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Friday, September 28 2007
 
We just pedaled in Bike New York. Ostensibly, it is a 42 mile bike ride through all 5 boroughs of New York city. In reality, it was a 30 mile bike/walk through 4 boroughs of New York City. We made it our custom ride. We started bright and early on Sunday, waking at 6. We ate some breakfast, then packed up and got ready to go. Then we couldn't find the lock key to one of our bikes. Two of us split off to go into Manhattan and start the ride, and the others stayed behind to look for this key. We took the subway into downtown Manhattan, and got out right next to the start of the ride at Bowling Green. We followed a kazillion other bicycles into the 'queue', and waited. And waited. And waited. There was a cheer now and again, but generally, we just stood there, shaking. It was a chilly May morning, and we were all ready to go, but not going. I was calling and texting our party that stayed behind to look for the key. We were waiting in the line when they found the key, and headed into the city. It took them about 45 minutes to get into the city, and in that time, we had walked about two blocks. I was hoping that this was some kind of planned delay, because it was really frustrating to be told to be in one place and ready to go, then wait for such a long time. When the rest of our party joined up, it was happiness all around. We started walking together, and eventually started riding. We rode all the way up Manhattan to 4-5 blocks south of the park, and stood again. This was a lot of standing and waiting, as the five lanes of bikes narrowed down to two lanes in the park. Merging always sucks, I guess. Once we got into the park, it started moving, but barely fast enough to ride. Finally, when we got out of the park, and up to the Bronx, it was moving like a real bike ride. The ride through the Bronx, and down the FDR was awesome. Crossing the Queensboro bridge was beautiful, and we looped around into Queens, and got a gorgeous view of Manhattan from the ramp. It's amazing how much more you see when you are on a bike. We pedaled through Queens, crossed over to Brooklyn, and worked our way through gentrified factory neighborhoods. We had been grumbling through the ride our frustration with having to walk our bikes at various points. It was as if it was too crowded, or there were too many people. Also, the route instructions told us that if "you join the Tour formation late or ride slowly, you will be directed to a shortened route..." We were going as fast as we could, in the mass of a kabillion riders, and we were shunted off to the shortcut. Boo. We were on time, and riding at a good clip. We got jipped. Boo again. Oh well. We all decided that it would be much more fun to just ride to our host's neighborhood and have a nice lunch. We broke off in Dumbo, and back rode through Brooklyn. We parked and ate a big lunch at Picket Fence. We hydrated and relaxed, then headed back to chill out and clean up. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lovely view of New York. I don't know the mileage, but watch this spot for a map of our route. Sunday, March 11 2007 
Multifarious Adventures.
Hiking To Seawall, and The Drive Home
After lunch (in Maine), we tootled our way back towards the mainland, and headed out toward Seawall Beach. The hike to Seawall Beach starts on a crumbling paved road, and rolls up and over a few hills before turning into a broad path. We had to duck under a blockade, but the rest of the hike was unimpeded. We came down to some marshes, I'm thinking by the Sprague river. It was really beautiful, as the day was still foggy and the landscape all faded away into this mysterious haze. The marsh was surrounded by tall woods on either side, and the image of the woods vanishing into the fog next to the marsh was incredible. We stopped to take a bunch of pictures. We continued on, up and over and around a few more rolling hills, then down to the beach itself. There appeared a large cadre of individuals, trying to take a group photograph (or some kind of group behavior which appears identical), so we wandered up the beach. We looked for some sand dollars, and moseyed up to some rocks nearby. We napped. Oh, it was delicious. After napping, we slowly meandered back the way we came. It's about 4 miles I suppose, I didn't record it. A nice hike in the Maine pre-spring weather. I look forward to doing it again, maybe when the trees are lush or else covered in snow. The Drive Home We toodled back to the mainland (the fog was lifting slightly), and headed back the way we came. The Maine countryside is becoming somewhat indelible in my brain. I can't say that it's not welcome. It was a meandering way back to the house, and we took our time. By the time we got close, the fog had lifted significantly, and the sun was warming the day. Just in time for another nap when we got home.
