Montauk - Part 2

On Wednesday, we had planned to go westward from our hotel. The morning looked to be chilly and wet. Still, we soldiered into town for another breakfast at Mr. John's (this time I had a giant waffle and Toby tried the pancakes), then took a road north and west of the "pond" which seems to split the town. We walked along roads for a while, finally reaching the pier and parking lot where we'd wanted to begin our hike. The rain began coming down harder, and it was cold enough for some of the rain to feel like sleet. We walked up the ridge for a few minutes, then decided we'd turn back.


Navy Road Pier was much more appealing during a sunny warm day than a raining cold day!



Since our hotel was on the northeast side of that pond, we just walked along the roads until we reached our hotel. It was nice to get out of our wet clothes and have a hot cup of tea! We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening vegging out in front of the TV, reading and knitting (well, I was knitting, Toby was watching TV).

The following morning was to be our checkout day, but it was sunny, clear, and warmer! We decided we'd stay a fourth night so we could have the whole day to hike. Hurray! We did have to change rooms, but got a larger studio on the top floor. If I'd known that the larger studios actually had separate living/sleeping areas, I certainly would have booked that for our trip! (It was only $5 more per night, after all! But the woman I'd spoken to about the hotel reservation just said that these studios were bigger. She wasn't interested in elaborating on anything, really.) Anyway, the move and checkout-checkin procedure delayed us a bit.

We repeated our route from the day before, but followed the Paumonok Trail; this is a long trail along much of Long Island. It's fairly new, and much of the trail has been cobbled together from existing trails. Anyway, we had taken a lot of this white-blazed trail the first day, and were interested in getting off the roads and into the forest. The trail took us through some lovely woods and valleys. Not much was blooming, but it was warm, sunny, and quiet. Eerily quiet, in fact, as we saw few birds and not even a squirrel! At one point, though, we heard a screechy cry. Eventually we placed it, and found it was a Northern Harrier! This hawk is quite large, and she must have had a nest that she was trying to lure us away from. She was quite insistent with her cries and kept flying away from the first place where we'd spotted her. A beautiful bird indeed! And perhaps that was why the forest had been so quiet; these birds fly low to the ground catching smaller birds for food!

Around a bend and we came across the Lost Boulder. Seems strange how we could have missed such a giant rock until we were practically on top of it! The face I'm touching in the photo exposed huge chunks of quartz and mica! A fantastic specimen for Toby-the-geologist!


The Lost Boulder. But we couldn't help it find its way home.



After a few miles the trail reached the shore, just about where we had turned around the day before. We followed a path which ran parallel to the beach, but was more sheltered from the wind, for another few miles .We noticed small burrows (mole tunnels, perhaps?) amidst the leaf litter. Every once in a while, we would take a spur path to the ridge and watch gulls and mergansers and loons out on the water. We spent the end of the walk along the rocky shoreline, where we saw lots of beautiful shells; I kept thinking I'd found a blue rock, only to find it to be a mussel shell. Alas, ticks were out too; apparently a hike in New York just wouldn't be a hike if it didn't include picking ticks off of yourself.


Limpets grow on each other! They had beautiful reddish-purple insides.



The day was lovely and definitely worth the extra night's stay in the hotel! We dined that night at the hotel's restaurant. Unfortunately, for all its claims to fine cuisine, it was overpriced and not very good. We should have gone with our gut feeling (as we had to come return after the prix fixe deal had expired since the restaurant was full) and ordered in pizza. Oh well.

Still, the complaints are minor about the trip. Mostly, it was revitalizing to be able to get away from the city and from the crowds (Penn Station was a little overwhelming when we returned!). We saw very few people during our hikes; it was just us two, plants and animals! It feels wonderful coming home with that refreshed feeling! And it's taking us a few days to re-adapt to the city again!


Relaxed and rejuvenated after a few days out of the city and away from crowds.

Montauk - Part 1

Well, the first 10 days of April was my Spring Break, and we thought we should head out of town for a bit. Our first plan was to visit Tom and Kath in Malaysia, but we quickly realized that the round-the-world flight plus time difference plus climate change plus short duration would not be a good combination. Very saddened by this, however, as their sabbatical sounds and looks like quite the adventure!

