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.
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.
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