 Monday, March 06 2006 Another hike while North of Yonkers: Poet's Walk starts out on the side of a little wooded road that is bordered by stone walls (my favorite) on both sides. You head out of the parking lot, up a hill and into the woods. The trail alternates between wooded path and meadow path, and was full of traffic the day we went. We walked past families and children and old grandparents, and old couples sitting on benches, and dogs. We walked out toward the Hudson, and came to a lookout, where a hut-like structure was built. It overlooked the Hudson and the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge. We stopped, oohed and aahed at the sight of the (dare I say it) mountains on the horizon. No! Stop! Don't throw that rotten fruit at your monitor! I'm sorry! They're hills, okay, hills! Just put down the stinky tomatoes! Whew. that was close. We walked down the path from the lookout, and closer to the river's edge. As we got the the edge of the park, there was a path down to a little pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks (which are right on the river's edge). The bridge was closed, and we just poked our heads around, and headed back up. We walked around and down to the 'Summer House', which turned out to be another hut-like structure at the end of a path in the woods. We turned around and walked back, this time through a great deal of mud. Not so much that our shoes made that vacuuming sound, but still enough to be slippery and sticky. Mind you, during this whole walk, we ended up following (what appeared to be) a father and son walking around the park. The little boy would talk to his father as he walked, and they were having the most wonderful conversations. Like about cookies. We all like cookies, right? Hmmm. Finally, we walked out of the park and stopped at the park information sign. There I learned that Foxes are not native to North America, they were brought over from Europe as objects of sport hunting. Kind of makes me ill. But happy, for some of them survived, and now they are all over. Hooray! Take that you dead white guys! And that was Poet's Walk Romantic Landscape Park. Summary: A nice little hike in the ice and snow. I drove up to upstate New York (past Yonkers) to go see one of my dear friends from college. We hung out and did some walking (romping sounds vaguely inappropriate in this context) around in the woods near the Hudson River. This little hike was tucked back in the mountains to the West of the Hudson. I know, I know. They're not really mountains, but it's the closest thing they've got. I even started to call them mountains after a few days. Especially living in Philly, you start noticing every little mole hill. The moral of the story: DON'T TAKE YOUR MOUNTAINS FOR GRANTED. But wait, I didn't even get started. We drove up this windy little road that goes right past these large cliffs. Since we're in Winter, all these cliffs have HUGE icicles hanging off of them. Across the surface of these cliffs were a handful of ice climbers scaling the cliff's facade. It was a daunting sight. Resolving to never do anything that crazy, my and my companions drove to the trail head, and started hiking up the hillside. The path was half trampled, and half frozen, and in some places, a solid sheet of ice. It made trekking a challenge, to say the least. We slipped and stumbled and (one of us) froze our feet. But when we finally came around the last bend (only about 20 minutes later), we could see a huge crust of ice hanging onto a pair of cliffs that stair stepped down the gorge that we were in. They say it's the largest waterfall in New York, the state of waterfalls. I was thinking about the number of waterfalls that I knew of in the state, and it seems like it's way up there in the rankings. Anyone care to debate? We oohed and aahed the waterfall, and even walked right up to the base, and listened to the water trickling down through the ice. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful waterfall. When it is not frozen, it must be a sight to see. We trekked back, and (one of us) nearly slid down the gorge into the frozen river. But luckily (all of us) survived safely. Just wet toes. Nothing some hot cocoa couldn't handle. Sunday, January 22 2006 Okay, so this is not a hike in the strict sense, but it is an urban tromp that covered decent mileage. I started out with Mary walking down to One Parkway to pick up a PhillyCarShare car for a shopping trip. We walked through the cool morning from her house down to Mugshots. Got a bagel to go, and I got a strawberry "Recovery Shake". Basically a smoothie. And a cold one. The day was supposed to be warm, but the morning was brisk. More than a few times, a large slurp off the recovery shake left my head aching from 'brain freeze'. It was okay...I walked it off. We got to the car, ran our errands, and I returned the car a few hours later. I walked from the parkway to the evil company that administers my cellular