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Run The Planet July 2005 Site of the Month

The Leatherstocking Trail

This has become one of my favorite trails. It is well-marked and runs from New Rochelle to Mamaroneck. But it is also tougher than it looks. There are a number of short ups-and-downs plus a fair amount of dodging rocks, mixed in with some nice smooth stretches. I find going up and back is always a good, hard run. Leatherstocking is part of the Colonial Greenway, a 13+ mile loop (with only a slight amount of paved-road-running around New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Scarsdale, Eastchester, and New Rochelle). The map on the right is courtesy of Guillermo Gutierrez, of SSRMC, who ran the Colonial Greenway with a GPS monitor and plotted in on a preliminary County map. The Trail begins just above the yellow box and heads north-east.

• Distance (out-and-back): 5+ miles.
• Type: Out-and-back.
• Surface: Fairly narrow; a mix of smooth and brief rockiness.

Google.Map w/ S.W. connection

• Hilliness: Slight.
• In Mamaroneck, boardwalks have been placed over low-lying areas.
• Trail is well marked with white vertical rectangles on trees. While there are forks, even a wrong turn will not get you far off course.
• Much of the trail is within eye-shot of homes so you’re not as isolated as you might think.
• Some road crossings, including several busy ones.
• This is part of the Colonial Greenway; connects to Saxon Woods, as I describe here.
• Bikes are not allowed.

Entering from Pinebrook, and from Old White Plains Road, Mamaroneck.

Sun., March 26: Trail is in very nice condition. There is one low tree about a quarter-mile in from Pinebrook, but it is easily cleared.

Mon., December 26, Boxing Day: Blogger Becky writes: “Most of it was wet but not too slippery, but then we got on the southernmost part of it and it was like running through a muddy river in parts. I was just glad my shoes didn’t get stuck and fall off!”

Jan. 14 update: One can connect from here to Saxon Woods. You continue across Old White Plains Road, a bit to the right to a less obvious trail opening. This is a narrow up and then down trail. You turn left on the street and follow it to your left until it gets back to Old White Plains Road. Turn right. After passing three houses, there are woods on the right. The trail opening is marked by blue ribbons. After you enter, go right and then left, and you’re on the trail. The Old White Plains Road stretch will be protected eventually by a sidewalk, as part of the Colonial Greenway.

Aug. 11 update: I’m still out of commission, but I stumbled upon a diary description of the trail from a first-timer. Becky, the diarist, has a blog worth a visit. (And I added a Google.Map API.)

This gives a sense of the width of the trail, although it gets wider at times.

This trail is largely described by Eric Turkewitz. These are my personal observations. The trail itself is the green strip between Pinebrook Boulevard and Fenimore Road on this map. (If you hit the satellite button, you’ll see that this is one of those areas where they don’t have pictures.) You hit Saxon Woods just at the ramp from Mamaroneck Avenue to I-95 South.

This is the most schizoid trails I’ve ever run on, and I regret not having visited it early. There are brief stretches of many rocks and then smooth stretches with wood chips. On the whole, a very nice trail. There are a few road crossings, including some big roads.

Larchmont Reservoir

Eric T. points out that in addition to the main trail, at the end nearest Pinebrook, there is an off-shoot that goes to the Larchmont Reservoir. (It’s actually a former reservoir, now Sheldrake Lake, and Goodlife Pond, the 2 lakes here.) I ran it on May 5. Unfortunately, you must run about 1/4 of a mile on roads to make the connection.

About 1 mile in on the Leatherstocking, from Pinebrook, there’s a path that goes off to the left, down to a short boardwalk. This is the first split in the Leatherstocking. You take it to the end of the block (Addee Circle) and turn right at the end of the block (Bonnie Way) and then a left on Weaver Street. (There’s no place to run on the road, but a wide grass strip on the left side, and you quickly see a boardwalk bridge, which you take to enter the Reservoir.

