Hike #1269; Smithtown to Stony Brook Long Island

Hike #1269; Smithtown to Stony Brook Long Island

11/2/19 Smithtown to Stony Brook Long Island with Justin Gurbisz, Jennifer Berndt, John DiFiore, Stephen Argentina and Grace ?, and Anne ?

This next hike would be the next in our ongoing Long Island series, this time between Smithtown where we last left off and Stony Brook Station.

Landing Avenue Park

I hadn’t done any hikes in the Long Island series since May. That hike was outstanding, but the problem was my work schedule limited the weekends I could do, and committing to the two series I have going on otherwise (911 and Delaware and Hudson) took up much of the time I needed. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get back....my schedule just wouldn’t allow.
We had last left off in Smithtown at the railroad station, and so I came up with another route that would also utilize the railroad stations so no car shuttling would be necessary.

Nissequogue River

We would start at the Smithtown Station where we had finished, and then double back on a bit of the Long Island Greenbelt from where we had left off the previous time.

Landing Ave Park on the Nissequogue

The area is incredibly historic, having been settled in the 1600s. There’s a great mix of history and ecology on Long Island, and a whole lot of diversity.

Statue of Richard Smith in Village of the Branch

The area is ripe with both true history as well as colorful folklore, such as the story of Wisper the Bull.
Richard “Bull” Smith is a story not unlike Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed, although some of it has some truth to it.
Smith, then spelled Smythe, came from England and settled in nearby Southampton. He was charged with making negative comments about powerful people, and was exiled from the town to areas east. After some land disputes, Smith was pushy about it and secured the area known as Smithtown.
The more colorful story relating to the bull is that Smith had made a deal with local native Americans to secure a piece of land the size of which he could ride his bull around in a single day. The story states that Smith waited for June and the longest day of the year 1665 to cover the most distance, sent a cow out ahead to keep the bull, who’s name was Whisper, interested, and they rode some fifty five or so miles around the boundary of what is now Smithtown. The town chooses to embrace this folk lore as it’s a good story, but acknowledges that it’s probably not much fact.

Nissequogue River

My plan was to do a portion of the Long Island Greenbelt, a trail that connects Sunken Meadow State Park on the north side with Hecksher State Park on the south side of the island. We would follow it as far as an area known as Village of the Branch, then take anothe route away to the east. I really want to see the trail southbound to it’s terminus, but I also want to move forward with doing the rest of Long Island out to Montauk Point.
While I do want to get out that far, I’m also not in a hurry to just go any old way. If that was the case we would just be hiking roads.

Nissequogue River

I’ve carefully planned these routes so that we go to points of interest along the way. Historic sites, pocket parks, whatever it may be. In the case of this hike, I specifically planned two winery visits with tastings.
I’m getting closer all the time to getting to the final trail system that will take us out to Montauk Point.
This time, we met at the railroad station where we’d begin to walk to the northwest, to get to near the area where we had left off. Stephen arrived by train, and the rest of us drove in.
Justin and I had to run off to find somewhere to pee immediately after arriving, and there was some sort of abandoned parking lot thing adjacent to the station.

Landing Avenue Park

It was a bit messy, someone had dropped a cheeseburger and it’s garnish all over the foot bridge over the tracks.
Our only newcomer, Grace, was in high spirits, and it would turn out she loved the group and what we do. It’s nice to have new fans come when we start a series like this.
We started walking from the station platform up over the foot bridge crossing the tracks, then down through the parking lot on the other side out to Atterbury Drive. We followed that a bit to Landing Avenue, where we turned to the left heading down hill gradually.

Nissequogue River

Our first point of interest was up on the left, just before Landing Avenue crossed over the Nissequogue River. A large rock with a plaque on it was at the entrance to Landing Avenue Park.
What is so interesting about this park is that it is one of the oldest public parks in the nation. The property was first donated by founder Richard Smythe in 1688 for public use.

Crappily marked trail

Prior to that time, it was used by people to dry salt grasses.
Starting in 1806, flat bottom sailing vessels used this as a landing. Even later than that, into the early 1900s, the little park served as a public swimming beach.
Today, it’s just a little picnic park with a nice little fishing pier out onto the Nissequogue River.
We arrived at pretty low tide, and I went out onto the stony bottom of it for a closer look.
We continued from here back to Landing Avenue and crossed over the Nissequogue. Once around a bit of a corner on the other side, there was a gravel driveway going up hill to the left.

