Hike #903; Penn Station to Bronx

 Hike #903; Holiday NY City: Penn Station to Bronx

12/20/15 Holiday NYC; Penn Station to High Bridge/Bronx with Gregg Hudis, Joe Tag, Michele Valerio, Steve Sanbeg, Shelly Janes, Jack Lowry, Serious Sean Dougherty, Cory Salvesen, Linda Whiteford, Lerch (Kralc Leahcim), Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco, Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Ana Sanchez, Dan ?, Sarah Jones, Bobbi Landrock, Mark Norman, Kathryn Cataldo, Sean Congdon, Jas Kumpikevicius, Amanda Murphy, Justin Gurbisz, Kenneth Lidman, Alyssa Lidman, Varsha Sarabudla, Michael Jay, Brandan Jermyn, ?, Jimmy “Mr. Buckett” Mathews, Eric Pace, Krisanne Pederson, Julie Bottini, Jason Itell, Megan Reid, Susan L Duncan, Rob Rivera, Ted Wright, Dominic Dabrowski, Grant Tamutus, Dylan Jagiello, Carla ?, Sy P. Deunom, Walt ?, Jimmy Graham, Len Adam, Brian Driscoll, Dan Asnis, John Pershouse, Corrin Dylnicki, and Amanda Kaye (apologies for names I missed).

The group in NY Penn Station

Our next hike would be the annual Holiday NY City Hike. This has become quite a tradition year after year, and this would be the tenth holiday season in a row I’d run this event.
Admittedly, Christmas is a strange time for me. It’s a very difficult time.
When I was younger, Christmas was always of course the most highly anticipated holiday. My brothers and I would surely have tons of gifts and new things to do that would last us for months if not years. This of course diminishes into adulthood, but I kept it alive as best I could.
I used to love giving gifts. When I lived at home, I could afford to buy something for everyone, and I loved putting time and thought into things everyone would enjoy. However, as time went by, money got tighter and I could barely afford to pay my own bills.
Furthermore, there is always a stress of shopping, trying to find the right gift for the right person, making the time to look for them. It all became a hassle.
I enjoyed Christmas until about 2000. I had gotten together with my ex girlfriend Cathy, and because of her age difference I couldn’t bring her home at first. As time went by, everyone warmed up to her, especially my grandmother. When my grandmother passed away in 2002, it hit both of us really hard.
Even before that time, we had agreed to spend Christmas with my family every other year, alternating with hers. I hated going west. Even when I had no money for gifts for my family, we HAD to buy them for hers because “They wouldn’t understand”, she said. I also used to hand draw and paint my Christmas cards every year, then reproduce them at Staples to be sent. Each would have a blank spot where I could personalize it with a message, and after I would personalize the original for Cathy. Then I found my originals in the trash can one year, and another she ruined the water colors on it by using it as a pepsi can coaster. Because it wasn’t of value to her, I never drew my own Christmas cards again.
I broke up with Cathy at Christmas time, 2008, and more negative memories just followed for me that time every year. I had already given up on it altogether by that time.

NY NY

Still, it wasn’t altogether dead for me. I celebrate Christmas in my own way with a few different traditions that have remained very positive.
One is the annual hike where we visit my grandfather’s house, gathering there for lunch or during during or after the hike. It’s been a tradition to visit him with the group every year for the past decade, and it’s always a really nice time. It’s important to me for everyone to have a connection to the man who instilled my love of history and ecology while they can. My grandfather, Eldon Allen, is one of the greatest men that ever lived, and he’s well loved by everyone who’s met him.
Another event that’s always really great is my dear friend Jack’s Strikesound party, at his warehouse in Linden. I’m honored year after year to be invited to this special fun filled night of singing and carrying on. It’s an open door to someone’s personal reality outside of the hiking group, the kind of joyful sharing the holiday is really supposed to be about.
The biggest one is of course the Holiday NY City hike.
In my opinion, there is nowhere on Earth more full of Christmas spirit than New York City. The lights and the action, music and sounds everywhere make it feel like we’re in the middle of a holiday party at all times. There is no obligatory anything; no necessary exchange of gifts, no “secret santa”, no taking home and re-gifting, no guilt, nothing but real Christmas joy. Jack traditionally shows up in his santa suit and hat playing Christmas carols and more, and we all sing “Feliz Navidad” more times than some can stand.
Everyone who wants to spend Christmas with me can join in on this, and guarantee good feelings.

