A local Meetup Group posted a Walk Around Manhattan event. This I thought was a brilliant idea which surprisingly I never thought up myself. The walk would start downtown near the Brooklyn Bridge and 33 miles and 13 hours later would end at the same spot.
Again I didn't prepare myself well, but so what, I'd be in the city so I could pick up whatever necessities I forgot. I almost didn't bring a hat, which would have been costly. Once we hit the bottom of Manhattan the winds were real nasty. It would be well past noon before I warmed up. But, we were afforded with great views of New York harbor which includes the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The lovely Staten Island was also in view.
We then walked north. Pretty much the entire west side is park land. Many cyclists, rollerbladers, runners and walkers were out to take advantage of the beautiful, but windy day. From here a glimpse of the Freedom Tower could be seen. It's amazing that the Dubai Tower (over 2 thousand feet)even though construction on it did not start until after 2001. Here in NYC almost 10 years after 9/11 there's barely 30 stories.
We took a little detour to walk along the high line. The High Line has to be one of the more unique parks around. This is parkland made from an old rail line that is above the streets which you can check out here. It was pretty cool walking on an old rail bed above the streets with all this vegetation. A great place to take a walk in the morning and chilling while reading the paper. It was just after here that I met up with the infamous Johnny Rocket.
The pace of the walk was pretty quick and Johnny Rocket was man enough for it. Johnny Rocket walked up to near the GW bridge. We stopped for lunch at the Boathouse. I finally was able to warm up a little here.
One of the highlights for me was seeing the Little Red Lighthouse under the GW bridge. As a child we read the book about it at school. It's the only lighthouse left on Manhattan.
We then reached the tip of Manhattan. 217th street was the highest numbered street that I saw. There was a nice little park at the tip. We then started heading south toward lower Manhattan. Walking the streets of Spanish Harlem was interesting. The east side didn't have much for walking. So we then moved inland and out of the wind and we headed south along 3rd avenue. We had dinner around 97th street. After dinner there were only 5 of us and the pace was extremely quick. And at this point I started to feel the miles on my feet. I think next time I do this it will be on bicycle.
