HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 23, 2002 - Hitting the Corchaug trailMay 23, 2002 • The Suffolk Times
Hi* ttin
FORT UORCHAUG LIES ABOUT a
mile west of Cutchogue Village and
offers one of the nicest trails around
here for hiking. It starts at the main
parking lot right of Route 25 and
extends southward for probably a
good three - quarters to a mile, with
side trails wandering down into the
wetlands and into the mature forest
to the south.
When we walked it the other day,
we had beautiful weather: not a cloud
in the sky. We tucked our pants' legs
into our socks and sprayed them with
tick spray to keep any stray ticks from
being a bother. They'd be unlikely as
the trail is plenty wide and has been
kept up very well. We saw no ticks on
our two -hour walk.
The tree that dominates the park-
ing area where
the walk starts is
FOCUS a huge sycamore
ON or, as some
know it, a but -
NATURE tonwood tree,
by Paul probably planted
StoutenbuMh by the Downs
family who origi-
nally farmed this,
area. Back in the early '50s, Barbara
and I can remember this as a working
farm, for we used'to stop in and buy
asparagus this time of year. You could
watch them bundle it up with a spe-
cial gadget that grasped the stalks in a
bunch, allowing a string to be tied
around it; then as it was held there,
the bottoms could be cut off evenly.
Since those early days, the house and
farm have fallen to decay. Traces of
the old barn and buildings can still be
seen at the beginning of the trail.
Times /Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
Great crested flycatchers nest in cavities of one sort or another in the woods.
Here they have chosen an open -front birdhouse to raise their young. As you
can see, the young are eagerly awaiting the juicy morsel held by the adult.
I ne first tnmg you notice at this
time of hear as you walk into the trail
is the abundance of that alien plant,
garlic mustard, a native of Europe. It
is a true invader of open space and
one which should be cut out. It takes
over and shades out any natural
growth. We have many kinds of
invaders like this, some alien, some
alien invader multiflora rose will soot
take over, which we saw in great pro-
fusion along the trail.
The predominant tree, as we start-
ed our walk, was the black locust,
which is an interesting wood in the
sense that it was used by our earlier
farmers for fence posts and post for
buildings to be set upon. It is a very
hard wood and one that resists decay