Macy's Display

I got up early as to be sure to be on time, and headed to the Short Hills train station. There, I met up with Mr. Buckett and Eric. I was surprised more didn’t want to come that same way. I think Shelly and Bobbie did late.
We took the trian in, and on the same train were many of our cohorts, though we didn’t know it yet. Many were still taking the train from Summit, which I feel has limited parking, and for just a little bit further drive Short Hills is much easier, and a bit cheaper.
I saw Ken and Alyssa while on the train, and others when we got off in Penn Station. Uncle Soup ended up walking up the stairs to the main station area right next to me.
We gathered at the big tree like we always do, and as soon as I arrived many were already there. It’s always great because I see so many faces I don’t see week after week. This is one of those hikes that tons of people come out for.
We always take a while to get started on this one. People are always running late, a train or two might be late, or others taking a bus would have to make their way to this point. We eventually got moving, out of the station to hiked north on Sixth Avenue. Joe helped lead the way through here, because I just don’t know the city all that well.

Joe helped guide the way through Manhattan

We started by walking by the Macy’s Display. This is somewhat of a tradition, as we walk by this often. They are of course well known for Christmas decor because of their being featured in the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”, just another NYC holiday connotation. This year’s display was Peanuts. It’s another classic holiday movie, but the song from that special kind of annoys me more than most any Christmas song! It was playing audibly out on the street. They had a section with piano keys, and a keyboard to the outside that could be played. There was a line there, but I didn’t feel like waiting on it to mess around. We continued north on 6th.
We actually walked by one of Joe’s former offices from when he worked in Manhattan. The plan was originally to walk over toward Rockafeller Center and the big tree, but the crowds were just too huge even on the connecting street, so we said “F That” and continued north toward Central Park where we could regroup.

Radio City Music Hall

We passed Radio City Music Hall on the way, and Joe also pointed out the Carnegie Hall down the street when we came to that. When we got to Central Park, my plan this year was to sort of head up the center to west side of it, because in the past we had gone both on the east and west sides, so we could explore a bit more of the middle this time.

Central Park..."The Pond"

There were some nice benches in an open area where everyone could see to catch up with us. Several others found their way to us having either run late at Penn Station or taken the bus. We used this opportunity to stop and sing a song.
It’s crazy to see such a big group following up a street the way we were doing. At every light, people constantly are J Walking, but others wait, and others are stuck behind. It’s not uncommon for part of the group to be several blocks behind because of the size of the group and walking practically single file at times.

Buggies

There were horse and buggies going by on regular rotation here, and people going around soliciting rides to us. There were guys trying to sell us overpriced maps of Central Park, which is amazing with smart phones these days having everything right there.
When everyone caught up, we headed up to a hill just to the northwest with a lovely little cedar pavilion. Some of our newest members from Summer 2015, Grant and Dylan brought along their contagious energy, as they ran up onto a rock outcrop and rejoined the group from the east. Dylan carried this crazy sixty pound bag that he brought with him on his first hike with us. They also recruited several more newcomers to the group for this one.
We headed north through the park, and made our way to the west side, to theDakota building where John Lennon lived.

It was at this site on December 8th, 1980 that John Lennon was murdered, 35 years ago. We had already visited his memorial, Strawberry Fields near the Dakota on a previous hike, but since it was 35 years ago, it seemed appropriate to go back again. We passed the Dakota, which had some construction going on, then headed into the park a bit. I didn’t want to stop the whole group right within close view of the Dakota to point out to the large group that it was where he was shot. It never seems appropriate to memorialize someone where they died. We soon moved everyone over to Strawberry Fields, with the Imagine circle on the ground and had a group photo there. Jack and I sang “Across The Universe” there, which is my favorite of his songs he did with The Beatles. A guy on a bench had been singing and playing as we were going by. He didn’t know “Across The Universe”, but he played “Imagine” as we were heading out. We made our way north through the middle of the park from here.

