Hike #672; Bayonne to Manhattan

 Hike #672; Bayonne to Manhattan

12/23/12 Bayonne NJ to Manhattan with Frank Meloi, Shelly Janes, Bobbi Landrock, Edo ?, Gregg Hudis, Jack Lowry, Susie Duncan, Jon Wilson, Jason Kumpas, Amanda Murphy,  Haobo Lai, ?, Veena Sonwalker, Bob Jones, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Eric Pace, Craig Nunn, ?, Qingqing Wu, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Darlene Perez, and Ariel.

Near Staten Island Ferry

For this year's holiday NY City Hike, I put together an interesting route that would be almost totally different than previous ones. We would start in Bayonne and walk across Bayonne Bridge, then follow north side of Staten Island to the Ferry into Manhattan for more wandering.The NY trip is always popular around the holidays, but I think the Staten Island part turned a few people off. Regardless, it was really different and I went much better than I thought it would.

I took the train from Summit as usual, and carpooled there with Frank and his friend Edo who he's hiked with for years. Shelly, Bobbi, and Gregg met us there.

This year was the most complicated train thing we've ever tried to do, but it worked out somehow. We got off at Broad Street Station in Newark, then switched across to another train to Hoboken.Once in Hoboken, we had to do some walking. Gregg knew how to get us to the Jersey City Light Rail platform fortunately. Once we got there, we waited just a little while, on the beautiful platform overlooking the Hudson River. We boarded the train and took it south from here. While riding, we sang a whole bunch of Christmas songs including "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)", "Feliz Navidad" (the first of like ten times), "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)", "Silver Bells", McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", and plenty more.

We got off the train in Bayonne, 8th Street, and wandered to the Dunkin Donuts for a break. Qigqing Wu was running a bit late, so I directed her to us by phone. Mr. Buckett and Eric went to Manhattan to meet us later. Cupcake and his posse were behind as well, and walked across the bridge, usually far behind us.

We made our way on back streets across Bayonne Bridge, with amazing views but also tons of wind. Once on the other side, we waited for Qingqing at a little corner store where we bought snacks and drinks. She showed up soon, but Cupcake was still way too far behind. We walked over the highway and made our way to the north side of the island, and followed back roads along the water as closely as possible. We got in a couple little parks, but a lot of it ended up being road walking along Richmond Ave.

It's always cool to have Jack there, since he grew up on Staten Island. We have had some really nice experiences there, and he pointed out where the best pizza was supposed to be, and a building that is now some commercial place that used to be a theater where Black Sabbath used to play.The old railroad was always close by; abandoned. We could see the old station stops from Bayonne bridge, and bridges over creeks and such from roads, but it was always impossible to get on. If it's not reactivated, this would be a great rail trail. We finally got on a trail section just before reaching historic Snug Harbor. There was a section of railroad tracks, now washed out with rails suspended above, that was really cool, and then a paved trail parallel with some of it for a time. It continued on beyond where the trail section went, but it would have been tough to follow because it was all overgrown. It went out onto an industrial area anyway.

At Jersey Street, we turned left, then right on Bank Street along the waterfront again. This was the marked "bike route". It was quite pretty, and little used along the waterfront. A walking trail soon appeared and went on to along the shore, part of the North Shore Esplanade Park. This was a beautiful section with pavers and such, and it wasn't as messed up as areas I'd seen up by Libert SP with work. We continued to a World Trade Center memorial, this one with silhouettes of victim's faces in two walls that from the south faced where the towers would have stood. There is a similar one in Liberty SP. We continued from here on to St. George Terminal where we'd pick up Staten Island Ferry.

Mr. Buckett and Eric showed up here, having ridden the ferry over, they got right back on and went back with us. "Major Tom" Conroy called and said he'd meet us on the other side, but we never found him. Craig Nunn, however did find us.

We took the ferry across which was quite beautiful. It seemed like the kind of boat one would imagine on the Mississippi or something. It had an old style to it, and was painted a dandelion yellow. I can't believe that such an amazing ride is free. I will have to do it again when it's warmer, because it was quite cold being out on the deck of the thing.