The LR itself is pretty raw in spots, with rocks and tree roots. It can be narrow as well. But it also has wider, smoother sections. I couldn’t get around the bigger of the lakes (Sheldrake) (nor does the Audubon Society map suggest I can), so I had to double back, but did get around Goodlife. On the whole, a nice diversion. The LR ultimately will be part of a connection to the trails along the Hutch, largely to avoid Pinebrook itself, for the Colonial Greenway. This Audubon Society map shows the trail, but its orientation is Pinebrook to the top.

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Getting There

Public

You can get to the Leatherstocking Trail via MetroNorth. The best way is from the Mamaroneck Station. It’s .5 miles and while it sounds complicated, it’s not; here’s a map. Here are Metro-North Map (New Haven line in Red) and Metro-North Schedule (28 minutes from 125th Street and 38 from Grand Central Terminal). From the back of the train (northbound), head south and go under the bridge by which the tracks cross Mamaroneck Avenue. Get to the left side of Mamaroneck Avenue. Mamaroneck Avenue will shortly curve to the right. Take the fork that has you going straight, which is Old White Plains Road. You pass a number of stores and cross over I-95 and the road goes up. The Leatherstocking Trail heading south begins shortly after you cross I-95; it’s on the left of the picture on the left (across from the deer sign).

Eric T. reports that you can also get to Saxon Woods. As this map shows, before you get to the Leatherstocking entrance (which is on the left), there is a less obvious trail opening on the right, just about right where the picture was taken. This is a narrow up and then down trail. You turn left on the street and follow it to your left until it gets to Old White Plains Road. You make a right there and after about 500 feet, you hit the trail entrance, on the right side of the road.

Not a Bad Day Trip

You can make it a day-trip from the City, having, say, a picnic on the park on Long Island sound. I should also note that Mamaroneck is one of the few communities in which there is a town close to the trail, so you could do the same thing by driving and parking in the town. (There is parking at the marina, but I don’t know what the parking rules are there.)

The stop before Mamaroneck is Larchmont. It’s a little bit farther to the trail than for Mamaroneck and you end up hitting it in the middle. But you get there by crossing the tracks on Chatsworth (at the rear of the train; the station is where it says “Conrail”) and taking the right on Myrtle and the quick left on Murray Avenue, and picking up the trail right after Murray intersects with Weaver Street. There are signs for it. Larchmont has a very nice group of stores and restaurants by the train station as well as a beautiful park on the Sound. It is around here that you also have one of the nicest 5K courses on which I’ve raced. In 2005 the race was on Memorial Day.

By Car

To get onto the Trail from Pinebrook Boulevard, you park on Hillside Crescent. Be aware, the map makes it appear that Hillside connects to Broadview. It does not. Hillside is a dead-end from Pinebrook. In fact, one of the secrets of the Colonial Greenway was that there is a public right-of-way across what appears to be someone’s yard, which is how Broadview connects to Hillside. Since this site went up and as part of the Colonial Greenway effort, the right-of-way is no longer so secret. In fact, the picture to the right shows its condition on March 18. The picture is from Hillside Crescent. Also, the map shows a gap between Pinebrook and the green of the trail. The Trail begins right at Pinebrook (there’s a sign). There are a number of smaller streets that the Trail passes or crosses, and you may be able to park on them. But there is no place on any of the other major streets, such as Old White Plains Road, Fenimore, or Weaver. Hillside is good for entering at a natural trailhead, as opposed to joining the Trail in progress. Here, Pinebrook is the vertical street to the left, and the Trail is the area going up and to the right. There are a number of smaller streets that the Trail passes or crosses, and you may be able to park on them. But there is no place on any of the other major streets, such as Old White Plains Road, Fenimore, or Weaver.

From Mamaroneck: You cannot park on Old White Plains Road, but you can on Highview Street. You take a left to get to the trailhead, which you can see in the picture above.

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Last edited on ... March 26, 2006