Red Trail at Sweet Briar Nature Center

It wasn’t well signed at this point, but that is one of the trails at Sweet Briar Nature Center. The Long Island Greenbelt Trail passes through here, and we had joined it from the northwest side last time. This time, we would follow some of the other trails through there first, and then pick up the greenbelt.
This first trail was just a road that went past an old house and barn structure used by the organization that runs Sweet Briar. We walked by that, and there were several other people hiking around. We left this open area and entered some woods where there was an outlook area to the left over Nissequogue River.

The trail follows a back road

The trail was marked deplorably. We could tell that they sort of tried to do turn blazes and end of trail triple blazes on the wooden posts, but they did it with spray paint. This made it look like splotches, and the paint ran all down the posts making it look like utter shit.
We followed a sort of red blazes trail that kept close to the waterfront. A guy walking his dog was always pretty close behind us, but not moving quite fast enough to pass us. He had his dog off leash, and it kept running ahead to greet us.

Puncheons on the greenway

When we came to the next trail interesection, there was another guy walking two dogs. The guy walking the one dog came up and caught up and assured the guy walking his two that “she’s friendly”, to which he responded “well, she’s NOT”. The other guy’s dog was distraught by the one running off leash.
This is one of the problems we face every time a dog is off leash. It’s taking on a huge risk, because even though your dog might be perfect for you, it doesn’t mean that it might be an ugly combination in a scenario with a less friendly dog kept on leash.

Long Island Greenbelt

We continued through woods, and eventually came to the white blazes of Long Island Greenbelt Trail.

Near Wisper the Bull Statue

We turned left on these, and soon it took us out of Sweet Briar Nature Preserve to Summerset Drive. The trail followed along the edge of the road for just a little bit, and then turned to the left through a narrow swath of trees between houses to descend toward the Nissequogue River again.
I had done this section from Sweet Briar out to Main Street, Rt 25, but nothing beyond to the south of that.
We took the trail over sections of very nice puncheons through the county property, and eventually came out on Rt 25A, St. Johnland Road. We crossed on the crosswalk, which is quite the deadly feat I must say.

LIRR underpass

The drivers in Long Island are seriously inconsiderate compared to so many of the other places we go. Jen was trying to cross the street after getting a little behind, and no one would let her cross. Typically when you get to a crosswalk, people will stop and let you go, because it’s the law. Not on Long Island.
We finally got across, and the trail followed a bit of unpaved road that connects Rt 25A with Rt 25. The trail turns to the right on Rt 25, which is where we left it on the last Long Island hike. This time, we continued on it, which soon passed beneath the Staten Island Railroad Port Jefferson Branch bridge.

LIRR underpass

There was a lot of painting under it, but it wasn’t graffiti. This was a Students Against Drunk Driving thing, saying “Beware and Be Aware”. We continued uphill from here, and turned to the right on Meadow Road. After a short bit, the trail turned to the right through a closed chain link fence gate. I was surprised that there was a sign on it reading that it was closed Monday through Wednesday or something. This was the entrance to Caleb Smith State Park.
We continued through the woods from here, and the trail weaved around until coming to Boces Outdoor Learning Lab.

Caleb Smith State Park

This was a house with a walkway around it, and the trail turned to the left under a lattice thing, and along a walkway. There was a red trail that went sort of straight, closer to the building. I’m not sure the history of this little building.
The trail turned right at the side of the house, and then had caution tape over it. I’m not sure what was going on there. Nothing said it was closed at this side, and the woods were open enough that we just walked around it and continued through the woods.
The red tail was almost pointless because it came right back into the white just ahead, within sight of where it started it seemed.

Outdoor learning center

The trail went up and down hill, with some nice steps in place as well as more puncheons in lower wetter areas.

Outdoor learning center

The trail came out to an open meadow area where there was more caution tape over where we were coming out of. We continued into the field, and there was one of those trail signs pointing in all directions what was out there. In addition to the different trails and museum, it also pointed out New York City (48 miles), Siberia, Sidney, and I don’t remember what else.
The Long Island Greenbelt Trail turned left from this meadow onto a wider old road route. There were two guys doing work off of the edge of the field, which I found strange on a weekend.