Once in Battery Park area of Manhattan, we hurried to the north, and met Craig immediately. The plan was to get to the nearest subway station. Our new friend Bob, who knows the city very well, led us on to the nearest subway station. Jason Kumpas had suggested we try to ride vintage subway cars that were in service from the early 1930s through 1970s for this trip (they operated the M line between 2nd street and Queens Plaza). Somehow, we managed to make it on time to catch the train, thanks to the efforts of Jason, Amanda, and Bob.

Craig, Haobo and his friend, and Qingquin left us here to continue on and do their own thing.On the way, Frank happened to see one of his long time old friends in the city, who joined us for the remainder of the trip.

While waiting in the subway, there was a guy playing plastic buckets like drums. He called Jack out to come and play with him. I shouted out that they should do "Sympathy For the Devil", and so they did. It was incredible seeing Jack perform the song with this guy, to a chorus of hikers singing "woo woo". Always an amazing experience.We got on the train, which was apparent immediately that it was not of this time. It was a dark green, unlike most of the cars we'd seen. There were several volunteers I assume, with orange vests helping out with the train. It seemed to run faster than the others, which I'm told is because there is no governor for speed on the engines. The handles were all on a hinge, rather than the straight bar across the top. Most of them were clearly bolted, though the seventies car had a similar down facing bar that was chrome. On the walls of all of the cars were old, often comical or shocking advertisements from their times. Some funny ones included Ben Gay rubbing away Peter Pain (with a comical "Peter Pain" character like Old Man Winter or something). One was a traffic warning for parents, depicting a slaughtered child laying in a pool of his own blood, with dropped grocery bag next to the car.This trail allowed us to move freely between cars so we could view all of them. New ones don't often allow this, but this one did. Stepping between the cars was scary enough. A slip would certainly mean the end to us!We rode the train from Queens Plaza back to Manhattan, and found Frank along the way. He and his buddy  had gotten off the wrong stop thinking we'd done so, but they found us again.

After the train ride, we walked on through the streets of Manhattan, and were finally joined by Kupcake, Darlene, and Ariel. We soon stopped for some more food, and Jack treated me to two slices of pizza, Susie got me a bottle of Absolut and warned me not to open it till Chrismas (and I complied!). The pizza was actually quite good.

We moved on from here to the west, to the Riverside Park area, but the waterfront walkway was closed off by metal corral gates. Officers stood watch at certain points. It was totally dark, so we wouldn't be able to get up on the High Line. Still, we did what we were planning on doing, so this was the free for all section of the hike.

We continued to 34th Street and headed east. I think it was Amanda recommended a good Irish pub for us to have a bite and some drinks. We followed her lead and headed to the place, where we hung out for a good while. I wasn't hungry at this point, so I just socialized with everyone, which was great. We met some other carolers in there, who were happy to see they weren't the only silly people going around singing.Jack started playing, and for the last time of the night we sang "Feliz Navidad" again, and a business proprietor approached us and said he had to ask us to stop (acknowledging that he did like the song). As he walked away, Jack and bellowed out "BAH HUMBUG" in near unison. What kind of Irish pub doesn't allow singing? Maybe we should have tried "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral" instead...

We made our way back past Macy's to check out the Christmas displays again, and then went on to Penn Station to catch the trains. We split up somewhere there, but when I found Jack and Susie again, Jack was guitar jamming while two silly looking twin guys were dancing around!We managed to get to the train on time and make our way back to Summit. I was getting pretty tired and my contact lenses were all itchy, but part of me could have kept going all night. I had to be to work early the next morning, so that was not an option.

Once again we had a great NYC hike, with more fun memories than I can contain.

As we parted ways, Jason Kumpas commented on his extreme satisfaction with this trip by noting that nearly everyone who started the hike off at the beginning had finished it. His comment spurred an uplifting feeling of gratitude in me. I am so thankful to have such great friends who not only join in the trips I arrange, but also have a mutual appreciation so strong as to see it through to the end, not because it's obligatory, but because of sincere enjoyment of the activity. It just reinforced the feelings I'd had the previous week, stripping down the corporate Christmas,being free of obligation, and focusing on the spiritual feeling of fellowship as we walked, laughed, and sang together, often with passersby joining in as the walked in the opposite direction. I think we all went home feeling happier.