A Mike Who Likes to Hike

Stillwell Woods Preserve

Location: Woodbury, NY

Size: 270 acres

Date of hike: Feb. 18, 2017

Stillwell Woods Preserve features a gorgeous grassland surrounded by a small woodland with trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. I've wanted to visit the preserve since I passed through it last year while hiking the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail, a 20-mile path that goes north (or south to north) between the Massapequa Preserve and Cold Spring Harbor State Park. It took me a while to get back to Stillwell, but I finally made it on a day after a slight snowfall. As expected, the white stuff left the trails empty. Just how I like it.

Before exploring, I learned more about the history and habitats of Stillwell Woods Preserve. "Stillwell Woods offers a blend of old field and oak barren communities, the latter of which includes plants and animals that are more typical of habitats farther east on Long Island," said Nassau County's website. Most of the other results were mountain biking websites, with one person even saying the mountain bike trails are "the highlight of Stillwell Woods." Apparently, the preserve has four trails for mountain bikers, which we'll get to in a little bit, and two trails for hiking only (although hikers are allowed on all trails). The two hiking trails are a portion of the aforementioned Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail and the Sierra Club Loop, which is 3.1 miles long. "The Sierra Club Loop is a yellow blazed trail with mileage markers every .1 mile and starts and ends at the gate to the parking lot," a sign said. "The Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail is a white-blazed trail that runs north to south through the preserve and overlaps with the Sierra Club Loop for about 1.5 miles." Lastly, no dogs are allowed.

The entrance is on the east side of South Woods Road, just north of Syosset High School. The trails begin at the back of the parking lot adjacent to the ballfield furthest from the road. One of the first things you'll see is a map of the bike trails and a big sign with a list of rules, including "always wear a helmet" and "yield to hikers/horses." "If you can't follow the rules, ride someplace else!!!" the sign ended. The four mountain bike trails, which are maintained by Concerned Long Island Mountain Bicyclists (CLIMB), have a one-way clockwise system that consist of the 1.7-mile green (easy) loop, the 4.2-mile blue (more difficult) loop, and the 4.4-mile black (most difficult) and 1.2-mile red (most difficult) trails. "The terrain is basically hard-packed dirt with small stretches of sand and cobbles especially in the ravine bottoms," said a biker's review on MTBProject.com. "There are also harmful-to-tires sapling stumps."

The preserve's biggest highlight for me was the open field, where I saw a man cross-country skiing and a family flying a remote-controlled aircraft. I also enjoyed the twists and turns on the bike trails, which at times felt like a wilderness roller coaster. "There are a good number of downhills and uphills that are certainly rugged," a man commented on HikingProject.com. "The downhills and uphills mainly consist of going into and out of ravines." Speaking of the land's makeup, it also boasts a grassland community with several rare plants and insects, as well as birds including red-tailed hawks, according a sign. "In the absence of wildfires, mowing is now an important ecological method for managing grasslands," the sign said.

My music of choice was The Neal Morse Band's two-disc progressive rock concept album, The Similitude of a Dream. It's loosely based upon John Bunyan's 1678 Christian allegory, "The Pilgrim’s Progress," which is considered one of the most important works of religious English literature. Drummer Mike Portnoy said the release is "THE ALBUM" of his career, which is quite a statement considering he played on Dream Theater's Images and Words. While it's too early to say if Portnoy's right, I did truly enjoy the album from start to finish.

All in all, I'd recommend checking out Stillwell Woods Preserve if you're looking to crank out some miles by foot, pedal or steed. There are so many trails available that you can literally visit the preserve several times and still see new spots. Just remember the land is shared with bikers, so make sure to keep your head on a swivel. Or, as I call it, a Stillwell swivel.

(Updated: Sept, 7, 2020)