Caleb Smith State Park

We soon reached a large out building, followed by an impressive mansion building that is now the visitor center and museum. The path on the way to it was lined with sort of scarecrow things because they must have been doing a haunted woods or hayride or something.
It turns out this building was the historic Caleb Smith House, for whom the park takes its name.
The original house was built in 1753 by Caleb Smith and his father Daniel Smith II, grandson and great grandson of the original Richard Smythe who founded Smithtown NY.

Caleb Smith House, 1948

The house was expanded upon considerably throughout the 19th century, and by 1888 it was purchased by the Brooklyn Hunting Club, and the land for a hunting and fishing preserve.

Caleb Smith House now

In 1893, it was renamed the Wyandanch Club in honor of the great native American Sachem Wyandanch, a chief of the Montauk tribe.

Wyandanch memorial

As the story goes, Wyandanch was aided by Englishman Lion Gardiner in the rescue of his kidnapped daughter. Upon his death in 1659, Wyandanch deeded to Gardiner his land that became Smithtown, and Smythe acquired the land from Gardiner.

Caleb Smith State Park

The property was purchased by the state for a park in 1963 as Caleb Smith State Park Preserve.
Of course, we had to go inside and have a look around this historic place. The main original frame of the building has had a couple of stories added, and annexes were built to the sides, but the main from of the original building was definitely there.
There was a model of the grounds inside the place, a face of Wyandanch above the fireplace, many historic photos of the house and area, an 1880s ledge from Brooklyn Gun Club, and even Caleb Smith’s original door in the very center.

Old Brooklyn Gun Club ledger

We checked out all the displays, and then I got a then and now photo of the front of the building using one of the earlier ones from 1948.

Long Island Greenbelt

Across from the building is Willow Pond, a picturesque pond the trail goes by. The Long Island Greenbelt passes around the house, then onto an access road along the edge of Willow Pond. We walked through this way to where a branch stream feeds it. The trail seemed to follow along what would have been a mill race for a time, then crossed it into the woods on the other side.
We climbed a slope in a little cut. There was a blocked of path to the right of there which might have been an earlier route.
The trail headed to higher elevation and became a very easy and wide path. It remained this relaxing route for a while through woods to the south, and eventually came out to another chain link fence gate onto Rt 25.
We turned right to follow Rt 25 for a bit, to the intersection with a road called Old Willitt’s Path. On the far corner, there was a Mobil gas station with a weird name I can’t remember.

Caleb Smith House

In front of the place were lots of these weird colorful cabbage types of plants I’m not used to seeing in NJ. They must have had an expensive landscaper for this place. Even the concrete flower pots at the entrances read “Mobil” on them. In the bedding was an old concrete highway mile marker. We went in to the gas station to get some kind of snacks and such, then continued back to the trail.
The trail crossed the highway on the crosswalk, and then entered the woods immediately into Van Blydenburgh Park, a county park.
The trail weaved around through the woods, and then came to an abandoned highway section. It still had the yellow lines down the middle of it, though now quite faded.

Caleb Smith SP

It was a road that once connected that road called Willett’s Trail to Rt 25. The trail turned right on it briefly, and then left back into more woods.
The trail weaved around more on an upload, and the Nissequogue River started coming into view again below to the left. We descended a bit and then came to New Mill Pond, a very large lake at the epicenter of the park. The trail turned left and crossed a foot bridge over the outflow, then continued along the causeway to the Blydenburgh Historic District. This area was apparently a separate village outside of Smithtown.

Miller House

The first house we came to was a white one on the northwest side of the pond, the Miller House built in 1802. It appears to be vacant, but well kept up.

Blydenburgh-Weld Farm

The trail turned to the right and started climbing a series of elaborate wooden steps with two outlook areas. Once at the top, there was another old farm house and a carriage house. This was the Blydenburgh-Weld Farmhouse built in 1821. It was cool to see these historic structures still cared for.
The trail continued atop a slope along a grassy area, and then back into woods. It turned down hill to the right, to the path we had just left directly beside New Mill Pond. A tree had fallen blocking the Greenbelt Trail in this area.

