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The Calverton Ponds Preserve |
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Over a
decade ago, Bill, a friend of mine, asked me if I was
interested in visiting a really pretty place. We parked at
The Nature Conservancy Calverton Ponds Preserve and visited three beautiful coastal plain ponds. We observed
osprey, egrets, frogs, and fish and inhaled the scent of
pine, wintergreen and spice fern. We walked on trails through
Pine Barrens
woods, our footsteps cushioned by slowly decaying oak leaves
and pine needles.
Since this
was one of my first forays into nature, Bill gave me a
lesson about dealing with ticks. Before we walked through
the grassy areas, he showed me how to tuck my pants into my
socks. It looks weird but it is an effective means of
preventing the ticks from attaching themselves to you. He
reminded me that every time we walked through a grassy area
or in a place where the bush crowded the trail, to check my pants legs. He had suggested
that I wear light colored clothing, so it was now easy to
see the dark little dots working their way up my pants legs.
“They always head directly north,” he observed. “It’s the fact that they are predictable
that makes them easy to deal with.” He continued, almost pedantically, “They seem to have a negative geotropism.
The ones that make it to the neck or head of their hosts are
safer from being nipped
off or rubbed off, and they survive to have offspring. Just
check your clothes often, keep your shirt tucked in your
pants, pick them off and flick them away. Don’t bother
trying to crush them, they are practically uncrushable.” |
Last summer,
while walking the well-marked paths around the ponds, I at first was reassured
by the fact that where the trails were grassy, a Nature Conservancy
volunteer had run through them with a lawnmower. After walking a
short distance, however, my feeling of reassurance evaporated as I
watched several deer ticks marching from the tops of my sneakers
onto my socks. I removed my sneakers and socks and sprayed them with
insect repellent. While I was doing this, from the corner of my eye,
I saw a large, dark-colored, blunt-winged bird swoop through the
canopy of trees. I saw gossamer and gaudy winged damselflies and
dragonflies, some parking on twigs only inches from my face. It’s a
beautiful place, but be forewarned: right now there are a lot of
ticks. If you decide to visit, take the necessary precautions for
keeping ticks at bay.
The Calverton
Preserve is cooperatively owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy and
Suffolk County
Parks. The Ponds and the surrounding area near the headwaters of the
Peconic River contain many rare and endangered species. This area
offers a unique and ecologically wondrous experience to the hiker,
thus it is important to be careful to have as little impact on the
trails and surrounding lands as possible. We are, after all, the
stewards of our natural environment and we must preserve it for our
grandchildren. Please only walk on the trails. No pets, horses or
vehicles are allowed in the Preserve.
I suggest you
visit the Ponds from the
Old River Road
entrance. Here you will find several informational kiosks and some
excellent maps.
You can walk the
trails through this 350-acre preserve in about two hours. A good
route is to follow the white trail around the eastern side of Block
Pond, then follow the yellow trail to Fox Pond. On your way back to
the Old River Road entrance, take the yellow trail between Sandy and
Block Ponds. Along the way there are several branching trails that
enable you to visit the shorelines of the ponds.
Directions: From
the Long Island Expressway, take Exit 70, heading north towards
Manorville. At the end of the off-ramp, travel north for a short
distance past the Trails Information Center on your right. Turn
right onto Ryerson (Post Office on corner). Cross the railroad
tracks, 0.2 miles. The road curves to the left, becoming Wading
River Manor Road. Follow Wading River Manor Road north 0.8 miles to
Old River Road (NOT River Road). Turn right onto Old River Road and
travel 0.4 miles to a small parking area on the left. Please do not
block the gate.
For more
information, call the
Manorville
Trails
Information
Center
(631) 369-9768 or The Nature Conservancy (631) 367-3225 or visit
www.nature.org.
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