Old Westhampton Path - a nearly 30 photo journey!

[LongIslandPiney]

This past Thursday I hiked Old Westhampton Path, which runs from Westhampton north to Wildwood Lake in Northampton, just south of Riverhead. It is about a 6 mile journey, but the northern half is quite hilly, while the southern quite flat.

The path is paved as it runs past some horse stables, as you can see there are some utilities here.

The path becomes gravel as you head north into the burn area, these seedlings have grown quite a bit since the 1995 wildfires.

Further up the gravel gives way to sand as we head into the heart of the burn area. The straight path almost seems unending!

Everywhere you look signs of the 1995 wildfires are all around.

Heading north some islands of taller trees somehow survived.

Sunrise highway (rt 27) is coming up....soon.

After crossing Sunrise highway things really start to open up, the fires burned hotter here and the trees have been abit slower coming back, hence these seedlings are shorter. These fires were pretty intense since they jumped the 4 lane sunrise highway, which is really 8 lanes if you consider the median.

Coming up, one of the best vistas on Long Island!

 

[LongIslandPiney]

In this burn area north of route 27 the fire created a huge opening in the forest. The views are spectacular. Looking west and north toward the Manorville Hills, one feels like they are truly in the middle of nowhere!

Perched on that small sand hill it's amazing how all those charred oak trunks remain.

A more wide angle view...

The line between where the fires burned and the woods to the north is quite abrupt.

A trail that divides the forest from the burn area. An allegheny ant mound is visible in the brush, there are many more in that area.

Looking into the forest.

Next I venture north into the forest.

 

[LongIslandPiney]

The shade of the dense pitch pine forest brings a more welcome relief from the sun, which is brutal in summer in the burn area.

Things open up a bit as we approach a fork in the road, it is probably an opening created by hunters years ago.

At the fork I bear left, then right as I enter a small sandy area.

It starts getting hilly with several dips, as we enter the hills.

Shortly I cross a road, it is a paved road mainly used to serve the private Hampton Hills Golf Course, however it is used by the public for access to this land for hikers and hunters.

Crossing the road Old Westhampton Path crosses a power line. Young pines take full advantage of the clearing.

Next we enter the hilly, winding portion of Old Westhampton Path, and Wildwood Lake.

 

[LongIslandPiney]

The path gets narrower as we leave county land and enter the state owned Sarnoff Preserve.

The pines grow pretty tall over here.

Nearing the end of the path soon.

Bearing left will take you down to Wildwood Lake. There's a steep hill down, another sign this lake as formed by a huge chunk of glacier that dug a huge hole.

Arriving at the lake.

These are photos from the south end of the lake, looking north. There are just a few homes on the lake, they are barely noticable.

Leaving toward a residential section, I get another view of the lake through the trees.

And some more pines, which glisten bright green in the spring sunshine.

And that's about it. And here's how I got there. I took a bus to Westhampton, and when I finished I took a bus on a short ride from Northampton to Riverhead.
Buses may be infrequent (every 1-3 hours) but they can easily be used to access these points.
I hear things over NJ aren't as easy, I guess that's one of the benefits of accessing the Long Island pine barrens.

 

[bobpbx]

Beautiful photos and story. Very nice. The red dotted line is something you created on the map to show where you were and the photo areas?

 

[woodjin]

Nice report. It still amazes me how the Long Island Pines look identical to it's southern counterpoint. Thanks for so many beautiful photos, it looks like home to me.

Jeff

 

[LongIslandPiney]

Beautiful photos and story. Very nice. The red dotted line is something you created on the map to show where you were and the photo areas?

Yes, I used Google Earth. That loop I took is where I saw all the ant mounds.

 

[Teegate]

Very very nice! Thank you.

Guy

 

[james ungehajer]

Great scenery,great pics,i do not know if this has been asked before,but are there ruins,and forgotten towns in your pine barrens?

 

[Boyd]

Those are terrific pictures. I would have guessed some of them were taken in our own pine plains! Thanks for posting them.

 

[LongIslandPiney]

Great scenery,great pics,i do not know if this has been asked before,but are there ruins,and forgotten towns in your pine barrens?

I don't know so much about forgotten towns, but there are ruins. The ones I know of a radio testing sites. The Rocky point DEC preserve used to be known as "Radio central", many buildings and antenna towers, most have been demolished, but there are some fallen tower remains if you know where to look for them. Their concrete bases remain too.
Also in Deer Park the preserve there used to be Edgewood Hospital, You can read about it at http://www.edgewoodhospital.com/.
The buildings have been demolished, but a sandy clearing in the preserve has bricks that used to be the power station.
Also where the hospital main building was are fire hydrants, odd to see in the middle of the woods, and the only sign that a building used to stand. I have some photos, maybe when I get a chance I'll post them in the forgotten towns section.
We didn't have a big cranberry or bog iron industry in our pines, but radio got it's start here and that's pretty significant. The David A. Sarnoff preserve in Westhampton was named after a major radio pioneer, which did many tests there.