telephone plan, to fix my malfunctioning telephone. They then gave the me the standardized response (I have come to discover) of "see you in one hour." Considering this is the second time for the same problem in less than a week, I was just TIRED, because it's just such a lousy response. I'm sure it takes less than an hour for someone to look at it and say, "the display is totally screwed up and cannot be repaired." The same way I made that decision when I first saw the phone on the fritz. But I suppose not everyone is as enlightened as I am. So I walked out of the store, down to South, and headed toward Old City. I walked down to 10th, and found a nice park behind a row of condominiums. I have walked past this park before, but never entered. I walked on in (took of my sweater because I was sweating just from walking), and sat down. I knitted some more of a scarf, and put back on my sweater. I knitted some more. I listened to children playing on the equipment, and playing odd games of hide and go seek and races of various forms. By the time I left, the slides and swings were empty and quiet. I walked back up to Market, and back toward the cell phone store. I walked up Market, and through City Hall, all the way to the store. Picked up my phone, got a confirmation that "Yup, it's screwed." And a, "come back later." Lousy, bogus monkeys. Heading out of the store, I walked farther up Market, all the way to the Schuylkyll, and down off the bridge to the river walk. I strolled up the walk next to the river, and made it to the Art Museum before turning off and heading toward my house. I arrived at my house about 6 hours after starting out to the car. Not bad for a little city stroll. Saturday, January 07 2006 I figured I should start documenting the places I go. Here's the first one for Aught Six: Castlewood Canyon, south of Denver, Colorado, close to Castle Rock. I drove East on Colorado Highway 86, then turned south on Castlewood Canyon road. I stopped at the second trail head, and started out. Now, the thing about today was this: it's January 7th, and it's 71 degrees Fahrenheit. That's ... somewhat strange. Anyway, I take off down the trail, heading toward the creek. I reached Creek Bottom Trail after about 50 meters or so, and then started up the creek. When I looked at the map, I had assumed that the creek ran from North to South. Not so. I didn't realize this until I had bounced up the creek about a quarter mile. There is a small waterfall at this point, and I stopped to figure out that the creek was indeed heading opposite to my intuition. Oh well. On I go. When I had looked at the map of Castlewood Canyon, there was a feature on the map called "Dam Ruins". To my premature dismay, I thought the waterfall was the remnants of the dam. "This," I thought, "is a total let-down." Not so. After a short while, I came to the remnants of the dam for real. FOR REAL. This thing is huge, and sticks out of the ground, as the soil has been eroded underneath the tallest edge (what would have been the center of the dam). It looks like a gigantic wedge that was dropped into the edge of the canyon. It towers over Creek Bottom Trail, and Dam Trail heads up and over the remaining wall of rocks. There's no information regarding the demise of the dam, so one is left to ponder the question while wandering around the trails. As I headed down from the top of Dam Trail, I asked a passing couple if they knew anything about the dam. The rumor is that the dam collapsed and flooded the valley below. Sometime after 1890 (the masonry in the damn notes the date and the Chief Engineer), I'm assuming, but I haven't found out anything about it yet. I kept on going, looping over the creek, and heading up Rim Rock Trail. This trail heads up out of the canyon and over the rocky ledges that stand guard over the eastern edge of the canyon. The trail snakes up to the rim, and looking back one can see the valley below, which was the reservoir at one point, and the low hills beyond. Looking the other way, one sees the rocky mountains and Long's Peak standing tall and white on the horizon. The trail snaked along the rim, and I passed many people sitting and enjoying the view. There are places where the trail kind of fades away (since it goes over bare stone), and there are tiny piles of stones to follow. Sometimes. I got lost a couple times, but not seriously. The wind on the Rim was gusty, and would sometimes whip over the rocks and jostle the trees around. It felt good, as I was nice and warm at this point. After the Rim Rock Trail wound down along the northern side of the canyon, I crossed the creek again, and headed back up the creek to my entry point. I looked East at one point, and saw the blue blue sky and the moon rising over the edge of the canyon. Now that I was back on Creek Bottom Trail, I just kept climbing until I got to the Westside Trail Head. All in all, a nice walk in the woods.
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