Watching the Transformation (Hudson Yards)

A stroll a bit north and eastward on my lunch hour is more and more like watching a caterpillar turn to a butterfly. The daily construction activity is enormous and the metamorphosis is sometimes overwhelming. City blocks of crumbling concrete and barely visible underground railroads get ripped apart, dug deeper and poured with concrete as steel frameworks transform into one more enormous skyscraper climbing slowly to the sky. Its almost like a sci-fi world of the future...

Map of the area

Playground

 Yep - there's a railroad there!

If you stop and peak through the fences, vestiges of old New York can be seen...

 ...an old 2 strong hold-out from the past give away building-by-building to the new high-rises...

 Even the future Penn Station is shrouded in black as work continues on renovations and renewal...

It's crazy!!

Requiem for the old bridge (and Blue Blazing)

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day - sunny and not too cold. It was still way too muddy to mountain bike so Kevin and I decided to finish blazing the Blue Trail.

We noted some interesting  things along the the trail... that's what makes the valley so special - there is always something amazing if you just look around!

Monster face

The Coyote Crossing Bridge--washed away last fall in a nasty flood--is visible downriver. I wish I had a bugle to play Taps :-( Surprisingly its still intact but a close up of the snapped guy wires showed just how powerful the river can be...

Kevin had the Picasso touch on the blazing! :-)

  The old car chassis is still there - but every year its a little more weather worn...

 Lastly up by the Indian Ledges we marveled at this huge quartz boulder - the Valley never dissapoints!

Crampons at pValley

I went back into the Park today (Sunday) to see how our blue blazing held up. This time I used my crampons! All the blue blazing  is looking good (phew!)

 Couldn't resist snapping this photo :-)

Finally - Snow!

March 2nd - We finally got some snow. I took a walk in my local park (Woodway) and enjoyed wearing my snowboots (for a change!)

Virgin  snow!! 

My footsteps...

Duh - bring your crampons dude!!

I took a hike over at Wilton Woods today - but stupidly didn't take my crampons!  I hiked the Orange to the White Trail and realizing it was almost impossible to ascend the cliff on the White, I turned around and went out on the Blue.

 It was super icy and I even took a spill on this iced-over section of the Orange along the cliff  CWAZY!!

Down by the Riverside (Again)

Another gorgeous day for February! The caboose piqued my curiosity...

"Pier 66 within Hudson River Park in New York City  includes a Lackawanna railroad barge a historic rail float bridge, an authentic 1900’s Lackawanna caboose, and the retired New York City Fire Boat, John J Harvey." Further Details >

My handy bag of pretzels ensured I make new friends :-)

A view back to the overwhelming skyscrapers....

 

Yep - under the Highline there's greenery as well :-)

 Need I say more? This area is ritzy now...

Revisiting the High Line

Back on July 11th 2016, on a beautiful warm sunny day,  I documented my visit to the High Line on my railroad-related blog.  Today was a gorgeous day -(in the 50s -- amazing for February !!) so I spent my lunch hour on a quick trek back on this wonderful park/railroad remnant.

lt's always good to see rails :-)

Powerful piece of art!
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