2016-12-01 40 -73

Location

A residential sidewalk in Schuylerville, eastern Bronx

Participants

OtherJack

Plans

I did this pretty much on impulse... it was the first reasonably close accessible NYC point in some time, and conveniently it was also my first free-ish afternoon in quite some time. Hoped to reach the point by bike between 3:30pm and 4 but I needed to eat a late lunch first. Was thinking Eli would have also tried it since it's near his job, but haven't heard from him yet.

Expedition

Getting there was super easy because there was a very strong wind out of the west (blowing me toward the hash) and I hardly had to pedal to move forward. Well, it was also hard because I had never been in these neighborhoods before and got minorly turned around a couple times. I still insist on navigating mentally from a paper bike map for stuff like this. Should try google bike directions I suppose.

Most of the first 2/3 of the way was through very typical NY outer boro cheap immigrant neighborhoods, lots of signs in Spanish and 5-6 story buildings. At the end it got more industrial and weird, especially where I got lost. All the pictures of the route are of atypical stuff... didn't stop to take any typical shots because I was in a hurry to get back home for a date in the evening. There was one really cool part on a bike trail through a park that had a lot of natural restorations of prairie, marshes, woods, etc... reminded me a lot of projects in 40,-88 where I lived a decade ago. It was too cool and windy (and almost dark) for anyone to be out enjoying it though.

The hash neighborhood was more middle class and Italian / Puerto Rican, reminded me a lot of southern parts of Brooklyn. When I first approached the point there was a cop walking around, and his car was double parked there with the high beams on. He looked suspicious, albeit not of me. So I rode on through, nonchalantly as if that wasn't my destination. Went around the block and back to the main drag, stopped to take neighborhood pictures, tell my date what I was doing, etc. Tried the hash street again and yes the cop had departed, so I got my success. First since the visit from the Swiss hashers in August. It was around 4:20pm now.

Took my bike on the 6 subway home rather than cycling back against the wind in the dark. Normally would have biked it anyway, but our date was too soon for me to be sure I'd make it on time. (As it turned out, she rather liked the idea of geohashing when I related it... watch for upcoming hashes!)