Hike #458; Manhattan/Brooklyn

 Hike #458 12/13/9

The group looking into a mirror in Manhattan...

12/13/9 Manhattan/Brooklyn Loop with Jillane Becker, Jason Itell, Jason Kumpas, Kyle Zalinsky, Bernie Lieberman, Craig Nunn, Mike Salender, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, "Major Tom" Conroy, Eric Pace, "DJ Ray" Cordts, Carol Creamer, Chris "Cupcake"  Kroschinski, Cory Salveson, Al MacLennan, Christina Manley, Chris Herbig, Cameron Tillery, Egedio, Irina Vinyarskaya, Kelly Shipman, Lixkarime Padilla, and Susan ?.

Along the Hudson River walkway in Manhattan

Sadly, the original journal entry to this hike was lost to the fire in August of 2010. If anyone has a copy of it somewhere please let me know!

 For this, the annual holiday Manhattan hike, I'd arranged for a somewhat new route for at least the beginning of the trip. Years earlier, my friend Robert "Bode" Bodenstein and I had chatted about the fate of an old elevated rail line in Manhattan, the High Line. There was an initiative to turn this old rail line into an urban park, an elevated rail trail unlike any others in the world. This whole plan seemed far fetched and I remember it looking grim as to whether or not it would actually happen. Amazingly, it actually happened, and so I wanted to see this park that had only recently been opened.

This hike brought out many from the core group as well as a few that I hadn't hiked with in some time.

Jillane and I boarded the train in Summit NJ as we'd done the previous year. This time, we were joined there by Mr. Buckett, Major Tom, Eric, and Kyle I think. We boarded and had a nice train ride, and along the way Kyle got to talking to a girl who introduced herself as "Lix". I suppose he was trying to flirt with her or something. He invited her to join in on our hike after exiting the train, and she did for the first half! I thought he was joking when he told me her name was Lix, but as it turned out her real name is Lixkarime Padilla.

We made our way into Penn Station in NY, and headed to the big tree in the mall section where we'd met in the past. We were all gathering around, and I got a call from Cameron Tillery, an old friend of Kyle's from way back. When Kyle found out it was him, he was ecstatic. He'd told Cameron earlier in the week to join the hike, but really didn't expect to see him. They had a cute little reunion before we got started.

We began walking from Penn Station west through the city to the High Line. The first section of it we reached was not open to public, though it was abandoned. Even a year later, the final fate of this section is yet to be determined. One section is scheduled to open in 2011, while the remainder over the rail yards to the north will either be completely preserved, demolished, or somewhat preserved and altered. I can't really speculate more, but this would be an amazing addition to an already superb park.

We walked beneath the High Line, and since we couldn't get on any of it headed out to the walkway along the Hudson and headed south. Craig Nunn was a big help on this because he knows so much of the history of the area. I remember him showing us one of the only remaining buildings from a high pressure water system NYC used to use for it's fire department.

Soon, we accidently passed the entrance to the High Line. Although there was another access, I wanted to be complete so we backtracked on the roads to get up onto it. Despite the rainy weather, it was awesome to see this great park. Old rails were still in place on some of it, and a spur line below at one point was visible. There were lots of benches and section swith grasses growing. It went through a couple buildings along the route which also made this line particularly unique. One of the buildings was a hotel with large windows. Cameron told us people like to have sex in the rooms at night so they can be seen from the High Line...wow!

On the High Line, Manhattan

When we reached Tenth Avenue, there was sort of an Amphitheatre set up on the High Line to watch the traffic go by. This is a particularly heavy traffic street. This street's traffic volume was enough to justify construction of the entire High Line. Originally, the railroad was at road grade, and the crossings resulted in many accidents and even deaths. This earned Tenth Avenue the nickname "Death Avenue", and so the construction of the elevated railroad amended the problem.

We continued to the end of the High Line park, then descended to the street. We walked parallel with where the High Line had been to the south, and a couple pieces were still in place, but not enough to really justify a park I guess. Most of it had sadly been removed.

I can't remember the street number we took southbound, but it was one of the few north-south streets that Craig had not walked, so I was happy to take this route. Along the way, Kyle asked some guy if he could use the restroom in the place he was guarding or something I suppose. The guy got a bit nasty with him and it looked like a fight was imminant but Al was able to step in on time. He had grown up in this area and was glad to be there to help Kyle. I don't thik Kyle realized how bad things could get backtalking at some of the people in the city.

We continued to the World Trade Center site. On the street I realized that somehow we'd lost Bernie! He apparently had continued along the Hudson or something where we turned off. I called him up and got him to reconnect with us. We made our way around the WTC site, still at this point a hole in the ground but not as deep as when I'd first seen it. We did the same as we always do I think, viewing the WTC site from inside the World Financial Center buildings, and then stopping for a break in the large marble room overlooking the bay and the Statue of Liberty. We then stopped in the cafeteria area for a while. Lix said goodbye to us at this point, and unfortunitely she'd lost a lot of money somehow while walking through the city. I think she had someone come to pick her up although members of the group offered to give her money for a taxi. DJ Ray and his then girlfriend also left us at this point to spend time alone.

After our break we headed across to the old church next to the WTC site which is always cool to visit, and then headed out toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Somehow we lost Kyle and a few others, and Jillane and I and whoever else was following us ended up walking through some walkway tunnel underneath a building. We regrouped at Pace University to Eric's amusement.

Next, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge. It's an amazing bridge for anyone who hasn't done it, and I was really happy to share this place with Jillane.

Brooklyn Bridge, NY

 

We continued across and then descended on the other side. No one felt like getting the "Under the Bridge" pizza, so we continued on. There was a Christmas Tree under the bridge, and then a star of david and a menora too. We continued to the north under the Manhattan Bridge, then ascended to cross the East River again on it. I'd always wanted to walk across this one. It was really cool, but not when compared to the Brooklyn Bridge. The rooftops on the other side were really cool looking, with tons of graffiti.

Next, we simply walked streets north and westbound to make our way to McSorley's Tavern, one of the oldest bars in the US. Everyone stopped and hung out here for a while.

McSorely's Tavern NY

Jillane and I cut out early from the rest of the group. We were both worried, but her exceptionally so, because we'd just gotten our new little kitten, Carrot. He was very young and sick, and really too young as per normal practice to be brought home at all, but he needed attention. She wanted to be sure he was alright at home with our other two older cats.

 

McSorely's Tavern, NY

Jill and I continued back north to the trains quickly to head home. Cupcake, and I'm assuming Jason too, led the rest of the group back out. I know at least some of them went to another place for food and drinks. A lot of people cut out early on this hike, but I don't remember who and at what times they were.

On the Brooklyn Bridge