a new establishment with a “coming soon” sign.
Some still had the food they had purchased at Giuseppe's earlier, and we were just going to find some spot outdoors to stop and snack.
Just then, Jenny spotted a bar in the strip mall we had missed. We stepped inside, but they did not serve food.

Iveys on the trees

We left the place, but then someone had the idea to ask if we could just bring out own food in and eat as long as we ordered drinks.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

They asked, and the guy running the bar was fine with it! We sat down at a nice little table in the corner, and it ended up being a really nice place for a break. There were these containers with cheese, sausage and pepperoni in them, as well as olives, hot peppers, and I forget what else.
I didn’t want to bother buying a drink, but there was an extra glass of wine that showed up that no one apparently ordered, so I did drink that. When the cut was done, I inconspicuously refilled it with my own Stone Imperial Russian Stout.

Paved section and turn off

It was great for me, because I got to finish all of the leftover cheese and stuff that was in the cups!
From here, we made our way out through the parking lot and back toward the trail at the same spot we had left off. I can’t remember what the name of the little bar we’d eaten at was called.
We soon reached the trail crossing again and turned to the right. The white blazes remained on the paved path to get beneath the Merritt’s Road underpass.

Bethpage Interlocking Tower, I believe

We got beneath the highway, and then I didn’t see where the trail had turned initially. We went too far, but when I didn’t see white blazes we had to go back.
We got back to the bridge, and I started looking to the east of the paved trail, because it does eventually go over there and I figured the section on the other side was too narrow in this area for a trail. I didn’t see it, but when I turned back around, it was obvious going to the left.

Interlocking tower?

We continued from here through woods parallel with the Bethpage Bikeway similar to the route we were on before, only in this section it was getting a little bit wider.
The foot path came back out to the paved one and turned left on it again when we got to where we had to cross over the next on ramp at Hempstead Turnpike. The trail again continued on the paved pathway to get beneath the highway ahead.
On the other side, the trail again cut to the left and followed another narrow swath between Bethpage Parkway and the bikeway. This time, after not too long, the trail turned hard right and crossed directly over the bikeway into the woods on the east side of it.
It wasn’t long before we crossed a power line clearing with young Oak trees growing through on it.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this power line clearing was the former right of way of the Central Railroad of Long Island. That rail bed was a substantial section of a previous hike in this series.

Bethpage Interlocking tower?

On that previous hike, we had followed the Central Railroad of Long Island, built in 1873, from the area of Hempstead all the way through the Levittown community to here.

Bethpage State Park

We were not able at that time to follow the line directly on through to the trail because of the highway. Instead, we ended up heading out to Central Ave, which is to the north, and climbed down on a foot path to reach the trail.
Just to the east of this point, the Central Railroad of Long Island crossed the Long Island Railroad where there was a waiting platform for people switching trains. We continued on the footpath, which soon reached the Long Island Railroad just to the north, west of the junction site.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt in Bethpage SP

The trail came up very close to the active tracks before descending to the left. At this point, there was a lovely old tower made of a terracotta construction. It was all boarded up so there was no way in, but it was cool to see it standing.
I would assume that this was the Beth Interlocking tower constructed by the Long Island Railroad in 1927 to replace an earlier single switch tower, but I can’t be sure.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

The Long Island Railroad was first established through this area in 1841. There have been several variations of stations, station locations, and names all in this area.
We headed down to the paved path once again, and turned right to pass beneath the railroad line. The white blazed trail remained on the bike path for a bit, and used it to get across another on ramp intersection just before the northern terminus of the Bethpage State Parkway at a circle. The trail turned hard right up a slope after that.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

We regrouped so no one would miss the turn, then continued through a much wider woods parallel with the Bethpage State Park’s golf course section.
The name “Bethpage” comes from Quaker Thomas Powell, who secured the Bethpage Purchase from the native Americans of the area in 1695. The name was taken from “Bethphage”, the settlement that was located between the two Biblical towns of Jericho and Jerusalem.

Bethpage State Park

The area of today’s state park is in what is known as Old Bethpage. Another nearby settlement known as Central Park renamed themselves Bethpage, and then there was a “New Bethpage”, but the original municipality resisted changing it’s name. And so, we have this confusing mess.
In 1912, wealthy railroad executive Benjamin Franklin Yoakum purchased tracts of land in Old Bethpage and had an 18 hole golf course constructed, which opened up in 1923. Yoakum died in 1929, and the state acquired the land by 1934.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

The golf courses in the park were even the home to the US Open in the past.
We continued through the woods in this section just in from the golf course, and then emerged onto the paved path again a bit to the north.
The trail crossed over the access road along the golf course, and then headed north along a grassy swath of land. When the paved path continued more closely parallel to the road, the foot path entered the woods to the left. This was a much more natural section and more secluded.

