Hike #477; Bayonne to Great Kills Park

 Hike #477 4/2/10

4/2/10 Staten Island; Bayonne to Great Kills Park with Jack Lowry and Susan Duncan Dawson

Entering Staten Island on the south end of the Bayonne Bridge

For my next hike I did something I'd been wanting to do for a while, and something special for Jack as well, hiked from Bayonne across it's famous bridge into Staten Island, then did the Greenbelt across the island. Jack grew up on Staten Island, and this must have been something like the Portland to Washington hike is for me. The route across the island was originally planned to be a superhighway system called the Richmond Expressway that fell through and the remaining right of way is now the trail cooridoor!

We met in the morning at a grocery store mini mall parking lot on Old Amboy Road, right next to the Staten Island Railroad and then shuttled north to Bayonne. We parked on some side street and then started walking to the Bayonne Bridge. Jack pointed out buildings along the way that had been altered and such.

Crossing Bayonne Bridge, Bayonne NJ

Crossing the bridge was awesome. Apparently talks have already started about tearing down this bridge and building a new one. Ships have already had their tops hit the bridge! With ocean levels rising it will continue to become a bigger problem.

On the Bayonne Bridge

Once on the other side, we dashed across to get onto a street called "Hooker Street", then headed right and left onto Catherine Street I think. We came to a grocery store, and a little mall, so of course we had to go in. In the mall there was a music store so we had a look around, and I found a cd I didn't have yet, I think a Paul McCartney one or something. We then went to the grocery store for food, and stopped at the liquor store where I think we got some wine or something.

From here we walked Forest Avenue east to the northern end of Clove Lakes Park, and the northern end of the Staten Island Greenbelt Trail. It began at a bus stop I believe just up the sidewalk from where we were. We followed the path south into the park, first passing the largest sycamore tree in the entire NYC parks department. We continued to descend to the west side of Brooks pond, the first body of water.

The trail had a few different colored branches, and I think this one was the blue one. We continued through the park and I think by a second pond, but the trail soon began to turn right heading up hill. It used a couple woods roads, and then footpath. There were a whole lot of blow downs on this section, and the blazes weren't always very easy to follow but we managed. We came out of Clove Lakes Park somehow onto a street, but I don't remember which one. I was carrying my copy of the New York Walk Book which had the full description.

Somehow we ended up on Victory Blvd, then came down to Little Clove Road. My description said to go through a fence up ahead but we didn't see any blazes or anything. We continued to Renwick Ave and couldn't figure out where the blazes turned to. We went under the bridge and saw nothing. We then went back and walked the fence line along the road looking for the correct way. I found a spot where the fence had a hole in it and was wired shut, so I figured this was it. I pulled it back and we squeezed through, then headed up hill. We could now see blazes and continued onto the abandoned interchange of what was planned to be the Richmond Expressway.

Abandoned Richmond Expressway Interchange, Staten Island

This was a really awesome section. An entire cloverleaf was created for a highway that never came to be. We crossed the Staten Island Expressway on the unused ramps and bridge, and on the other side the highway just dead ended. The blue trail turned left off of the end of it and went through a gully. It then ascended the other side where another blue with white trail turned to the left. We continued straight on along the main blue trail. Another section of this side trail rejoined the blue trail soon.

We soon crossed Ocean Terrace on a diagonal across the intersection with Todt Hill Road. I was amazed by how secluded some of these trail sections, in part of New York City, seemed to be. The trail descended a bit and took us along fences behind some house and then came out to a small road, probably Blackhorse Ave near the corner of Browning. We walked the road very briefly for a block then re-entered the woods keeping on the blue trail. Yellow and orange trails were now also in the area, and we joined and left the yellow as I recall. We were now entering property of the Boy Scout Camp Pouch, a place Jack attended in his youth. He was very happy to be there as I recall.

I'm not totally sure, but this might have been the first time I got Jack to try "Four Loco", the alcolol energy drink that was later to become a controvercial thing. I got it because it was strong and cheap (12% alcohol by volume). We continued from here, at first having trouble trying to find where the trail went, joined and left the yellow trail again, and then descended to an incredible viewing platform with a view of the Raritan Bay to the south, with a golf course below us.

