Stump Pond Loop Trail Recap

This past weekend I was able to get out of the house and spend a few hours outside in the confines of Blydenburgh County Park. There’s a beautiful pond there called Stump Pond that has a nice five mile trail that loops around it aptly named the Stump Pond Loop Trail. This distance would be the next logical step in my build up for an attempt at the Greenbelt Trail. In fact, part of the Stump Pond Loop Trail utilizes a section of the Greenbelt Trail on the north side of the pond.

0 – 1 Mile Section

I started my hike at the Stump Pond Boat House in Blydenburgh Park which is located on the southeast side of the pond. There’s ample parking here and, as you might of guessed, you can rent boats here in the warmer months. I chose to hike this trail in a clockwise fashion for no other reason that I found the entrance to the trail on the south side of the Boat House landing (here). The path meanders down about a quarter mile or so and empties out onto the entrance road to the park. You follow the guardrail down the road a bit and then you’ll see two posts with blue blazes on them. That’s your sign to get off the road and back into the woods. This section, to me, was the most boring part of the hike because you spend a majority of the time hiking without a view of the pond. The wilderness would be nice if not for the fact that there’s a gorgeous pond immediately to your right and you can’t see it.

But, fortunately, this section does not last long and empties into a more open area that contains many streams that run to the pond. The streams themselves are very beautiful and I’m sure that the flora and fauna around them is equally as inviting in the spring and summer times. What’s interesting is that the streams cause the ground to become very wet – you essentially enter a marshland. In order to navigate this area, the park has conveniently built an elevated wooden bridge or walkway system that winds for what I estimate to be about a quarter mile or so. It’s rather charming to stroll through this wetlands area on a dry, flat walkway while you enjoy your surroundings.

1 – 2 Mile Section

As soon as the walkway get disinteresting, it ends. You’re now about a mile of the way into the hike and you start to begin your biggest climb. Don’t get nervous, it’s only 30 ft, but you do it in about one eighth of a mile. There’s nothing severe about this climb; I simply point it out because it’s the sharpest elevation change during the entire hike. During this section, you’re continuously pulled further away from the pond. The scenery, however, makes up for the lack of waterfront real estate and there are many side trails that I can only assume bring you back to the water if you want to explore.

2 – 4 Mile Section

The two mile mark finds you back on the waters edge and coming upon the northwest corner of the pond. At this point, you turn a corner where there are some older buildings – I was unable to identify them (however I barely tried) but they looked uninhabited – and the waterfront really opens up. This would be a great place to do some shore fishing, in fact I saw a few gents doing just that. It’s important to note that I also saw a police cruiser pull in between the houses and start down the trail I just came from. Parts of this trail look to be wide enough for a vehicle to pass and showed evidence of just that occurrence. I can only assume they are checking fishing licenses as this pond has a lot of fresh water fishing opportunities.

The two and one quarter mile point is roughly where two things occur: A) you begin hiking on the Greenbelt Trail for a while and you’ve officially hit the northern side of the pond. I stopped for lunch at this nice little beachy area right around this point for lunch. I had a great view of the pond, a beautiful place to sit and a quiet area to enjoy myself. After a quick refuel, I was back on the attack. Once I left my lunch spot, I slowly worked my way away from the pond again (it gets skinny and more or less marshland again) until the three and a half mile mark. At this point, the Greenbelt Trail turns towards the north and the Stump Pond Loop Trail loops back around to the eastern side of the pond.

Final Section

This part of the trail was my favorite. What I found very interesting about the remaining one and three quarters mile of hiking is that there were essentially two trails that run side-by-side. There is the original trail, a single track trail that hugs the coastline and is marked with a blue blaze. There is also a wider double track, almost fire road, that runs parallel to the original trail. I can only assume the original blue blazed single track existed first and the double track was introduced later to allow for vehicle access (park rangers, mountain bikes, etc). Regardless, I tried to stay true to the trail and hiked the single track which snaked a lot more through the shoreline. It was a beautiful portion of the the hike with the sun directly overhead and the pond right at my finger tips. I passed by a few fisherman and, as I neared my starting point, I ran into many people with dogs (Blydenburgh is one of the few dog friendly parks on Long Island).

The hike finished where it started, roughly five and a quarter miles later.

Overall Impression

I performed the hike in just under two hours, including a fifteen minute lunch. The difficulty level was definitely on the easy level as there was very little elevation gain (400 ft total) and the paths were either firmly pressed dirt or more sandy areas – not atypical for Long Island. Overall, I enjoyed this hike very much. The pond was a beautiful addition to an already gorgeous day and I was more than happy to share the trail with all the people I saw.

I did have two major dislikes about this trail. There is equestrian use allowed in many parts of the trail. That means that you have to keep an eye out for big piles of horse dung as you’re walking. It’s not that big of a deal (really, it’s hard to miss), but it takes away from the beauty of nature in my opinion. As a side note, the sections that are heavily used by dog owners have some piles of dog dung that you have to avoid as well. These are much harder to spot and you should definitely keep your eyes open. The other complaint I had about this trail was that the blazes could be marked better. I don’t know if it is because it’s early in the year or what, but the blazes were blue and looked like they were fairly old. There was more than a few times where I walked a good distance hoping I didn’t have to backtrack. Fortunately, I guessed right on all accounts, but I would have like to see the trail marked better (it’s always been my belief that you should be able to stand at one blaze and see the next one).

Other than those two minor complaints, I really enjoyed this hike. I was also able to find a geocache – there are plenty on this hike, I just chose to grab one after the hike was over. I would definitely recommend this hike as a starter for those looking to get over the two mile and below hump – I was pleasantly tired after this hike, however I was pushing it pretty hard. This hike would be perfect for a family with small kids – probably in the 7+ age range. Pack a lunch, go at an easy pace and you’ll be just fine. There was nothing terribly challenging about it – just keep an eye out for the blue blazes. All that being said, I’ll probably spend a good amount of time exploring other parts of Long Island before I return…unless I want to grab a bunch of geocaches!