New Mill Pond

We continued along the pond where there were a lot people walking around. There were some really fantastic views across the lake.

Trail signs

The trail moved a bit further away from the lake, to where it was swamp land to the right. This section I guess is called Forestwood Park according to Google Maps.
As we walked this stretch, there were four guys driving two John Deere Gators down the trail heading to the west. The first one stopped and asked me if we saw any trees down over the trail. I said there were none on the drivable trail, but that there was one on the white blazed trail just uphill from it. They had chain saws and such in the back.
In just a short distance, the four guys came tearing back up the trail, going off to the sides and leaving deep ruts. They didn’t have nearly enough time to do the tree work I had mentioned to them. It was only a short bit off of the trail. This proved to me that they weren’t interested in working, just tearing through the trails on the gator. That’s one of the biggest problems with parks and the employees.

Caleb Smith SP

Too many of them turn it into an unnecessary and impractical joy ride.
We continued walking, and the trail eventually took us out to Brooksite Ave. It crossed over the road directly there, and then came into a little park at the dead end of Juniper Avenue. It then followed Juniper up to it’s intersection with Wildwood Lane and then turned to the right.
The back street was not very busy. It was actually a pretty pleasant walk. There was a little church building on the left as we walked, and then passed by Robert A. Brady Park.

Caleb Smith's door

We should have cut through that park and then continued on the greenbelt, because it would have eliminated a road walk bit, but not by much. The trail turned right on Maple Avenue, and then left after a short distance into the woods along Miller’s Pond, which is fed by the North Branch of the Nissequogue River.
The trail turned right and followed the edge of the lake parallel with the road, and then cut further into the woods to the left when we reached its south side. I figured it would stay pretty close to the waterfront, but it actually cut further into the woods pretty quickly. We continued on through, and there were good sections of puncheons again. We eventually came out really close to Rt 111, Hauppauge Road, and paralleled it closely in the woods. We eventually exited the woods to the side of the road and continued north.

At Caleb Smith house

We crossed over at Woodhollow Road intersection; I ran across as quickly as I could, and some asshole just wouldn’t slow down as he approached. At this point the Long Island drivers were on my nerves and I threw my hands up in the air giving a “WTF” look. The guy didn’t slow down or try to have words with me.
The trail continued on an abandoned road route, what I figure is probably the former connection of Mt. Pleasant Road which is on the south side of Woodhollow. It was a nice route that started going downhill a bit.

Displays in Caleb Smith House

I spotted a supermarket shopping car to the left pretty quickly, and immediately removed my backpack to throw it in. I pushed the cart for the entire section of former road downhill to where it would have crossed over the Northeast Branch of the Nissequogue River.

Old Mt Pleasant Rd section

There were a lot of people working on the other side. It appeared to be a trail work crew of older people as well as kids. I think it was a scout project.
The scout that appeared to be in charge was impressively taking the lead I noticed, unlike some of the other kids I’ve seen in places where basically the parents do all of the work.
I left the shopping car on the other side of the bridge. Maybe they’ll be able to use it. If only Alex Gisser was able to be on this hike, he loves when I find supermarket trolleys.

In Caleb Smith House

We exited the abandoned road into the strip mall at Village of the Branch, an incorporated village that is part of Smithtown. This was our planned lunch stop.
We walked through the strip mall area to look at our options, and we whittled it down to between a Greek place at one side, and a burrito place at the near side. We decided on the burrito place because the Greek place, although nice looking, probably would have taken a lot longer.
Even Justin, who usually eats peanutbutter sandwiches at all establishments we stop in, had a burrito as well.

In Caleb Smith House

This was incredibly filling. I think we all felt pregnant after this lunch stop. The burrito must have weighed several pounds.
While we were in there, there was a commotion going on just next door. A DJ Was setting up just as we were getting there, and now there was a guy in a costume that looked like he was dressed as an enormous clothed pile of shit.
It turns out the guy was supposed to be chocolate ice cream, and we were present for the ribbon cutting at the grand opening of the Carvel Ice Cream store. We also got free ice cream since it was the very beginning. Such great luck we had with this!