The group at Strawberry Fields

We headed somewhat northeast, and other trails criss crossed in all directions. We walked over some of the bedrock outcroppings of Schist which sparkled in the sunlight.

Imagine

Our next point of interest was “The Lake”. The generically named body of water had some nice little trails going off along the side of it, but we stayed on the more prominent one because too many people were strolling at a snail’s pace over the rocks.
We continued south with some very lovely views over the Lake, and then crossed a foot bridge named “Oak Bridge” over a finger of water. The trail then made it’s way to a narrower route, with foot paths again branching off, and the main one passing through a lovely little masonry tunnel. Someone in the group told us that this part of the park was known as “The Ramble”.

View at "The Lake"

I had never been in this section before, but I knew I wanted to come back and do some more of it. I thought it was beautiful. We continued on the footpaths beyond the tunnel heading north to cross the 79th Street Traverse.

Culvert in The Ramble

From this point, we continued north toward the “Turtle Pond”, another popular body of water. On the south side of this water body sits Belvedere Castle, which I had been to before, but had never gone up to the top. The place wasn’t too overcrowded, so this time was the perfect opportunity to check it out.

Turtle Pond and The Great Lawn

There was an open deck area which provided some views itself, but we went inside to check out more. There was a guy there looking for donations, and a box. I only had a couple of dollars in cash on me, and it had a “suggested” amount, though I don’t recall what it was.
We headed to the top, on a spiral staircase leading to first a platform, then up to the tower area, but not quite into the tower. There were great views of Turtle Pond from here, as well as the bleachers for a theater area and the rest of the city.
Belvedere Castle (which basically means “Great View”) is a decorative Gothic/Romanesque castle built in 1869 to overlook the original Croton Reservoir from the second highest point in Central Park, a Schist outcropping.

Turtle Pond view at Belvedere

“The Great Lawn” was originally the Croton Reservoir constructed in 1842 to hold the waters of the Old Croton Aqueduct. It was no longer necessary with the construction of the New Croton Reservoir, now Onassis Reservoir.

Historic photo from same location, with Old Croton Reservoir

The site barely looks like what it would have looked like when the reservoir was still there. It was considered to be “ugly” and not in line with the natural landscape Central Park was intended to be, and was therefore demolished. Some of the original edge walls of the old reservoir can still be seen along the edge of The Great Lawn. The lawn area was completed in 1934, and the drainage went to present day Turtle Pond.

Belvedere Castle

We took some time at the castle, and much of the group went up and back before we all continued onward. We headed down steps and headed to where there would be restrooms, then continued out to The Great Lawn. There was a pedestrian path along the west side, and I stopped everyone when we reached the north side to tell them the history of the Old Croton Aqueduct, and the old and new reservoirs from a point where both could be clearly seen.

Singing along at Onassis Reservoir

We crossed the 85th Street Traverse, then continued along the east side of Onassis Reservoir.
The reservoir was constructed between 1858 and 1862 to carry Croton Aqueduct waters to the city, but it was officially decommissioned in 1993 because it was deemed obsolete, and it might be a contamination risk. It was redubbed Onassis Reservoir the following year after the former first lady who made generous contributions to the city, and because she loved jogging there. It could be seen from her Fifth Avenue apartment.

View over Onassis Reservoir

We made our way around the reservoir with some more singing, and then headed through the center of the park north toward Harlem Meer.
More than half the group for some reason left me at this point and headed over toward some ice skating rink or something. I don’t know what happened, but hardly anyone followed me to the north side of Harlem Meer where there were restrooms I planned to stop at.
I don’t recall where Dominic met up with us, but I was elated to see that he was wearing the Burger King crown he had gotten from Dan Asnis on his previous hike.

