Day #6 on The Paumanok Path...

Rosa and I had a nice early start to our hike today ~ my jeep was parked in a lot by Red Creek Road and Route 24 by 7:45 am and we were on the trail by 7:50.  It truly is so serene and beautiful to be in the woods this early, but the downfall is that we, as we are walking, are clearing the spider webs and disturbing the slumber of the bugs and creatures...

As we complete this day's section of the trail, we are approaching a section that is not quite complete and defined as parts that we have hiked already.  The people who have maintained the trail were very clever on where they were posting the white blazes that define the Paumanok Path.  We found the blazes on cement markers, railings, telephone poles, and even street signs to help us while navigating.  It was especially helpful towards the end of today's hike, as we road walked a distance on Red Creek Road and Newtown Road, all which were marked on the poles for easy following.

There were not many creatures and critters to see today ~ we saw 2 deer while road walking, and plenty of squirrels, but not much else except mosquitoes.  There were several places where the mosquitoes were UNBEARABLE.  We walked near a very marshy area, which seemed beautiful to look at, until we walked up to it and were attacked by mosquitoes from every direction.

see the huge mosquito on my left cheek?

As a matter of fact, the pained look on my face while taking this selfie was because a huge mosquito just landed on my left cheek, just above my jaw and was biting me and buzzing at me as I stood there.

For the duration of our hiking, it was bug free, and full of beauty.  The terrain was effortless, and we enjoyed our hike.  Some of the trail traversed the space behind many homes in the area, and we even came across several benches. This was a very beautiful section of this trail.

There were several cross country runners moving through the trail on one of the side loops ~ this was only the second time we have run into other people out here in the woods.  Although there are indicators that people do spend time out here, like this life size teepee, built around a tree, from logs and branches.  It was large enough for someone like Scarecrow to stand in it!

 After exiting the woods onto the other end of Red Creek Road, the blazes directed us to road walk down to Newtown Road, and proceed East.  We followed white blazes on the telephone poles, and continued heading towards the Sunrise Highway, walking parallel to and on the West side of the Shinnecock Canal. Mike was picking us up at the end of Newtown Road, right where we are to turn left and head East through more residential areas.  We were ready to be done, 6 miles completed, in just under 2 hours.  The road walking definitely wore us out ~ we both felt we could go further trail walking than road walking, so this was a bit annoying for us.  We already know we have a bit more road walking in the beginning of our next hiking day, so we felt it was a great place to stop for today.  You can see our progress in the map below:

















Until Next Time,

Rosa & The Thruhiker's Wife