230th st(aircase)

When I heard that there was a 4 block long staircase in the Bronx, I knew immediately that it would be one of my stops.

230th street runs through Riverdale and past Van Cortlandt Park all the way out to Hutchinson River. But in Kingsbridge, just west of Broadway where it meets Ewan Park it suddenly turns UP! Its officially called a "Step Road". I thought for a while that calling it a road was not exactly fair. Its not a road...its just a long staircase. But then I saw it. It isn't a road, but it is definitely more than a staircase. It is a vital thoroughfare that intersects 4 other streets and although doesn't have any sort of vehicular traffic...might as well be called a road.

It is thought to be the largest step-road in New York, but outside of the other few in this neighborhood and the one i know in Bay Ridge, i don't know of any other. Perhaps i will find some more to compare.

Need some exercise, and want to see some very great old houses along the way...check it out.

Spuyten Duyvil

I had planned on exploring all of the West Bronx between Van Cortlandt and the Hudson River yesterday...but that didn't happen. I was on foot, as I probably will be for most days from here on out. Even if I had my bike, there was no way to do this in one day. Riverdale is the most hilly neighborhood in NYC and there is so much to see, that I will have to go back a few more times.

Yesterday I took some time and visited Marble Hill and Spuyten Duyvil. Marble Hill, although entirely on the New York State mainland, is still technically part of Manhattan, or at least New York County. They get a bit touchy if you tell them they are from the Bronx...even if you show them a map. It is a small niche on the cliff side of the Harlem River and not more than a nice walk through a semi-private community.

Spuyten Duyvil is tucked in the corner of the Bronx right where the Harlem River meets the Hudson. Try and ask people to pronounce the little Bronx village and you get many variances. Dutch in entomology, it could mean either "Spite the Devil" or "Devil's Whirlpool" depending on how you say it. It has also been called "The Sit Down Place" after the original Lenape Indian name for the hill.

Once you pass the Henry Hudson Highway, you enter into a very guarded community and have a few "Mapped Private" streets. All of the roads leading to water view access are marked as private. All the houses on Palisade Ave. are built into the hillside. Some are larger apartment buildings and some are fantastic houses with leveled overlooks and outdoor river view patios. There is a public viewing deck called the "Half Moon Overlook." You can't see much through the heavy tree cover, but you can scramble down a steep path that doesn't look like an official walkway. You pass old building foundations and cement pillars covered in graffiti.

Once you get to the bottom, there is an open passage to the train tracks. I'm sure i wasn't allowed down there, but there was no sign, no fence and nobody there to stop me, so i did a little urban exploring and avoided all contact with the occasional Amtrak or Metro North trains that sped by. You get a great view of the river and the Henry Hudson Bridge that looms over the Harlem River toward Inwood Hill.

If you want to go, expect some, or a lot of walking up and down hills. The neighborhood is a very interesting part of the Bronx and worth the trip...especially if you like to see old architecture. Some of the houses were built as far back as 1880.

pictures.

Trinity Church

You can spend weeks traveling the narrow streets of lower Manhattan and never tire of the historic buildings, architecture, statues and the like...that is if you like historic places to begin with.

New York is not the oldest European settlement in the U.S., but it could be the richest spot for studying the beginnings of American society. With extensive shipping ports, the foothold of high society, the eventual location of the first Presidential residence as well as being the beginning and continual steward of American Capitalism, lower Manhattan is the birthplace of what America has become. But above all that, religion was the driving force behind early US society, and Lower Manhattan holds some of the oldest and culturally relevant churches in the country.

If you were to travel into New York Harbor at any point between the 17th and early 20th century, you would see a rectangle building high on the hill and eventually the tall spires of Trinity Church towering above the low skyline at Broadway and Wall st. The Church is now in its third rebuilding. The first was destroyed in 1776 during the Great New York Fire after the British took the city, the second was torn down after water damaged during a wave of snow storms in 1839 and the third still stands today.

Walking in there today you might think it just another memorial to 9/11 seeing all the photographs of post tragedy church yard and a knocked down sycamore tree, but the church has tremendous historic value. The inner sanctum of the church is a Gothic hodgepodge of architecture with incredible stained glass windows. The cemeteries are among the oldest in New York and hold the remains of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton and James Astor. Some of the tombstones are famous for their mysterious masonic markings and more than one story has ended with treasure hunters finding their holy grail buried deep under the churches foundation.

Amongst the newest draw and drawbacks of the church are its bells There are 23 original Bells and a new set of 12 installed after 9/11 are artistically groundbreaking but causing the locals to complain about the noise. Ain't that like New York.

