2016-05-16 40 -73

Location

In the back yard of a small apartment building in Wakefield, North Bronx

Participants

Plans

Around noon Elipongo posted on the Facebook group that he was going for it (on the way home from his job which was nearby.) This alerted OtherJack, who normally couldn't have made this hash in the daytime due to his own job located far north of here. But, luckily, today he had to stay in the city for a (minor) doctor appointment, so he decided to go for it too, by subway direct from the doctor's office which was near Columbus Circle.

Expedition

At 1:26pm Eli posted again to facebook indicating that he got within 50 feet, on the street in front of the property, but was unable to get further. (More details welcome from Eli!) At this time Jack was just arriving at the doctor. About 40 minutes later he set out excitedly for the subway, still hopeful because the aerial image had shown an easy entrance to the parking lot? containing the hash from the back side of the property, one short block west of Eli's attempt.

Once firmly in the Bronx, the subway train rose out of its tunnel and proceeded along elevated tracks. At first this was interesting because of the views, but quickly became monotonous as the Bronx scenery (5 story brick apartment buildings, delis, discount groceries, meat markets, occasional liquor store, ...) really didn't change and the train crept very slowly with closely spaced stops. After about an hour, Jack finally reached the very last station on the line, which was the hash station.

The neighborhood out here was almost suburban with a lot of trees, and some houses/townhouses mixed with the apartment buildings. It was somewhat low income but clearly not destitute. Jack descended west into a steep valley along a main street, continuing to descend along the parallel side street after the main street lifted onto a valley-spanning bridge. At the bottom was his turnoff toward the back entrance of the hash property. There was a car repair shop down here with a bunch of young people hanging out front, whether waiting to get car(s) fixed, or just killing time Jack had no idea.

The hash lot, which was down the street a little, turned out to contain a humble three-story apartment building and a bunch of junked cars. It was easily accessed up a driveway on this side, as the imagery had suggested. No one seemed to be around, and with a little wading through the weeds and threading between the old autos, Jack got within android accuracy near the property's south fence. (He didn't want to take the time for the yellow-GPS hashdance, given the unfamiliar setting and potential problems with the building owners.)

On the way back, one of the repair-shop-hanging guys, clearly amused by Jack's presence (white people might be even more seldom seen on this block than in Rosedale), asked if he was trying to find the nearby Metro-North station. Jack laughed and explained that, no, he'd actually been trying to find "something else," but that he'd found it so everything was good. He neglected to mention geohashing.

But this reminded him to actually check the Metro-North schedule, since that would go much faster than the subway. Indeed there was a train in about 15 minutes, so he proceeded up and onto the long bridge and over to the station, catching some railroad photos on the way. The journey home by Metro-North and 125th Street bus was straightforward. Another successful Bronx hash.

At home Jack realized this hash was only barely in New York City - the other end of the bridge was in Yonkers, and Mt. Vernon lay just north as well! He'd had no idea of this during the expedition... though the neighborhood on the other side of the bridge did look a bit higher income...

Photos

End of the line
Hash building & driveway
Proof!
Junked car #1
More junked cars
Hashpoint was right by the orange cones and the shed
Cars galore
The hash street & bridge
On the bridge now, over the Metro-North tracks. Hashpoint is to the left and ahead a bit
Looking west to Yonkers
Northbound train & subway finder sign
Metro-North station
On the platform
Glimpse of Yonkers from the platform