The Trail Club is a private membership community founded in 1924. It is located on 1000 pristine acres of wooded lands a little more than one hour north of New York City. The sense of community is strong. While the members join together in a variety of activities, including tennis, sailing, horseback riding, hiking, trap shooting, or dining at the Clubhouse, the Trail Club provides a setting for fun and friendship. In the summer, the most important activity on any given day may involve nothing more than time spent on the beach. Since its inception, the Club has attracted a membership that is active and actively involved in creating an uncommon sense of camaraderie.
 
Although fully staffed, the non-profit Club is an organization preserved by the membership that has worked to support a legacy passed through many generations. The membership reserves a deep respect for the forebears who had the vision to create an isolated and protected setting with such close proximity to New York City.
 
A full-time maintenance staff provides the upkeep for a dozen community buildings and the maintenance and plowing of over three miles of private roads and drives. While membership has risen, fallen, and risen again, the Club’s philosophy of friends and families connecting with the natural beauty of The Trail Club remains unwavering. The Club is the strongest it has ever been with over 130 members and is in a secure financial position.
 
As members of The Trail Club, we are dedicated to enjoying the natural world and the stewardship of the natural areas and habitats that we have agreed to protect and preserve.

The Trail Club of Carmel, New York, occupies over a thousand acres of woodland and lake. Here neither man nor machine has left scars of exploitation. A thousand acres of sanctuary, where the fox, the squirrel, the rabbit, and the deer move unhindered and in perfect security. Along these trails and along these sheltered waters, the tumult of industry is forgotten. Here may be found respite from the endless struggle for supremacy or for gain. Here in the presence of nature's eloquent simplicity, the rigidities of life lose their meaning and informality of manner and dress come to represent an essential appropriateness. Here throughout the summers and the winters, members can relax in quiet and seclusion. Their companions will be men and women of their own preference; men and women who find in these contacts with elemental earth and sky strength for the body and inspiration for the soul.

The Trail Club is full of tradition and devotion to a way of life – the love of the outdoors. Its emblem itself tells a story. It was created by Club member and famous artist/illustrator Ernest Hamlin Baker who joined the Club in 1925. In seeking an emblem to symbolize an outdoor care-free life, it's based on symbols once left on trees to indicate good camping grounds.
 
To that figure was added a circle to represent our lake, Pine Pond, which was the magnet that comprises the Club grounds.
 
Finally, according to legend, the ancient nomad used a single bar to indicate "leave all cares behind."
 
So, when you put that all together, you have our Club emblem:
1. Good camping (diagonal lines)
2. The lake (the circle)
3. Leave care behind (the underscore)