Scale model at Caleb Smith State Park

It was at this point that we left the Long Island Greenbelt Trail. It continues along the south side of the shopping center and goes back into the woods. I want to do it, but we’ll save that section for a future hike. There’s a lot more to do throughout that area.
We continued north through the shopping center into Village of the Branch, where there was a large statue of Richard Smith.
We crossed over Main Street, where there was a double intersection on the other side, between which was Smithtown Cemetery on a nice slope. To the left, the First Presbyterian Church built in 1825 stood stately on the corner. We continued up hill on River and crossed the Long Island Railroad Jefferson Branch again.
Everyone seemed a bit confused at this point as they must have started looking at the maps. We were only about a mile or so from where we had started, which I knew. We weren’t at all trying to do something that would be direct here.

In Caleb Smith House

I wanted to do more of Long Island Greenbelt.
We continued north a bit more, and then turned to the right on Glamore Court.

This led to a culdesac where we could walk through on an access road to the back of Grace Church and it’s property. This was a modern looking church, newer without the character of the old ones. We came out and turned to the right on Edgewood Ave.
This road walk was not bad at all. It had a sort of sidewalk that was far away from the traffic lanes to the right, sometimes blocked by some trees and such. It didn’t feel so much like walking a road. We continued along this until we got to Wisper Vineyards across the street, at a sort of garden center place.

Elephant Ear plants at the winery

The lovely vineyards were on the right side of the road, and the tasting room area was to the left. We headed on in, and it was a nice little place. I figure they probably named it after Wisper the Bull.
When I asked about the tastings, I was taken aback at the prices for it. They didn’t call it a tasting, they called it “a flight” like one would get with beer, and it was some insane amount of money. It was a better deal to just get the glass of wine which was $9. That wasn’t as uncommon for restaurant prices, but that’s what I went for because the tasting was so much more expensive than anywhere I’d gotten them before.

Goofball

It was all dry wines, and it tasted pretty good, but I wouldn’t call it $9 worth. I suppose there’s a sort of upscale wine snobbery around the area that likes that sort of thing.
We hung out for a while at the place, and Stephen went outside to fly his drone over the vineyards. He lost control of it or something and ended up having to go out and get it. He also then told us of a story of how he lost his previous one out to sea by flying it over the ocean. The thing costs $700, but he said it was worth it because it came with some sort of ipad or something like that.
We left the winery and continued walking to the east along Edgewood Road, which took us out to Country Road, Rt 25A. We continued following that to the left for a bit, then crossed, walked through a strip mall lot, and turned to the right on Clinton Avenue. This took us on a less busy road out to Northern Blvd, and we turned to the right to reach Saint James Episcopal Church and Cemetery.

Wisper Vineyards

John had told us about this place, and how it was the resting place to a famous architect, so we should go and see it.
The church was a beautiful old one with louvered windows in its tower and belfry. It was built in 1854, and the tower and belfry were added in 1877. There have been a few other new additions and modifications, but it retains a great historic character.
The church and cemetery take their name not from some well known saint, surprisingly, but from James Clinch, who was the main to organize fundraising for the building of this church.

St. James Episcopal Church

He was also godfather to one of the prominent Smith family members of the time. The village area around the church, and the later station stop on the Long Island Railroad were all named St. James from this location.

St. James cemetery

We walked back though the cemetery, which had a lot of old stones. I noted that a couple of them were six feet tall. John moved on from the group looking for the interment he had told us about. After a short while, he called us back further to the south saying he’d found it.
The grave was a very interesting tall monument, different looking than most. It was certainly the tomb of an architect.
This was the grave of Stanford White and his wife Bessie S. Smith (also of the famous Smithtown Smiths, which is probably why White too was interred at this site).

Grave of Stanford White

Stanford White was known as one of the greatest architects of his time, with examples of his buildings all over America. He was known for many in particular in New York City, including the second Madison Square Garden, and the Washington Park Arch. In his earlier years, he worked for the architect Richardson of Richardson Romanesque style fame.
White was murdered in 1906 by the crazed and jealous husband of a girl he’d apparently date raped when she was sixteen I understand, while he giving a presentation on a piece of his architecture.

Deepwells Mansion

We continued from here through the cemetery and back to Rt 25A. We turned right, and just after passing Highland Avenue, I cut into the woods to the right, and hit a trail that went parallel with 25A.