Our next plan was to go camping in Utah and check out the badlands in the state's south-east corner. Unfortunately, time passed quickly and before we knew it, there just wasn't time to plan a trip out and figure out all our camping stuff and all that.

So, we decided to stay a little closer to home - Long Island. Technically two of NYC's boroughs are on Long Island (Queens and Brooklyn). However, when people here say, "Long Island", they're referring to the areas outside of Queens and Brooklyn. There are commuter trains that run along the island, which would make for easy (and last-minute-planning-friendly) transportation. Plus, it's low tourist season (and will remain that way until Memorial Day - same as Victoria Day in Canada) so things are cheaper. An interesting fact: Long Island was formed when the glaciers receded during the last ice age; it's really a collection of debris that a glacier gathered up as it moved southward, stopping and dropping its dirt and rock to make the island!

We decided to head all the way out east, past the Hamptons, to the town of Montauk. After some searching on the internet, we found Montauk Manor, "An American Castle". It was a Carl Fischer construct, a 1920's effort to turn the area to quite the resort, including blasting out a sandbar in order to make a bay out of a lake! The Manor is a silly-looking tudor style condo/time-share/hotel. Of course, being who we are, we chose it because it was inexpensive! (They have this mid-week, low-season deal: 3 nights for the price of 2!)

Monday morning, we subwayed down to Penn Station in midtown and transferred to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). A short ride into Queens and then a transfer to another line. We trundled along the southern coast of Long Island for the most part, glimpsing tantalizing views of the Atlantic Ocean. The buildings looked more and more run down as we got further from the centre of NYC...

Then they became ritzier and more extravagant as we closed in on the Hamptons! Which reminds me of a photo from a magazine last year: it showed well-tiled airplanes on a tarmac. At first, the photo looks like a set of model planes in a parking lot. Then you realize that these are people's private jets that they've flown into the Hamptons on for the weekend!

Past all that, we finally get to Montauk (named for a group of American Indians who used to live in this region), the eastern-most town on the island. It's still quite ritzy, but not nearly as wealthy and status-driven as the Hamptons. (One paragraph in a tourist brochure said that "Montauk is more casual than the Hamptons. Ties and jackets are not normally required in its establishments." Thankfully, as we hadn't packed any ties or jackets!

It took a bit of wandering around the roads and a phone call to the Manor before we figured out how to reach it! The fancy-shmancy looking building at the top of the hill that we spotted from the train station certainly looked like the right place, but how on earth did one get there? It turns out that the manor isn't really on the street that it's addressed as, silly us! Anyway, we found the place, checked in, and sans maps, managed to find our way into the town. (It was about a 30min walk south from the hotel through residential areas, complete with grazing white-tailed deer, to the rest of town.) Town is an odd mixture of uber-touristy places, expensive boutiques and restaurants, and run-down shops for locals. It reminded us of Jasper or Banff, actually. There, we picked up a few groceries for the next few days (as we had a kitchenette in our room - even smaller than our kitchen at home!) and wandered about.

Montauk Manor



We found most of the hotels along the beach south of main street, but they were all closed during the low season. That meant we had the beach to ourselves! A bit chilly, and I felt pretty silly with my cup of tea, but hey, it was still rejuvenating to be by the water and away from people! That night, I was able to satisfy my craving for pizza in the local pizza joint. Yum!


The chilly but deserted beachfront.



The following day, we walked back into town for a hearty breakfast at Mr. John's Pancake House (perpetually full, as we soon discovered) -- pancakes, eggs and bacon for Kris and fish and chips for Toby. Then we had a cab to drive us out to the eastern parks. There are a series of parks which make up the island east of Montauk. We started in the northwest, by Big Reed Pond, and wandered through some woodsy and marshy areas. It was all very pretty.


