Hudson River Greenway

Springtime in New York City, the hustle of cabs flying fares around town, the bustle of tourists jockeying to get the best view of the sights and sounds, killer traffic, vehicles coming out of nowhere seemingly going everywhere at warp speed. Over 8 million residents jammed into 23 square miles of island with the daily addition of 1.6 million commuters, 800,000 tourists, and over 70,000 commuting students. Everyone & everything fighting to get somewhere else on the island, yesterday.

This is no place for a Texas tourist to ride his bike, certain annihilation at the hands of urban mayhem a guaranteed outcome. 

HOLD THE PRESSES!

Not this year, in the spring of 2021 with the pandemic raging and vaccinations just beginning, it would seem all the out-of-towners got the memo; “This spring is for New Yorkers alone”.

No slack jawed tourists edging to check off too many sites on a too long list driven by crazed cabbies looking for fat fares. The city this spring was for the people who live there providing them the opportunity to fall in love with the ‘city that never sleeps’ all over again. 

The memo I got said “Come to Manhattan, bring your favorite bicycle and ride the Hudson River Greenway”, a 12.9 mile combination of rail-trail & greenway extending along the eastern shore of the island beside the Hudson River. 

One could stay outside NYC in New Jersey or on Long Island and ride the train into downtown with your bike but I decided to drive into Manhattan, park my truck in the Battery and start my ride north from there. While a bit pricey at $48 a day to park, worth every cent. I rode my bike out of a virtually empty parking garage into the Battery at the tip of the island and directly onto the trail.

So I Rode North

The trail follows the river north flirting with the shoreline at times, weaving in between buildings, tennis courts, playing fields and revitalized shoreline at other times. Manhattan is at it’s best when it’s left to it’s residents without the tourists. Folks are so much more civil when they don’t have to navigate an onslaught of tourists!

The view of the city and the river at the southern tip of Manhattan is incredible with shade from the buildings AND TREES! It is  a greenway after all. 

As you ride north to midtown, the skyscrapers on your eastern horizon bow down to your passing for a while only to spring back up in midtown. Old docks have been transformed into “Little Islands” and “Frying Pan” restaurants. A steady trickle of residents populating the trail along the way. Everyone smiling, enjoying the weather, the view and the lack of chaos. 

The ride flows north under the Henry Hudson Parkway, skyscrapers on your right and the river on your left past tennis courts, softball fields and the USS Intrepid, a retired aircraft carrier. Then back into the trees before emerging beside the river with a jaw dropping view of the George Washington Bridge. 

Then I Rode South

Around 125th street, regrettably, I made a u-turn and headed back south to the Battery. What am I saying here, regrettably my foot, make that both feet. The view going south is just as sweet as the view going north.

Ending up back at the Battery, I decided to ride around a bit and take in the sights. Did I mention the utter lack of tourists?

Final Thoughts

This ride fundamentally changed the way I see New York City. I went to school on Long Island in the 70’s. At that time NYC wasn’t so friendly and was, in fact, down right dangerous. From the hookers around the Port Authority to the pooled blood on the stairs of the subway, the city could and would rear up it’s ugly side and take a big bite out of you. The immense scale of the buildings, the constant crush of crowded chaos and the filth in the streets dominated the senses of the newly arrived while driving the inhabitants to a callous disregard for others.

After my ride along the Hudson River that Sunday morning in May, I’ve come to see the city for what it has become in the years and tribulations that have happened during that time. New Yorkers have reconnected with the inner strength they always had and the hardening in the fire that was 9/11. There is literally a green side to New York City along the Hudson River and a confident optimism in the city’s future seen in the smiles and on the faces of it’s natives.

New York City feels smaller, closer to the scale of life I live in; and familiar, I’m no longer an outsider. It is a city much like the Phoenix, reborn, rebuilt and reimagined by it’s habitants along the lines of the great metropolis it has always been and will always be. As it turns out, I took more than a ride along the Hudson, it would seem I took a ride into my past and came back to the present transformed by the changes in a city I thought I knew. 

https://www.traillink.com/trail/hudson-river-greenway/