Muttontown Horsemen's Association

You've ridden the Preserve and would like to see a few new trails and maybe take a jump or two. Your horse is obedient and NOT AFRAID of TRAFFIC or GOLF CARTS. Here are directions for a ride to SUNY campus at Old Westbury. Incidentally, the SUNY trails are maintained courtesy of the Smithtown Hunt for use in their paces and drag hunts.

These are very basic directions and I am hoping you have a general idea of the roads in the area. When you are in the Preserve parking lot, with Rt 106 behind you, the rings to your right and you are looking towards the woods, Rt 106 is south of you, Muttontown Road is to your west, Brookville Road is further west and Route 107, a busy two lane road, is the furthermost west. The directions start from the parking lot and are vague left or right turns. Good Luck!

Leave the parking lot on the narrow sandy trail to the far front and left corner of the parking lot. This will take you through woods on a well-defined path. Ignore any trails off this path. When there are no leaves on the trees, you will see the old estate gates off to your left and the cyclone black fencing bordering the preserve as you near Muttontown Road. At this point, the path takes a gradual bend to your right and you will be closer to the black cyclone fence on your left. At times the path strays from the fence. Eventually you will reach an opening in the fence on your left. You will see Muttontown Road here. Cross over the road and enter the wide opening in the fence directly across. Now you are entering the Christie Estate side of the preserve.

As you enter the fence opening, the trail takes a quick bend to the left to avoid an older rutted trail. You will emerge in a grass field (small) with the mounted rangers station and some paddocks off to your right. Stay to the left in the field, near the vegetation. When you reach the end of the grass, bear left and follow a rocky wide trail downwards past an old shed on your left. Stay on this car-wide path for some distance. The trail has some ruts and some puddle areas. Ignore all the paths off this main path.

This trail ends in a T-intersection. On your left are large rhododendron bushes around what used to be a pond. Take the sandy trail to your left and stay near the bushes. This wide path takes you past the end of the pond area (on your left) and arrives at Christie's Field. (Not mowed much anymore, so no longer a field.) Make a right turn and the trail heads gradually uphill. You will have bushes on your right and the "field" on your left.

When you reach the top of the "field", you will see a slope (ahead and to your right) going down (quite rutted) and pine trees to your far left. Go down the slope and follow the deep sand path to the very end. As you descend there is high grass, a fence and a private drive off to your right. The path bends to your left. (You may notice a gate opening to your right. This is the Pirtle gate. DO NOT EXIT). The left path you are now on is narrow and has fallen log jumps (go-arounds, poison ivy and low vegetation). If you can see it, the Preserve fence is off to your right. After a bit, a main trail will enter from your left (pass it by) and quickly after, your path bends to your right and presents downward trails. Descend. Next follow the path bearing to your right. This path exits through a gate in the Preserve fence by a tree onto Brookville Road. The gate opening is quite narrow and there is no shoulder as you exit the Preserve. Be careful crossing the road.

As you cross Brookville Road, head to your left and enter Victorian Lane. (The road sign is missing now but there is a stop sign, a fire-hydrant and a house under construction on the corner.) Ride down Victorian Lane. After the mailbox numbered #25, you will see a concrete drainage curb opening on the left side of the road and some trails entering the woods there. Enter the trail and be very careful about staying on the muddy path. DO NOT GO ON HOMEOWNERS PROPERTY ON YOUR RIGHT. The muddy trail starts uphill and as the home owner's lot ends, the trail offers a choice of straight or to the right. Take the right hand trail. You are now on the BOCES property.

BOCES has an outside training location set up here. They have wood walls, teeter-totters, high wires in the trees and campfire areas. You need to stay on horse trails. The path you are on is quite well established. It is narrow and depressed. For awhile, you will have a short cyclone fence on your right and the trail will turn gradually to your left. You are in a wooded area. There are several paths, not well-defined, off to your right, heading into the trees as you ride along. IGNORE THESE. There are also paths off to your left going into BOCES area. DO NOT FOLLOW. After a bit, if it is winter, you will be able to see the Tam O'Shanter golf course through the trees on your right. In general, you need to stay on a horse path, keep the golf course to your right and push forward. If you stray to your left, you will stay in the BOCES area or end up in Old Mill Farms.

If you have headed in the correct direction, you will arrive under some old, tall, imposing leafy trees and will see a low cyclone fence directly ahead. The golf course will be on your right. At the fence, turn to your right and walk towards the golf greens. Turn left onto a wide path. You will have the greens on your right and the low fence on your left. (There are dogs in the yards). You are allowed to ride on the lane on the golf course. Ride quietly and slowly. The lane turns to the right behind a raised green and meets with another golf course path at a landscaped raised flower bed. Turn to your left and exit the golf course by a small boulder onto Fire Lane 3.

Fire Lane 3 is a wide drive with a cul-de-sac behind you and houses on the left and the golf course on your right. Turn right onto Fire Lane 3. Follow the drive to Route 107. Fire Lane 3 is quite wide at 107 and has a wooded area on your right and mailboxes on your left. Across 107 and to your left, you will see a stockade fence with a small opening. This is where you wish to go. Traffic can be quite miserable here and a long wait may be necessary to cross over safely.

After safely crossing 107, enter the opening in the stockade fence and keep the fence line along your left. The path is well-defined here, bends right and follows the edge of private drive. You will go past a sump and a few houses. One house empties their pool water onto the trail, so it may be necessary to walk on the asphalt drive. Soon you will see the old Nike site behind chained fences to your right and a steepish, sandy trail heading straight up in front of you to your right. Follow this trail. It turns to your left into woods and follows a fence line bordering homes on your right and an old estate grounds (recently sold) on your left. Watch out along here as a sub-division is beginning. MHA and OWHF are working with the town of Brookville and the developer to keep the existing trail alive.