Harlem Meer

Everyone pretty much missed the restroom stop because I tired of waiting for everyone, and we had to get moving. We made our way along the north side of the park when I had everyone back together, and someone pointed out the second oldest structure in all of Central Park on the hillside to the south (the oldest that was original to the park), Block House #1. Built in 1814, and possibly part of an earlier structure, it was one of several fortifications in northern Manhattan and Harlem Heights (Now Morningside), and is the only one remaining of these structures. When Central Park was designed, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux decided to leave it as a “romantic ruin”, covered in vines and such. The only older structure was the ancient Egyptian obelisk known as “Cleopatra’s Needle”, moved to NY from Egypt.

Street Minstrels

When we reached the circle on the northwest side of Central Park, I could hear electric guitar reverberating off of the buildings, but could not see it’s source at first.
It was none other than Serious Sean, an amp attached to his backpack, carrying his electric guitar! He had figured out how to fix the distortion he had on the Musikfest hike in the Summer, and how had an awesome sounding piece with him! From here on, he and Jack made really cool music, Jack’s acoustic riffs complimented by Sean’s lead guitar. This sounded awesome.

Morningside Park

Only a block to the west was our next park, Morningside Park, on a steep cliffside with fields and such below. This park owes it’s existence to those cliffs, because rather than continue the street grid across Manhattan, it would be easier to make it a park along the schist cliffs.
Like Central Park, Morningside Park owes its design to Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

We hiked through the park heading north, and stopped to play on some swings.
At the north side, we followed a few back streets to the north to reach St. Nicholas Park.
This park came along in 1895 with the condemnation of the Croton Aqueduct. I figure this must have been the newer Croton Aqueduct because I believe the original followed Amsterdam Ave. The park was named after St. Nicholas because he was the patron saint of Amsterdam. The park was designed by NY Park Commissioner Samuel Parsons.

St. Nicholas tree climb

Our old friend Amanda Rosenblatt joined us at this point. We had not seen her on a hike in a couple of years, so it was cool to see her again. She wasn’t able to join us for too long, but she was out for a little while.
Also, we were able to meet back up with Corrin, who also hadn’t been out with us in a couple years. She had literally JUST finished with college. She finished her last final and was able to come out with us with a lot of her stress so recently unloaded it must have been surreal.
A lot of the group went way ahead of us at this point to the High Bridge, and while we waited for those behind us, Lerch, Justin, Grant, Dylan and Julie climbed up a tree to the point that I can’t believe it didn’t snap.
Dan Asnis finally caught up with us in this vicinity as well, having had previous morning obligations.

145th St. bridge

We headed north by way of a few streets, and stopped at a mini mart along the way, singing some songs outside.
We then passed under the rather amazingly boring named 145th Street Bridge (nearly every bridge anywhere is named after someone, especially NYC).
I don’t recall exactly which way we headed to get to get to the north from here, but it didn’t go exactly as I had planned because I wanted to approach High Bridge Park on the historic Old Croton Aqueduct Route. The way we ended up going ended up being far more interesting though because we headed off trail up hill through the park, and inadvertently found a long abandoned old trail.

Hiking an abandoned trail in High Bridge Park

The trail was lined with stones, very well delineated. I was very surprised that such a nice pathway would be totally abandoned in New York City of all places.
It came out to a lovely rock outcropping and view over the Harlem River to the east. We could see the famous High Bridge, our next destination, from here, a vantage point I did not anticipate having.

Overlook off Old Croton Aqueduct

We took a break here and enjoyed the view, then headed inland to find the trail on the Old Croton Aqueduct historic route, paved at this point.
For those who don’t remember, the Old Croton Aqueduct was the first clean drinking water supply to be “piped” into NY City in 1842. It was designed by Jonathan Jervis to carry water from the north end of Westchester County on Croton River, dropping one foot per mile to Manhattan.

Old Croton Aqueduct

It reached the Croton Reservoir in Central Park, and was piped further to another Croton Reservoir at the present site of NY Public Library, partially built on the foundation.
The aqueduct was like a promenade through the city, popular with walkers, and much of it north of the city remains so as a NY State Historic Park.
The development of this was necessary after many NY residents were becoming ill or even dying from water borne pathogens. The original clean water supply, the Collect Pond on the south side, became contaminated when a tannery was built on it’s shore.
We followed the historic aqueduct route north.