Some wanderings again. We tried to find the tallest hill, which supposedly has a wonderful view of the lighthouse, but oddly enough, it was difficult to find! Of course, the hill was all of 95 ft above sea level, and we were in forested areas. (Without a map except from our book of Long Island Walks, we would experience a lot of wrong turns and misjudgements in direction as the day progressed.) We did find another hill, just missing a group of people on horseback. (A lot of horseback riding tours are available!) We finally made our way to Oyster Pond (our second destination point). A few spurs off the trail lead to the Pond, where, indeed, there were many oysters to be found. And, who'd believe it, horseshoe crab shells! I'm fascinated by these primitive beasts, and to find such tiny shells was quite exciting!


The two partial shells of a small horseshoe crab fit together! Kris' mitten for scale.


An even small horseshoe crab shell! That spiny-looking black thing is a skate egg.



More wanderings and backtrackings later, we made our way to the seal haulout. From this point on the beach, one should be able to watch seals sunning themselves on the rocks at low tide. Unfortunately, we only saw one seal head bobbing up and down, then disappearing. The cold, windy, and cloudy day probably meant that the rocks weren't fun for sunning. We had been planning to walk along the beach out to the lighthouse from there, but the biting wind made that plan untenable. We followed other walking paths inland, and made it to the lighthouse. Originally, we'd wanted to see the lighthouse first, starting our day's hike from there. But the $6.50 entrance fee seemed too much, plus it would be crowded with tourists, so we opted to end at the lighthouse. A good plan!


The Montauk Lighthouse.



The lighthouse is about 200 years old, and the bluff it sits on has been eroding away steadily. Plans have been made to shore up the lighthouse, and giant rocks were brought in from somewhere to help protect the remaining bluff from the ocean waves. The trail took us along these rocks, and I realized that I have quite the fear of falling! How did I not realize this before? At any rate, the adrenaline pumping through me kept me alert and energized for much longer than anticipated! A good thing too, as it was about 4 more miles walking back along the highway to get back to our hotel! We certainly had sore legs that evening, having walked probably 15 miles that day.

Pelham Bay Adventure

On the last Saturday in March, Toby planned a day trip for us out to Pelham Bay, at the northeastern edge of the Bronx. The trip involved a bus ride, a subway ride, and then a walk into the park. I could imagine the park being very crowded during the summer time (complete with a trucked-in sandy beach), but seeing as it was still a bit chilly, we had a relatively quiet day.


Robert Moses' vision realized - Orchard Beach at Pelham Bay.



We had to walk across a bridge, past the old landfill site, and around a parking lot before getting to the seashore. But what a fantastic shore it was! We could almost pretend there was no one around. Unfortunately, just across the way were enormous houses, perhaps luxury getaways? There were several people digging for clams (we magically arrived during low tide) and unfortunately, a loud group of city folk who felt the need to blare their music and converse by shouting. Otherwise, it was just us and wildlife!


Mussels everywhere!



We saw our first skunk cabbage of the year. Not too smelly yet, thankfully! We roamed about a tidal island, where we saw a pair of oystercatchers! We'd been hearing these high-pitched whistling noises, and couldn't place the sounds until we came across these two birds. They're pretty silly-looking, with large orange-red bills and an awkward walk. These guys inspire me to write a children's picture book starring a pair of funny oystercatchers!


First skunk cabbage of the season.


Crazy oystercatchers with their silly walks!


While Kris stalks oystercatchers, Toby takes in the view.




Our wanderings took us by a horseshoe crab shell! What a fantastic (in the sense of 'fantasy') creature this is! Toby couldn't help trying it on! Mussels were everywhere too. No wonder so many seagulls were about the shoreline! There were oodles of raccoon tracks and small holes where they had been digging in the mud for their lunch. The woods were oddly silent though, until we were walking away from the beach along the (currently) unused bus loop. At that point a red-tailed hawk swooped over us, settled in a tree and berated us for walking too close. About fifty meters further along - far enough that the hawk had quieted, but close enough that we could still see it -- suddenly the woods was full of woodpeckers. They seemed quite content to hang out together despite belonging to at least three different species. It was nice to see their flashes of red against the drab background of a forest not yet ready to sprout leaves.


Does this suit me?



Despite the somewhat chilly temperatures (about 8C) there were some hardy sunbathers hanging out, on a bench, in their speedos. But for the most park the few visitors to the beach seemed to be their so that the kids could run around in the sand for a bit. It was a nice place, but if the 5000 space parking lot (and the bus loop with twelve parallel loading areas) are any indications, I don't think we would enjoy visiting it in the summer.