Sidewalk Clock

I was talking about my tour to a friend of mine this weekend and he asked me "So, what was today's adventure."

"No adventure, I told him, but I did go see the clock in the sidewalk."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, there is a clock in the sidewalk at Broadway and Maiden Lane."

"Really, I live on John Street...i cross there everyday, I've never seen a clock in the sidewalk."

And there is the point of my Farewell Tour. I have seen some of the big things (Ellis Island, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens), and I have seen some of the hidden things (yellow submarine, Atlantic Ave. Tunnel) but there are some things out there that pass us by everyday that we miss. New York is filled with amazing little crevices and quirky architecture or long forgotten monuments to out past.

The Clock (seen above) is embedded in the sidewalk on the northeast corner of Maiden Lane and Broadway. Its the size of a large Frisbee and is protected by a thick piece of glass. It was put there in 1899 by William Barthman Jewelers. It has withstood many attempts by nogoodnicks to break it or dig it up. Its electric motor has kept it running and in good time for well over a century without fail.

I wonder how many people pass it everyday without noticing it. I also wonder how many people use it everyday to see how late they are for work.

NYC Marathon

In 14 years in NYC I have failed to see the NYC Marathon up close. I either forgot it was happening, was out of town, or slept right through it. In a former apartment of mine in Clinton Hill, I was actually on the marathon route and didn't even go down the stairs to see it. I know, I know...pretty pathetic.

Today I made up for all those years of neglect and woke up early and got a good viewing spot along Lafayette in Brooklyn. This is Mile-8 of the 26.2 mile race route. I watched the beginning of the race on TV and then got to my spot just in time to watch the Female leaders come by. It was still only 1/3rd into the race but the eventual leaders Paula Radcliff and Gete Wami were already far ahead of the pack.

The Male leaders came by about 20 minutes later a little with the lead pack of about 10 runners, including Martin Lel and Abderahin Goumri who later finished 1st and second. I waited another 20 minutes and after a few scattered packs of "elite" runners, the mighty horde of runners came by. Thousands of runners from around the world being cheered on by onlookers from everywhere. Right in front of me was a man from Scotland holding up his flag. As runners from all over Great Britain came by they shouted Yea Scotland and touched the flag.

Before, during, and after these crowds were assisted runners, racers in wheelchairs and all sorts of cancer survival stories came by to massive roars of the Brooklyn crowd.

The NYC Marathon, as I have now finally experienced, is a great NYC day. Nearly 40,000 runners started the race and thousands more enjoyed the brisk sunny day here in the big city. Thankfully, after a long race and millions of hours of preparation, months of grueling training and I can still go watch for an hour and then go home and down a few slices of pizza without feeling guilty. Maybe years from now, when I make a triumphant return to NYC, I'll do it by running in the Marathon...probably not, but maybe!

Pictures

Hippies Take Manhattan

New York isn't all skeptics with bad attitudes and punk rockers dressed all in black. There is a very strong and vibrant population of tree-huggers, free spirits, bleeding hearts and yes even hippies. They aren't all Grateful Dead fans...but the ones that are had their eyes and minds focused on the Nokia Theatre last night to see Phil Lesh and Friends.

There have been many semi-reformations of grateful dead members and projects since Jerry Garcia dies in 1995, like Ratdog, The Dark Star Orchestra, Bruce Hornsby solo, The Dead. None of them have continued to excel quite like Phil and Friends. Each tour, Phil has invited new musicians from other great bands to join him and celebrate the music of years past as well as share in new musical experiments together.

This year the band includes Steve Molitz (Particle), Jackie Greene, Larry Cambell and John Molo. Their 7 show encampment in NY is called "The Other New York City Marathon". Last night they added Ryan Adams to their team and pulled off a great 3 set show.

As in most things, the music reflects off your mood and opens up to what you want it to. The 3rd set opener "Wharf Rat" which i predicted with the 50 year old former-head-turned-banker i was standing next to, meant so much more to me last night than ever before, especially during:

But I'll get back on my feet someday
The good lord willing, if he says I may
I know that the life I'm livin's no good
I'll get a new start, live the life I should
I'll get up and fly away, I'll get up and fly away

After 4 hours at the Nokia, many of us in a big hippie parade went 30 blocks south for 4 more hours of music lovers crack and watched Particle play for another 4 hours with Guest guitarist Josh Clark from Tea Leaf Green.