At this point, there is very little chance of losing the trail. This is a fairly long stretch. Watch for turns due to fallen trees and rutted areas. There is a go-around at all locations or enough space to make your own. The trail finally bends to your left, now with homes uphill on your right. After the left turn, the trail ends shortly up an incline by a telephone pole on the Power Line on SUNY Old Westbury campus.

For a quick ride through the campus, turn left onto the Power Line, going slightly downhill and ride towards the campus roadway. At the end of the path, ignore the left path and bend to your right. Cross over the first one-way road and enter the trail in the woods. Shortly you will cross the next one-way road. Keep the white road markings to your right and angle towards the left as you approach the woods. Enter the woods on a path between two saplings, The path is leaf covered, becomes quite narrow, rooty and deepish, and turns to your left.

The path opens up a bit and becomes wider and sandy. After a tree limb on the floor, the trail bends left. Ignore the trail openings on your right. Currently there is a low log on the trail. Ignore another trail opening on your right. There is another low jump and a left trail opening after it. Ignore this also. After a bit, there will be an intersection with a left trail, right trail crossing. Stay straight. You should see a campus road ahead and a concrete drainage marker.

Cross this road by the concrete drainage marker, directly across onto another path in the woods. Make a right turn and follow a messy trail. The trail turns left and you have to navigate over some downed tree limbs. Continue straight past an intersection of trails, then go around a downed tree. Make a right on the next path and then take the right fork and go up an incline to another campus road.

The next trail is directly across the road. Ignore the old right hand trail and enter into the woods heading towards an old jump. Continue straight ahead. (Do not take right turn). Your path leads you to a wide trail with jumps. Head straight and to your left (do not turn right) and you will pass a brush jump. Stay on this trail, which will dump you out onto a grassy area with large wood jumps to your right and a campus road to your left. Head on past the jumps (ignore several paths to your right and one to your left) and you will see a trail into the woods straight ahead at the end of the grassy area.

Follow this path through the woods (you will see first jump as you approach) and past two other jumps. Take a right turn (if you miss the turn you will see a coop jump) and you arrive at the President's Field. Make a right turn into the field and travel towards a row of coop jumps with the shrubbery barrier on your right. As you continue you will past the SUNY President's house to your right behind a stone wall and a white outbuilding. If you venture more into the field, watch out for man-hole covers in the grass!

The field has a gradual uphill rise. You will see a high brick wall to your right, and barns in front of you. You will arrive at an old post and rail fence bordering another campus road. There is an opening in the fence. Cross through and go down a steep incline and cross the road. Turn right. You are now riding next to the fencing of the old Ambrose Clark Stables. Follow the fencing, which makes a left turn. After this turn, you and the road makes an immediate right. Stay on the shoulder of the campus road and ride to the stop sign.

At the stop sign, cross the road, angling right towards a street lamp pole. (On the away side the pole is marked #DO5). Go up a brief incline and enter the woods. Head past two jumps (ignore the trail to your right), stay to your left at the fork, go past a very tall tree stump and the fallen trunk parts and then head left around a still leafy fallen tree. You will then pass an intersection with a trail to both your right and left, continue straight. Ignore several faint trails off to your right. Basically, you want to stay on the ridge and not descend either to your right or left. Eventually, on your left you will see a one foot cube of concrete with lots of electrical capped wires. You will see a few more of these concrete blocks without the wires. You will see an intersection of several trails. Take the sharp right trail, so sharp it almost goes backwards briefly.

This trail is narrow and heads down hill. As you go down, you will see stone wall sections in the distance off to your right and on your left. The trail widens, and shortly after reaching a stone wall section on you right, turns to the left and becomes a raised path. Ignore the trails to your right and left. These are paths that use your trail as a bank jump. You will stay on the main path which becomes less clear (ignore a right hand trail). Go past a log, another section of rock wall on your left, go past a trail on your left going up hill which is an old walkway with railroad tie steps, through sticker bushes and the trail then becomes wide and sandy.

Turn right at the large tree past the sand area. Head on this trail and look ahead towards the trail section that goes up hill in a ravine. Ignore any right or left hand paths. You will now have the dorm buildings on your left. As you reach the top, you will see a double trunk tree, Take the path to the left and head towards the dorms. The trail curves over old jumps and, as the dorm buildings end, the trail comes to a steep decline. The right hand trail seems to be the easiest. At the bottom of the hill, there is a step down. At this point the clearer trail goes to your right. YOU NOW MAKE YOUR OWN PATH TO THE LEFT, HEADING TOWARDS THE ROAD. You will shortly see an old path that faintly leads towards the road.

You will arrive at a campus divided four road by a lamp post (B101). Directly across, on the center divider, you will see a fire hydrant. Cross over to the right of the fire hydrant. Now cross the next section of road, angling right, to lamp post B94. Enter the woods on the wide path. After a few feet, you will intersect with the Power Line. Turn right. (To your left, the Power Line goes steeply uphill.) At the next telephone pole, the Power Line trail turns left. As you reach the next telephone pole you go down a steepish slope. The next telephone pole (which is now on your left) has a trail marker and some ribbons. This is the entrance to the trail over to Route 107 that you rode out on.

Turn left onto the trail and retrace your way home.

I strolled this on foot and it took four hours. I did stop a bit to pick up debris and to write notes.