View of Raritan Bay from blue Staten Island Greenbelt Trail

We continued on just above the golf course which was to our left, and ascended to the top of a ridge. I believe this was a terminal moraine left from the Wisconsin Glacier. We had a lot of trouble getting around more blow downs in this area from a recent store. We continued I think through more pouch camp property and soon came to the north end of High Rock Park. We ended up coming out somehow in an interesting area full of cabins and extra trails not included on my maps or book. It seemed like non profits or city rangers all operated out of here. We passed a visitor's center but it was closed and all map boxes were empty.

We continued on, and we stopped seeing the yellow trail that kept coming and going from being coaligned with the blue.

Staten Island Greenbelt trails. Nice to see they are blazed to standard.

The trail took us out on the end of a road, probably Tonking Road. We came out to Rockland Ave and soon came to the white trail crossing the blue. I was confused about where we were, and we were supposed to turn left on white and head south, but instead we continued on the blue. Big mistake. It took us along some roads, and I think the main one was St. George, and it didn't go through. The trail crossed a connection between two sections of the road and was blocked off a bit. We still got through and ended up on a road that dead ended to the south. We entered more woods from here and ascended for a bit. We soon came to a fabulous viewpoint of the wetlands below us to the south, which I think are referred to as the Fresh Kills. Historic Richmondtown was below us to the southeast. I can't remember the exact order, if we had this viewpoint first or we reached the La Tourette House first. The trail ascended to a circular drive for parking around the another golf course with the historic building straight ahead. The trail crossed Richmond Hill Road, then skirted the edge of the golf course parallel with it. We couldn't see where it went. A golfer asked us "you looking for the trail? Go down to the woods, it goes in right there" as he pointed us in the correct direction. It might have been past here we found the view point, or just before, but I can't remember.

Fresh Kills from Richmond Hill, Staten Island Greenbelt

The trail continued on and eventually came to and crossed a bike path section. This must have been new because it was not at all described in my book. We went through more woods and came I think to a second bike path and turned right. We continued through some woods on this nice surfaced trail and were soon skirting the golf course to the right. There were actually a few other people using the trail in this section. Much of the rest of it had no one. We came out at another part of Richmond Hill Road and crossed. I now realized where we were and how far we'd come. We continued on along the golf course and then into the woods on this bike path section which was becoming more secluded. On the parts parallel to the road some of the trail blazes were in far off of the bike path. I suppose the foot trail existed during the publication of my book and that the bike path was a recent developement. The yellow trail soon turned right off of this below Heyerdahl Hill. It had joined the blue trail again somewhere along the way, but I'm not sure where the junction was. We turned right on yellow and descended for a while. We were joined by the red trail, yet another branch, and continued. The red trail left and the white trail joined. The white and yellow trails soon headed south into Egbertville Ravine. We continued near to a stream and crossed London Road. I think Jack said his mom lived somewhere near there, but can't totally remember. I'd been quite happified probably by my drink.

Soon, we came out on another developed area, I think Eleanor Street or something. It was here we came back to the blue trail and realized where we'd made the wrong turn initially. We continued on white which followed roads very briefly and then went into the narrow strip of woods parallel with Rockland Ave. There were a lot of blowdowns in this area as well, but we got through. Also in this section Jack found a busted up old guitar and fooled around with it a bit.

Jack found this on Staten Island Greenbelt near Richmond

This trail section dumped us out on Clarke Road and we had to turn left to a small circle park, then at the intersection with Amboy Road it went back into the woods. This section was not very well used either. It came out onto the edge of a street briefly and then went back into the greenway. Soon, we came to the underpass for the Staten Island Railroad.

Weird living room along Staten Island Greenbelt's white trail, under the SI Railroad underpass!

Underneath it someone had a weird living room set up of some sort! Complete with a television, though there'd of course be no way of plugging it in, and a mirror!

We continued along the greenbelt south, and it took us out directly across from the entrance to Great Kills Park. Originally I'd intended to walk through this park but it was far too late to be messing around that direction. We instead turned right and followed Hylan Blvd I think to Answorth or something north. We were then able to go briefly right on Amboy Road under the railroad tracks and then left into the entrance area for the store we'd met in that morning.

I was totally impressed with this greenway and knew we'd have to come back to do the rest of it.