Friday, November 29, 2019

Escape from Black Friday 2019

Another Black Friday successfully evaded! HOORAY!

I escaped by land this year -- the forecast was for a lovely day but a bit on the breezy side for paddling, so I decided to go for a shorewalk. It ended up being a fun one, making good use of part of the Brooklyn Greenway to change the Sheepshead Bay to Gerritson Creek and back walk I'd set out planning to do into a 6.5 mile one-way walk, beginning at the Sheepshead Bay station on the B and Q line and finishing at Riis Landing in Queens, where I caught the Q35 bus back to my neighborhood. This was really neat!

The walk to Gerritson Creek is a favorite of mine, but I've done it several times and have been thinking it would be fun to mix it up a bit. I think it was the last time I did it I found myself standing at the inlet to the marsh behind Plum Beach, which is a little too deep and wide to cross without hip waders even at low water, looking up at the bridge over the creek, seeing a cyclist or a walker up there, and thinking "OK, another time I will have to figure out how to get up there". Fortunately I remembered that this time! I started out on the beach, then took a well-traveled trail that took me up along the north shore of the marsh. That let me get onto the bike and walking path as I approached the bridge over Gerritson Creek, as I'd figured it would.

There was a great view of Manhattan from up there - I switched out to my zoom lens and was able to grab a nice shot between passing cars (the walkway is on the bay side of the bridge). I followed the Greenway path to Flatbush Avenue and then turned south, getting onto the beach at Dead Horse Bay through the Gateway Marina. I can't remember exactly when I decided to add Queens to the day's itinerary, but it hit me at some point that the timing of this escape was such that catching the 4:30 sunset from the Marine Park Bridge was highly plausible and would make a splendid finish for this new walk.

And that worked out perfectly, even though the Dead Horse Bay section of the walk was at the usual low-water beachcombing amble pace (I don't bring many treasures home these days but I still love looking at things and taking pictures). The sunset was magnificent, I just missed a bus so I walked over to the Riis Landing parking lot for a couple more pictures, then headed for the bus stop, where the next Q35 showed up before too long.

A fine escape, and a walk I'll do again! That's it for the write-up, all photos from here on - click on any photo for a slideshow view. 


Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Manhattan Bridge Walk

Got out of work early due to the Thanksgiving holiday - the weather was fine for a walk across the Manhattan Bridge! I walked from the office in SoHo to the Atlantic Avenue subway station. Click on any photo for a slideshow view.

Completely forgot to take a picture of the empanada truck that waylaid me just at the end of the walk, or any of the goodies that followed me home from there, but they were delicious!
 

Sunday, November 24, 2019

North Fork Vacation Day 3 - A Walk in the Woods

Wednesday the 23rd dawned prettier than the day before - but the forecast was for even higher winds. There are some nice sheltered places where we could've gone for a paddle, but after the day before, neither of us was really set on paddling in the wind again. Therese, one of the lovely desk clerks at the the Sunset Motel, had set us up with a list of hiking/walking in the area. The North Fork is a combination of residential and agricultural, and there isn't much in the way of longer hikes, but it seems like every town has something of a preserve to offer. Laurel Lake Preserve had one of the longer trail options with a 2.6 mile loop trail, and also sounded very scenic, so we went with that one, and enjoyed it very much. We started the day with breakfast at the Cutchogue Diner, a local classic that dates back to 1941, and then we hit the trail.

Lovely spot. All photos after this - click on the first one for a slideshow view!