Writes Casey Kelbaugh, in "Walking From Manhattan to the Catskills on the ‘Long Path’/Intrigued by a trail marker he spotted upstate, a photographer set out to follow a meandering — and little-known — hiking route north from New York City" (NYT)(free access link).
The Walt Whitman poem is "Song of the Open Road," which begins:
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road....
It ends, many lines later:
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
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28 comments:
More anecdotal evidence that one’s perspective is largely determined by where one stands.
Thacher Park is beautiful, right on the edge of the cliff that is the northernmost point of the Catskills, but it’s a stretch to say that it’s just south of the Adirondack Mountains. It’s at least 50 miles to the blue line of the Adirondack Park.
Thacher Park is beautiful, right on the edge of the cliff that is the northernmost point of the Catskills, but it’s a stretch to say that it’s just south of the Adirondack Mountains. It’s at least 50 miles to the blue line of the Adirondack Park.
Now, that's nice.
That was beautiful - thanks for the link.
Charming. Thank you. Whitman is overwrought and delightful at the same time.
"The Long Path is a 358-mile hiking trail that begins at the 175th Street subway station in Manhattan and runs to Thacher State Park..."
That's a lot of meandering! By car, that trip is only around 150 miles of highway driving.
As to my list of things I hope to do someday. At this moment, I'm rather uncomfortably sitting with one leg elevated "above my heart" after yesterday's knee surgery, but my hopes are high!
"Nobody knew about it until I learned about it." So who put up the aqua blazes?
“The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.”
Actually, it leads you wherever it goes. Your only choices are forward or back.
That's just Walt sounding his barbaric yawp!
My path to the Adirondacks from NJ was airports at Kingston NY and Glens Falls NY for fuel. The latter was enough fuel to reach an unattended airport in the Adirondacks and back.
"Henceforth," now there's a term no self-respecting Beat poet would begin a line with, even though the whole sentiment of the line is pure Beat. There is gaudiness that poetry lost in the 20th century, that is all our loss.
I am puzzled by "eastern escarpment of the Hudson River". The Long Path definitely runs along the west side of the Hudson as it leaves NYC. I have hiked the section around Hook Mountain many times. Wonderful views of Croton Point, the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (used to be the Tappan Zee Bridge), and the Manhattan skyline. I suspect the author missed this because he "opted to drop down to the breezier Shore Trail for several sections".
Never heard of it. I had/have a friend, coworker, that was an avid hiker. He got some kind of recognition given to people who do a certain number of trails. He was also a toast master. I wander if I should try to contact him. I haven’t talk to him since Trump was running the first time. Best friend I’ve had outside AA.
I've been hiking sections of the Long Path since the 1960s. City people are clueless about anything outside Manhattan.
"Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"
Life must have been different before Grindr.
Speaking of clueless, there was a story a couple of months ago (I think posted here) about some hikers getting rescued on the Long Path. Somehow they thought they were on a shorter trail, and got in trouble on a very hot day. I think it was the group from Queens in this story.
Sounds like a perfect spot for these folks to make a Long March.
One Friday after finals I took the subway up to the GW bridge, walked across and spent the night sleeping in the trees near the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The next day I walked 42 miles up to Storm King Mountain, spent the night, and hitched back to NYC on Sunday. Lots of deer, it was a good break.
"outside AA" is ambiguous: do you mean friends on this website, or friends made at Alcoholics Anonymous?
"Life must have been different before Grindr."
From the book "Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians":
"It was... a six-mile round-trip from his Brooklyn home, requiring a variety of different conveyances. All along the way—while walking, riding in coaches, and aboard ferries—Whitman encountered men, all different kinds. But he was especially drawn to workingmen such as stage drivers. Edward Carpenter, a friend of Whitman’s during his later years, once described the poet’s tastes, saying “the unconscious, uncultured, natural types pleased him best, and he would make an effort to approach them.” Whitman’s notebooks are filled with brief descriptions of the men he encountered, often during his ambles to and from Pfaff’s [Saloon]:
"Tom Egbert, conductor Myrtle av. open neck, sailor looking
"Mark Graynor, young, 5 ft. 7 in, black mustache, plumber Saturday night
"Mike Ellis—wandering at the cor of Lexington av. & 32d st.—took him home to 150 37th street,—4th story back room—bitter cold night—works in Stevenson’s Carriage factory.
"Dan’l Spencer . . . somewhat feminine—5th av (44) (May 29)—told me he had never been in a fight and did not drink at all . . . slept with me Sept 3d.
"A failed romance. A restless sense of longing. As it’s always been, these are raw ingredients that get mulled, weighed, processed—and ultimately transformed into art."
Martin, Justin. Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians (A Merloyd Lawrence Book) (pp. 97-98). Hachette Books. Kindle Edition.
"Conceived around 1930."
Before audio books, earbuds and modern high-tech walking shoes. The Horror!
I'm a native New Yorker. Although we moved away (to far-off Connecticut) when I was still a young child, I've always felt of New York (by which I mean "New York City" of course) as my homeplace. But I never heard of this trail. I don't understand what purpose it serves. When I climbed Mount Washington (several times) I knew why. The same for Mount Monadnock. I knew why I drove up/down the Hudson Valley so many times. I certainly knew why I took a trip to the various coasts of New England. And when the opportunity was presented to travel most of the way across the country and hike across the Grand Canyon, I knew and still know why. But I do not understand why one should hike "The Long Path". Can anyone explain?
Because it's a nice connection between the city, and the beautiful land of upstate New York. For one thing, it's probably the nicest way to get out of the city imaginable.
The road goes ever on and on, out from the place its begun - Bilbo Baggins
That "eastern" must be a typo. As I recall from the Tappan Zee, the eastern side is relatively! flat.
BC it's some BS stuff for the WP. That's why nobody cares about it either but everyone here but the [redacted] already knew that.
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