The High Bridge: open

We soon reached the High Bridge itself. This was my main goal for the end of this hike, to cross that bridge.
I had hiked the entire Old Croton Aqueduct from the Croton Reservoir, across Westchester County, through the Bronx, and through Manhattan as closely as possible, but was unable to do the High Bridge. It had been closed for years after someone threw something off the bridge and killed a pedestrian below.

Historic view of Old Croton Aqueduct prior to 1928 changes

The bridge had been scheduled to open for years now, and it just kept stalling. We had planned to hike the bridge from the other side the previous year, but changed the plans when it was not opened on time. I began to wonder if they’d ever open it.
Then, this year, I think it was Justin told me that it was opened. I was ready to do it, and so scheduled the hike to reach the bridge near the end.
The High Bridge is the oldest bridge in NY City, save for it’s center section over Harlem River that had been replaced to allow for passage of large ships. Still, 11 of the original stone arches remain.
The original bridge was completed in 1848 (Prior to that time the Croton Aqueduct waters temporarily used inverted siphons to cross the Harlem River until bridge completion), and the steel central span was added in 1928. The bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic for some forty years until being opened up just this year. It was a great thrill to finally be able to cross it.

View from the High Bridge

It was starting to get dark already as we crossed the bridge. Once on the other side, many in the group opted to turn back, having reached the point I had described to in the trip posting. I still didn’t know which way we’d turn on the other side.

View from the High Bridge Bronx side

Once on the other side, we regrouped those of us who remained. I was still getting inundated with voicemails and text messages at this point, and my phone was hardly even working.
We decided to just wander to the north a bit and see if we could find someplace for some food.

On the High Bridge

Lerch went into some random store and got us more drinks, and ended up walking around the place with a cat that was kept inside. Apparently he tried to buy the cat or something. I tried to go in and get a drink, and I was going to pet the cat too (my main interest), but some saucy lady wouldn’t let me go in.

Metro..card?

Most of the businesses nearby were just too small for seating our still rather big group, so we continued on to try to find the next one. I was holding a can that Lerch had given me until we saw a cop car go by, so I put it away.
Soon, the car stopped and was telling us we couldn’t have open containers. Some had them open, but they couldn’t see I had anything, but still came out and handed me a ticket after asking to see my license. I figure I should be able to fight that seeing as there was no evidence of a container at all, let alone an open one or an empty one. Still looking into that.
The police were overall pretty nice, and they told us we were in a very very bad neighborhood, and that we shouldn’t be walking there. They told us to get to the nearest train station to get out of there.

Making wonderful music on the subway

I didn’t know they handed me a ticket at first, I just figured it was a warning or something.
We complied, not wanting any trouble, and headed to the nearest station. I don’t know which way we turned, because someone else had taken over figuring where the station would be at this point. I thought I still felt alright, but by the time we got to the station, and were standing on the train, the lack of movement really made me feel tired. There were still funny moments, as Jack played guitar and Sean layed on the floor ripping on the electric. It was quite hilarious.
Somehow, everyone sort of dispersed and it was just Lerch, Jack, and I wandering through Grand Central. Jack came to his senses and realized we were just wandering all silly here, so he headed out.

Grand Central

Lerch and I somehow found our way back to some of the group, and sat down to eat with Lyz and Ric. I ordered a cheeseburger but fell asleep before being able to eat it. I was up until at least 1:30 the night before, so I was tired already, and we had put away a good amount of Peppermint Schnapps as well as whatever else I was handed.
Lyz apparently ate my cheeseburger, which I discovered upon waking up. I think I would have been fine to get back to the Short Hills Station alright, but they insisted on me going with them to theirs, and then Ric drove me back to my car at Short Hills.
Overall, this was a really fun hike. It was a bit more over the top than I’d have wanted it to be (less Schnapps for sure next time), but still really great.
I am so very lucky to have so many great people around me, sharing in the joy of the season and moment, and looking out for me when I need it.
I’m very optimistic looking ahead. I can see Christmas time improving for me. Better experiences, more great friends, and the right kind of celebration is all within sight. There is still a lot of stress looking ahead with work and life, but also a lot of love and support.

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
If you want it

Thanks everyone for coming