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Easy-peasy lollipop loop. No dogs allowed.
Hiking Trail Description
This beautiful, serene and contemplative nature walk has so much to recommend it: lovely quiet woods of mixed evergreen and deciduous trees, easy stream crossings over delightful footbridges, dozens of stone fences built by settlers, small quarries and exposed rock faces, as well as fine field of glacial erratics.
The trail is mostly very level and covered soft pine needles and moss, so almost anyone can walk here.
The 123-acre forest is managed by Woodstock Land Conservancy who were donated the land by Elaine Chaback. It’s called the Israel Wittman Sanctuary in honor of Chaback’s father.
Trailhead & Parking
The parking lot is quite small, with space for 5-6 cars at the most.
If it’s full, come back another time; don’t park on the road, which is a narrow dirt road with many active homes nearby.
Israel Wittman Sanctuary Hiking Trail
Walk past the information kiosk and pass through the stand of hemlock trees, following the yellow blazes. Although there are homes in the area, the sanctuary quickly feels remote and peaceful.
Warning! This sanctuary has a No Dogs policy.
The trail descends and passes through an open area with many stone fences, before re-entering mixed woods.
Two Footbridges
The trail descends through fairly open woods with a lot of white pine saplings and comes to the first of two delightful water crossings.
This is a really wonderful spot.
The trail continues…
…until you descend into a hollow where there’s a small lake, and a second footbridge passes over the gently burbling drainage.
It’s very peaceful here, too…
This is partridgeberry (Mitchella repens). According to Wikipedia: “American Indian women made a tea from the leaves and berries that was consumed during childbirth. The scarlet berries are edible but rather tasteless, with a faint flavour of wintergreen, resembling cranberries (to which they are not closely related).”
Loop A
Just after the second footbridge, the trail rises gently and you’ll see the sign for Loop A Trail.
You can choose either direction and end up back at this junction in half an hour or so.
This side of the loop is mostly riparian in nature, passing alongside a stream that flows north. Lots to see on either side of the trail. This very cool rock formation is on the left. On the right, down below, are mossy and swampy areas along the banks of the stream.
Not long after the rock cleavage, the trail turns to the left, passes through another stand of trees before turning left/north again and heading uphill a little.
Glacial Erratics
This side of the loop is very mellow. Soon, you’ll pass by a field of glacial “erratics” on the left — “erratics” because they’re composed of the same sedimentary stone as the sedimentary stone in the immediate area, so they are not true erratics.
But they were dropped by a glacier 13,000 years ago in this location and have been around a lot longer than the stone fences built by settlers 200 years ago.
There are some cliffs on the right side of the trail, nothing too dramatic.
The trail winds north, heading back down toward the start of the loop.
On the way out, enjoy these beautiful woods one more time.
I’ve been back to this sanctuary several times, it’s just so lovely. Here are two links so you can learn more…
- Daily Freeman article
- Woodstock Land Conservancy page
Similar Hiking Trails
This sanctuary is one of my favorite Catskills nature walks.
It’s short, kid-friendly and beautiful.
The parent mountain for this hike is Overlook.
If you do this hike, LMK how it went…
Trailhead Info for this Hike
Small lot. 5-6 cars tops. Important: if the lot is full, do not park on road, just come back another time.
Google Maps Location: 42.029147, -74.040656
The map below shows the exact topographic location of the trailhead
Cell Service
Pretty good throughout. (It’s close to Woodstock.) My network is Verizon. YMMV.