Winery visit

This was originally the farm of Gamaliel Taylor, a descendant of the original Smith family who founded nearby Smithtown. It was sold to another descendant, Joel L.G. Smith, in 1845.We turned to the right on the trail, which then came out to a wide open field area. Across the field and Harbor Hill Road, which breaks off of 25A, we could see the lovely Deepwells Mansion
Deepwells Mansion was built in 1845 for Joel L.G. Smith. The property passed through several other prominent hands including more of the Smith family, and former mayor of New York William J. Gaynor, who raised pigs on the farm in 1905.

St. James General Store

The house was purchased in 1924 by Winthrop Taylor, of the architectural firm Peabody, Wilson and Brown. He raised cows on the farm.

Trail at Deepwells

Much of the farm was sold to a developer in 1975, but the house and some of the property were purchased by Suffolk County in 1989. It’s now another nice little historic site.
We continued walking through the open field to the west of Deepwells, and then a lovely little general store across from a parking area come into view. This was the St. James General Store.
The story of the General Store goes back to Ebenezer Smith, a descendant of the original founding Smith's of nearby Smithtown New York.

In the 1840s, Ebenezer headed out west for the California Gold Rush In Search Of Fortune. He had some degree of success, and when he returned to Long Island in 1857, he opened up the General Store. It served as a community center and post office for several years.
The store was purchased by Suffolk County in 1990, and added to the Deepwells Historic site, and is now run by friends of Long Island Heritage.
We continued walking downhill from here on Harbor Hill Road, and then at the bottom turned right on Three Sisters Road.

Deepwells Mansion

This took us a bit back uphill again. This pleasant road led us soon back out to Rt 25A. We had to walk that to the east a bit more, past BB & GG Farms Nursery, and it’s fields to the left.
Soon after that, we came to the lovely Mills Pond House.
Mills Pond House was built in 1838 for William Wickham Mills by the prominent architect Calvin Pollard. Materials were imported from all over the Eastern Seaboard for the construction of this beautiful home. The Mills descendants deeded the home to the Town of Smithtown in 1976, and today it is home to Mills Pond Gallery, an art gallery.

Mills Pond Gallery

There were more open fields to the left, of 25A here, and I noticed that it came rather close to the next bit of the trail system I wanted to get on, which was the Nature Conservancy’s East Farm Preserve.

Not all road walking is bad

This shares a common trail system with the Avalon Park and Preserve Trails beyond.
Everyone except for Stephen was willing to head across the open fields and do the little bushwhacking through the woods to reach the trail system quicker, thus eliminating road walking. Stephen thought there would be a lot of ticks, but it actually ended up being pretty nice.
We got across the fields with no problem, and then cut into the woods. There were some vague paths used by animals, but I wasn’t seeing any formal trails.

Pretty cemetery view

Soon, I saw a public land sign, so we went down and up through a wet area, then I saw someone jogging on the official trail through the woods.

Stanford White grave

It wasn’t long before we were on good trail ourselves. We turned to the left, west, and then north on the yellow trail following the west side of the East Farm Preserve. When the green trail came in from the right, we were in the Avalon Preserve.
Avalon Preseve is the more woodsy, natural part of the Avalon Park and Preserve. Avalon Park to the east is a more manicured garden setting. It was set up as a memorial to Paul Simons, an avid hiker, cyclist and skier from the “three village” area of Smithtown (St. James, Village of the Branch, Head of Harbor, which the preserve is in). The Paul Simons Foundation was set up to preserve the natural character of the area. The main park is an eight acre tract that was a farm abandoned probably in the early 1900s. Andropogon Associates, an ecological landscape architectural firm was engaged to design a series of paths and natural plantings of native species to Long Island.

Cemetery scene

A very pedestrian friendly setting with bridges, steps, viewing areas, and a labyrinth were created.
Avalon Preserve, across from it, is a 76 acre undeveloped track. All together, it’s about 140 acres of public open space.
We continued to the north, and when we got to the northwest side, there was an informal path, probably an old road, that led out of the preserve and to the Harmony Vineyards.
We walked out this way, and then reached a lovely old white house with vineyards behind it and a view to the Stony Brook Harbor. The house where the tasting room is reportedly was built in 1690.