The snack stop. You can imagine the crowds, can't you?

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

Just after Ed and Denise visited NYC, we hooked up with their friend, Kate, for a day at the Bronx Zoo. When we'd been out during E&D's visit, I was showing Kate The Wildlife Conservatory magazine that we get for being members. (The TWC gives us access to the FOUR NYC zoos and the aquarium.) Kate was rather taken with the tree kangaroos, so we had to see them in person.

The day was lovely and surprisingly warm. Hurray! Our first stop was to see the tree kangaroo. During a previous trip to the zoo, Toby and I saw two tree kangaroos. One was bullying the other out of a spot on the tree. The bullied one looked quite sad to be forced onto the ground, laying her weary head on a low-lying branch. This trip, we only saw the one tree kangaroo. We guessed this one was female, perhaps with a joey in her pouch: she moved rather awkwardly through the tree branches. Maybe she's carrying extra weight that she wasn't used to, we surmised. At any rate, it was fun to watch her move around, but she did look sad. We also were hypothesizing that on the previous trip, a visiting male from another zoo was brought in for breeding purposes. Who knows? But I do hope there will be a tiny tree kangaroo to be seen at the zoo soon!


Tree Kangaroo awkwardly climbing the tree.


Phew! I made it!



Given the warmish day, the zoo was busier than it had been during winter visits. We did manage to get a good spot to watch the tiger enrichment session. This time, we watched Alexis being fed, then her mother, Norma. The zookeepers were telling us about Alexis being rather aggressive when it came to food, so she was always fed first. Then she left with her final treat (a chicken, I believe), and it was Norma's turn to be fed and poked and prodded. Partway through, though, Alexis came back and roared at Norma. The keeper left the enrichment area, and within a few minutes, Alexis became bored and allowed Norma to finish her enrichment session. It was fantastic to see TWO tigers interacting!





Sadly, just several days before this visit, one of the two male brown bears had died. We stopped by the bear den to pay our respects and to watch the remaining three bears (one male, two females) lounging about in the afternoon sunshine. The polar bear next door was pacing as usual. We've only seem him/her pacing the same route; I think that this fellow needs different enrichment sessions!

Even brown bears need to nap in the sunbeam sometimes.



We also visited the House of Darkness at the zoo, where we watched crazy fruit bats munching away on hanging bits of fruit and flying around far too quickly for my feeble eyes to track! There were naked mole rats, which are always a bit creepy to me. And sand cats (awwww) and slow lorises. We could just see the furry lump of the sloth before the lights turned on and we were told that the zoo was closing.

A few weeks later, Toby and I stopped by the Central Park Zoo. Normally, we wouldn't bother with this small zoo seeing as (1) it's in the southern (read: extremely crowded) part of Central Park, and (2) it's very small but the admission price is large. But, seeing as we have passes, we've stopped by a few times. I suspect the visits will stop as the weather warms up and the area gets immensely crowded! Anyway, we had to get a few photos of the two resident mouse deer for Kath and Tom, seeing as they haven't been able to see any wild specimens in Malaysia so far! (I was quite annoyed to overhear someone calling a mouse deer a 'deer mouse'. ) The rainforest building in the Central Park Zoo is pretty nifty, all things considered. Bats were spotted sleeping (occassionally waving their wings as if to fan themseles), hanging from the emergency sprinklers! One large colourful bird was trying to make with the zookeeper's hand/head/railing - basically whatever it could land on! He even alighted on my shoulder momentarily, much to my surprise!

Another reason we stop by the Central Park Zoo is to visit the red panda. It's usually sleeping with its back to us, but this time it managed to adjust just enough for us to get a glimpse of its uber-adorable face.

Mouse deer and tortoise (with a large leaf in foreground for perspective).



We'll be back to the Bronx Zoo soon, I'm sure. And we'll have to check out the one in Prospect Park (Brooklyn) and the Queens Zoos before our memberships run out! Of course, we will need to visit the aquarium again too, as it's a great excuse to hang out with my favourite creatures: sea otters!