Dam Pond Trail is a 3.3 mile loop trail located near East Marion, New York. The trail is good for all skill levels and primarily used for walking, trail running, and birding.
5 stars for lovely. I believe the previous tick warnings, no doubt, but we walked it yesterday at dusk (first week of October) and did not encounter any ticks. Super pretty—especially around sunset. It opens up to gorgeous water view. I will only visit here in the fall/winter.
Wow, the previous reviewers weren’t kidding about the ticks. We ignored the guidance, as one referred to “pretty long grass”. We thought, oh, this guy must’ve gone off onto the side trails were the grass is knee high. We’ll be fine if we stick to the main trail, where the grass was MAX three inches tall. Well, we were VERY wrong. I’ve been hiking for about 30 years. In that time, I’ve noticed a single tick on me. In the first 15 minutes of this trail, I got at least six on me, most of which were tiny deer tick nymphs (exactly the type that bite and lodge and can transmit Lyme disease). Later, we found many crawling in my wife’s shoes. They are so small, they were super hard to find; there was also the biggest one I’ve ever seen which jumped onto me (about 1/2 inch long). We cut the hike short and when we got home DEETed and washed everything, including ourselves. This trail gets 4 stars for being quiet and atmospheric (we saw two whitetail deer and a bunny in just half an hour), but 0 for being a tick-infested hell-hole, so that’s 2 overall. If you’re coming here in late spring or early-mid summer, skip the trail and go elsewhere (or walk the quite beautiful and atmospheric abandoned paved road in the reserve), unless you want to experiment with tick-borne illnesses.