Harmony Vineyards

I walked up to the place to see about a tasting, but they had an event going on. The guys out front said that it wasn’t a private event, but it was $25 to get in. I was not about to pay that, even if it did get us a glass of wine. They also wouldn’t allow anyone to park; everyone had to use the valet parking which was kind of surprising.
Somewhat disappointed, we headed back to the trail the way we came. I’ll include this place on a future trip for sure, and I’ve already kind of got one planned now.

View at Harmony Vineyards

We continued on the yellow trail around the north side of the park, and there were tons of people walking around. The lot was pretty full, which got me thinking they probably walked to the winery from there.

Avalon Park

We soon crossed dirt surface Shep Jones Lane. This was part of the road walk I had wanted to avoid. When I saw it was that nice, I would not have done the bushwhack. I might include this route into the next hike out there. There are also a ton more trails out there I’d like to include, so we’ll definitely be going back.
We continued on the red blazed trail up and down through some more nice woods, and then came to Rhododendron Rod, with some nice steps leading up into the Avalon Park section with a gate. We opened it and climbed the steps into the very manicured park. All of the trails were surfaced nicely, and steps led up even the most moderate of grades.

Avalon Park

Wooden outlook areas were built to see coves of Rhododendrons, and some of the pathways were paved. One main one seemed paved heading to the Labyrinth in the middle, and there was an unpaved alternative one that crisscrossed the paved one leading to the same point.
When we reached the Labyrinth, with its stone surface and giant partial sculpture of a climbing man, there were kids running around all over the place like crazy. We just wanted to check it out and were ready to move on, but the kids all left when we did, so we hung out for longer.

The Labyrinth

Justin ended up trying to climb the man sculpture, and he said it was built literally so that it could be handles to get on the rock, although they probably don’t want you to know that these days.
We exited the labyrinth to the east, circled it, and then headed downhill where there were nice outlooks of Mill Pond below. There was a tiny pond with a spring coming up from under a rock in it, and then a series of walkways and foot bridges along the Mill Pond heading to the park exit to the north.

At Avalon Park

This was like waiting on line for an amusement park ride because there were so many people heading out on it. There was a house to the left as we were going through, which must be a caretaker’s house now.
We soon made our way out of the park to the edge of the mill pond, which is T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park. To the left was the historic site of a grist mill built in 1699, and there is a current mill structure on the site now. We turned right and headed out into the grass of the park, where there were lots of people milling about and enjoying the scenery. We stopped and allowed Stephen some time to fly his drone up and around. He ended up getting a group photo of us in that section.
We came out to Main Street, where we turned to the right. There were plenty more historic homes along the way through here, as we were heading toward the town of Stony Brook.

Mill Pond

The Hawkins-Bayles House built in 1800 was one of the ones we passed on the right.

Avalon Park

We made a left on Hawkins Road, which took us up hill a bit and through a quieter neighborhood than Rt 25A to the south. It was a nice relaxing route on a back street that led us right out to 25A a short distance from the Stony Brook Station. I saw an opening across the street down to the Long Island Railroad Port Jefferson Branch, and realized I could get across the tracks and to the station much more quickly that way. We crossed, and then climbed a ladder to reach the end of the station platform. The schedule showed that the next train back to where we had started was only about ten minutes away, so we hurriedly got to the ticket machine and got our tickets.

Along the mill pond

We ended up getting everything together with only minutes to spare! We got the train right back to Smithtown Station with no problem. The timing really could not have been better.
This had been another fantastic Long Island hike. It was so much different than the previous ones we had done, but also so great. Grace absolutely loved it, and will hopefully be back as we continue with this hike series. I’ve already got big plans for the next one in the series to take us out to Port Jefferson.

Home stretch

The route could be done in about six miles, but my plan is to revisit the Harmony Vineyards, hit the rest of the trails at the Avalon Preserve, get lunch at a beachfront eatery on the bay, as well as hike Stony Brook University and cover the entire Setauket Greenway Trail.
The route is going to be absolutely fantastic. We are only two hikes away form reaching the 125 mile long Paumanok Path, which will make the planning for the hikes that much easier, because it will be on the single trail. There will be one more after the next one I planned which will be mostly waterfront.
https://hikeli.com/index.php/paumanok-path/

Paumanok Path route.

HAM