Category: Hike Reports Page 1 of 2

A late May walk is memorable for several reasons. Much of the landscape is vegetation with crisp, new leaves, not yet eaten by insects, many shades of green, and a variety of textures. This is migration time for birds. I was walking in a botanical museum. I am part of the Carls River Corridor.

Warblers were singing in the forest canopy. I decided to walk from Babylon Village up to Belmont Lake State Park and back, six miles total. The trail is wide and slightly elevated. When Southern State Parkway was constructed and Belmont Lake State Park opened, fill was layed down to create a path through an extensive wetland.

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It’s my oasis. I come to the “Hills” to escape the computer in my office. I come to experience the largest, natural, unfenced forest left on Long Island because it’s there. I don’t have to pay. I have only a compass and map. I can bushwack or follow well-marked trails. I am away from cloying noises. I can get lost at random. I have the chance to some upon magnificent boulders that stand out dramatically in a forest of pine/oak trees. I come to be with the lichens which have not diminished as they have further west due to clean air void of sulfur and nitrous oxides which lichens are sensitive to. I came to be with my pal with Mark. my hike companion.

The day was beyond a February thaw. I’d call it a “melt” there was snow cover but it is corn snow mush. I wore the wrong footwear, a pair of sneakers which soaked up water. I had the camera and note pad. Our plan was to walk east on Hot Water Street and turn left on #6. Number 6 is one of the north-south emergency routes that serve if a rescue is necessary. They are wide enough for a four-wheel vehicle. We found snowmobile tracks which helped our footing. My shoes sank into the soft snow.

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We found ourselves on a trail that parallels the Forge River. Dead low tide produced rivulets of fresh ground water that tricked toward the river. Mark spotted an osprey and a person on the opposite shore with binoculars looking toward the forest edge of the estate.. I heard that a bald eaglewas nesting from an Audubon Newsletter. I had seen an eagle at the Morton Wildlife Refuge a year ago. Sightings are rare. If eagles return to Long Island, as Opsreys have, this is encoruraging. We kept our eyes open.

We came to a trail that was blocked. The sign on the fence said: “Closed. Do not enter.” We knew immediately that the eagle nest was somewhere inside. We obeyed the signs and headed back toward the buildings.
Most of the trail to this point on walk was forested on both sides. However, we encountered changes in scenery as we entered open fields. The fields have been mowed in order to keep them from eventually succeeding back to forest. We enjoyed passing through these light-flooded meadows the variety was a welcome change from continuous tree canopy. Maintenance crews are mowing to keep these open to replicate the farmland 200 years ago. Occasional red cedar trees cast globe-shaped shade on the ground. I love cedar trees because they look like they’ve been sheared into neat pointed shapes.The texture of the bark and dark color of the foliage also attract me. Here on the estate, there are many cedars who for me, qualify as models. The scenes are charming. I felt like I had been taken back to the days when farmers worked with horse and plow.

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