Maybe music is escapist in New York, maybe it hides reality, maybe its nothing more than a little entertainment. But, going to shows like these in a city like this is so much the Paradox that makes life fun.

Breakneck Ridge

Even though this Blog and my Farewell Tour are dedicated to the glory of New York City, I decided to take a trip up the Hudson River and explore some of the best hiking available to New Yorkers in the river valley just to the north. Small weekend escapes and little getaways are a big part of life in NYC and unless you go looking for it, you may miss some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, less than an hour away.

Yesterday's destination was Breakneck Ridge, named by trails.com in 2005 as the best hike in the country. You can get there by Metro North or by driving to Cold Spring. The ridge is on the almost shear cliffs of Mt. Taurus in the Hudson Highlands State Park. Just north of the ridge are a string of other peaks leading you all the way to Beacon.

The interesting story about this cliff for me is it's location. Across the river is Storm King Mountain and the town of Cornwall, the town where I grew up. All through my teenage years, i spent many hours on Storm King, biking up the world famous rt. 218 (storm king highway) hanging out at "high point" and hiking to the peak. I always wondered about the mountain and cliffs across the river, but never made any attempt to find out what was there. When my buddy asked me to go hiking up Breakneck Ridge i told him that it sounded a lot like the mountain across from Storm King...what luck!

Reading a little about the trail before hand could scare the shit out of any leisure weekend hiker. Every magazine and web-site I found warned hikers of the "arduous and very difficult" level of hike we should expect. Or this little gem from GORP web site :

"If you deviate much from the rock ledges that comprise most of the trail, you'll fall hundreds of feet down the mountain's south face. Utmost care is required on Breakneck and deaths have occasionally been the price exacted for carelessness"

Even after rosy reviews like that, we went out for an early hike. On weekends in good weather, the trail is probably more crowded than we would have liked, but yesterday, on November 1st, a Thursday, on a semi-cloudy morning there was nobody out there but us. In fact we hiked for 6 hours and did not see another person on the train all day.

From the small car pull-off at the tunnel on route 9D, the trail head started at the aqueduct building just north of the tunnel. Immediately, the trail went up, and when I say it went up...it went UP! For the 1st 3/4 of a mile, the hike is almost all a giant rock climb. There were few times in that stretch that i didn't need to use at least one hand to help my ascent and most of the time it was a hand and knees scramble up steep ledges, shear rock face and natural steps heading up the ridge.

It was absolutely amazing. The climbing was exhilarating and challenging to say the least, but what made the physical exertion worth while was the pay off at the lookout points. If you were to design a perfect rock climb, this might be it. Just when you thought your calves were about to explode or your breaths couldn't get any heavier, the trees cleared and the rocks flattened out. There are 5 "knobs" along the path. These are platforms or natural lookout points...or in our case yesterday, resting spots for a sip of water and chance to snap some photographs.

The views of the Hudson Valley are what makes this hike special. Up river you can see the Newburg-Beacon Bridge, Cornwall-on-Hudson and Bannerman's Island. This little island looks like something out of a movie about William Wallace. There are old castle ruins and Gothic structures that make the island a gem for site seers, but visiting the island is a no-no. Bannerman's now owned by the state of new york is thought by both Native American and Dutch settlers to be haunted. Even if it wasn't, there are old weapons and other remnants buried on the island that makes for a dangerous trip.

Looking south you can see the lower Hudson valley and West Point. The most striking view and the one that keeps people climbing the ridge is that of Storm King Mountain. Storm King is the most unique and recognizable natural site along the river and the sheer cliffs broken only by the cut of the highway halfway up makes even the most experienced outdoorsmen stop and appreciate the sculpting powers of the glaciers that once ruled the landscape.

Once on top of Breakneck, there is a trail that takes you down a less arduous trail back down towards the river...at least that's the theory. We missed the turn off!!! We kept hiking up and down other peaks and valleys for the next 5 hours, until we finally came to the highway about 2 miles from where we should have. What should have been a nice 3 hour hike over a 2.5 mile trail, ended up being over 6 hours and probably closer to 8 miles. I looked at some trail guides today and found where we went wrong. We ended up hiking over South Beacon Mountain, the highest in the region. Oh well, we went out for an adventure and we got one. My bad ankle may be a little angry that we went so far off trail, but i am glad we got to see the rest of the area.

Final analysis: Although Breakneck Ridge is not as hard and dangerous as the trail mythology would like to make you believe, it is a physically demanding hike, but on of the best you'll find...especially this close to NYC.

Check out some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/82369865@N00/