A map showing some of the trails

There were a lot more blazed trails in this next section. They went off in a lot of directions, but we watched closely and remained on the white blazes.

Combined trails under Long Island Expressway

We hung a right through some deeper woods. While it was sparse in ground cover, the woods were thick enough that we could not see any buildings in any direction. That was really pretty cool. This was probably the deepest wooded area we would be on the entire hike.
The trail intersected with other trails regularly on it’s way to the north through the state park’s lands. It eventually ended up in sort of meadow areas where it weaved around a lot more. Other trails continued to break off.

Start of Walt Whitman Trail.

Soon, we got back on a narrower swath of land for the trail. The paved trail continued north through the swath, but the white Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt continued as well. The surprising part was another narrow, natural surface trail was also passing through. A couple of times we saw it, and I thought to try to travel it because I figured the official trail might have been re-blazed without being noted anywhere. Fortunately, we always saw the correct path and continued north without really losing it.

The trail in Bethpage State Park

After a sort of sparse meadow and forest section, we came to Haypath Road, and the Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt came back into the paved Bethpage Bikeway, but there was another trail. It seemed to be another foot path blazed in red. We saw a bike through the weeds just earlier on a section of trail that seemed very close but inaccessible from where we were.
We crossed Haypath Road and then checked out signs on the other side. It turns out this is a parallel mountain biking route, which is probably not open to hikers at all.

View on the higher elevation greenbelt

The route had signs on it that had bikes pointing to it, and walkers the way we were going. The trail was called CLIMB Trail, for “Concerned Long Island Mountain Bikers”. I would assume that the regular hiking trail was excluding mountain bikers at some point, and so they wanted their own independent trail. I was thinking this was just a separate trail we could use for a loop or something, but at this point it’s probably best to stay off of it if it’s a totally mountain biking only thing. It was interesting that it was done this way.

Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt

We continued around a corner at the road crossing, and just after the mountain biking trail went into the woods, the white blazes cut in as well. It wasn’t usually very far from the Bethpage Bikeway, which also still shared the greenway to the north here.
We continued to cross Old Bethpage Road, and then headed into more sparse woods. The trail got to be more secluded for a time again, farther from view of buildings, but then turned and headed back out to the paved trail just before reaching the Old Country Road and intersection with Nassau County Complex road. The bike trail emerged at this point too.

Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt

As soon as we crossed over, the trail went straight into the woods while the bike path went right again, but everyone ahead of me missed the turn again and kept walking to the right. It’s amazing how easily everyone forgets to look for the blazes time and time again!

View in the higher elevation portion

We continued through more woods and after not too long we arrived at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Executive Drive, where we were parked directly across in the lot.
I had discussed it with the group earlier that we could do some bonus miles, since we still had some daylight. Dan had to catch up a bit, but knew where he needed to be, so we decided to continue on the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt, then come back by way of the Bethpage Bikeway for an additional loop.
The trail took us to the right along Washington Avenue beneath the Long Island Expressway. On the other side, a foot path to the right blazed with blue dots broke off and crossed Washington Avenue. That trail leads through the Mannetto Hills and connects to the Walt Whitman Trail, which leads to Walt Whitman’s birthplace. I’d like to somehow incorporate this into the next hike out this way. That’s part of the reason for knocking out this next bit.

Along Bethpage Bikeway

We continued on the trail where Bethpage Bikeway went right. It was a meandering route with more elevation than we had seen all day long. The northern portion of the trail is reportedly like this on glacial moraines. It was a nice route with slight seasonal views through the trees at equipment yards. The sun was setting ahead of us, but it was no race at this point. We passed the other end of the blue dot trail (that red CLIMB mountain bike trail is co-aligned with the N-S Greenbelt in this section). We soon reached Sunnyside Blvd at the on ramp to the Northern State Parkway. The trails all go north here, and we turned left on the Bethpage Bikeway route, which was along the road for a bit, then passed a hotel and turned left along the service road of Long Island Expressway. We wandered this last bit back to the underpass where we’d turned initially, and returned to the parking area to finish off the hike.
It had been a really great experience, and it makes me just want to keep doing more of this, because it was so relaxing and pretty.
The area we were walking for a long time seemed so out of reached, but here we were doing it. We’ll now be connecting to Cold Spring Harbor, and I’ve found two reasonable routes to the east to connect this with Long Island Greenbelt, the next major trail that traverses the island from north to south. From here, I’ve also found a great route to connect to the Pine Barrens Trail and through it the Pomenauk Path, which was the last bit this was about connecting to. Good hikes are all in the works to get us right out to Montauk as planned.

HAM