DESTINATION Generic 370 Photosets
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| Hiking | 16.00 Miles |
5 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.00 Miles | 8 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.88 mph |
| 5 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | North Queens Parks – The Urban Hike Two
We, my wife and I, again took advantage of the multiple parks of New York City, and took a rather grand 16 mile tour of various public commons in North Queens. We had thoroughly enjoyed our first, shorter, urban hike through eastern Queens parks a couple week earlier (as chronicled in a separate HAZ triplog plus route), and thus we undertook a longer trek.
We started early, 5 AM, when of course temperatures are lower, but also when the heavily treed streets and parks of Queens would provide shade for a good number of hours. Oakland Lake was our first designation. The lake stretches about a good quarter mile in length, encircled all around by a newly rebuilt pathway. The recent rains had triggered the vegetation to grow thick and luscious, providing as close to a tropical forest experience as one could imagine in the midst of New York City.
We intended our next stop to be the Michaels Mile pathway along Little Neck Bay. (Search on “Joe Michaels Mile Queens” for the heartening story on the namesake here.) To our surprise, and chagrin, a fence barricaded our entry; posted signs announced that reconstruction was in progress. While an immediately disappointment, we took heart in the ongoing and constant Parks Department work to upgrades parks, pathways and playgrounds. After all, just several years ago the Oakland Lake pathway had degraded to essentially impassable, and its upgrade was a complete and wildly successful restoral.
Undaunted, we looped back west and north, through city streets, to Crocheron Park, a small respite tucked in the residential areas around 33rd Avenue. The morning sun cast its delicate light across the tiny pond and open grasslands of Crocheron.
We then proceeded to the 28th Avenue pedestrian bridge. Not all of Michaels Mile was closed, and the pedestrian bridge took us over the Cross Island Parkway to the open, northern section. The Michaels Mile pathway represents the dichotomy of the urban park experience. On its west side, the pathway skirts directly against the Cross Island Parkway, with its heavy, noisy, irritating high speed traffic, while just as directly on east side Michaels Mile offers constant vies of the serene and placid waters of Little Neck Bay.
Michael’s Mile ends at a Fort Totten, once a major defensive battery protecting New York and now a park. A bit of planning would have helped, as the park was open, but the historic stone fortifications on the shore line were closed. The park does offer views of Throgs Neck Bridge, spanning high over apartments and houses along the shoreline. We then proceeded west through Little Bay Park, with its soccer fields, then under the Throgs Neck, at which point we turned south.
Park space ended. To go south, we proceeded down quiet residential blocks, with their trimmed shrubbery and manicured lawns, albeit on tightly spaced lots. Flags flew on an occasional home, and the houses varied in style, color and size. Traffic was sparse, and the walk quiet and relaxing.
Our walk south was aimed at the Queens Botanical Garden, but we went through Bowne park about midway. Asian Pacific music filled the air as two different groups went through their dance and meditation sequences, while in another section kids frolicked and laughed on the (newly renovated) play equipment and sprinklers.
As we approached the Botanical Gardens, the urban density increased. The streets could no longer hold their perfect geometric layout, store fronts appeared, apartment buildings disrupted the rows of houses, and wide avenues carried heavy traffic.
Queens Botantical Garden offers an amazing variety of flowers, foliages, walkways and trees. We did not enter, though. We had hoped to traverse the park, and exit at a pedestrian bridge on the west side, but (as we had suspected from Google satellite views) the gate to the bridge remains locked as no admission booth or security point would prevent unpaid entry otherwise.
We then turned east, looping back to our residence. We picked up Kissena Park and Peck Park, as well as a series on connecting corridors between them, (covered in the prior triglog) then over the pedestrian bridge spanning the Long Island expressway, then through more neighborhood streets to our home.
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