NYCkayaker TOP TEN NY-METRO HALLOWEEN PADDLING SPOTS

[Erik Baard]

TOP TEN NY-METRO HALLOWEEN PADDLING SPOTS

1. Hell Gate

It was a holy place for Native Americans, or at least the outflow of 
Sunswick Creek into its southern reaches was. And the name is merely a 
Anglicization of Hellegat, the Dutch for "bright passage" and the name 
of a similar-looking branch of the Scheldt River estuary in Europe. 
With those two strikes, Hell Gate came battling back with:

* numerous deaths from boating and shipping disasters, notably the 
fiery demise of the General Slocum with over 1,000 church picnic-going 
women and children aboard, unjustly mowed down, as their contemporaries 
noted, by greed and lawlessness?

* a legendary specter presaging death, in the form of a black man in 
colonial dress and a tricorner hat who rows across Hell Gate in heavy 
fog
* a disturbing collage, at the right tidal point, of whirlpools, 
gurgles, broad rips, and standing waves

2. Sleepy Hollow

Easily a contender for the top spot, with its horrifying headless 
horseman galloping alongside a dark spread of the Hudson River. Now if 
he were a headless mariner...

3. Graveyard of Ships

Yes, yes, yes, some argue that this place might more accurately be 
called, "junkyard of ships." But it doesn't take much imagination to 
hear voices here, to see ghostly sailors smiling quietly from the 
depths, or to feel breath on your neck when paddling through an old 
ferry in this most silent and unlit Arthur Kill (kill! kill!) 
backwater.

4. Hart Island

The dead are fresh at this potters field off the coast of the Bronx, 
with new arrivals coming daily from the prisons and from among the 
city's poorest. It's mystery and spookiness even lured several morbidly 
curious teens to their deaths not long ago. Don't let your flashlight 
batteries fail and don't light a natural flame...

5. Swinburne Island

The chapel yet stands at the forlorn cremation island for old New 
York's unluckiest would-be immigrants. The island is covered with 
webbing, tendril-like growths and pits into the basements and gaping 
foundations of crumbled buildings. For those who dare enter, wash 
basins and tubs yearn to be put back into service to bathe the dead 
before their resignation to flame.

6. Pumpkin Patch

How could we not include this reedy, mucky Jamaica Bay marshland? Just 
don't run aground at low water -- you wouldn't like to be caught 
between the hungrily suckling black mud below and the vacant chill of 
night above. No, not at all...

7. North Brother Island

Is Typhoid Mary's ghost still so lonely here in her place of quarantine 
exile? Does she flit from building husk to dank, extinguished furnace 
desperate for the warmth of living, human company? Or do the Slocum 
victims who washed ashore here or came crashing aground with the 
flaming vessel bring her solace?

8. Spuyten Duyvil

Is this restless confluence a gateway to the underworld, as many used 
to believe? Or is there simply a demon who slinks the dark-woven wooded 
shorelines and skitters across the waters? Dare you drift in silence to 
await an answer? Might the ancient petroglyphs found nearby provide 
hints or cryptically taunt you?

9. Newtown Creek

Yeah, well this place is scary any day. Except for the Rockefeller 
clan, which still enjoys cash made in wrecking the place. Standard 
Oil...ExxonMobil...BOO! Scared you, huh?

10. Wallabout Bay

Was it merely 8,000 or as many as 14,000 "prison ship martyrs" who died 
here of starvation, disease, and abuse by British guards here during 
the War of Independence? It was impossible to tell from the bleached 
bones that for generations would appear on the muddy Brooklyn flats 
after heavy storms. So many to count. But maybe they will provide a 
number. But beware...can you be certain that the spirits won't be angry 
at how poorly we've upheld their ideals? Linger, listen, learn...


Honorable Mention:

* The LIC Community Boathouse! Hey, we are located in a meat plant that 
was put out of service just months ago, after all. Like meat hooks?

* Underneath broad, light-snuffing piers like Pier 40 and the concrete 
channeled pier in NJ, across from the 79th Street Boathouse.

* The World Trade Center is too fresh a national tragedy, but maybe 
it'll make the list a century from now.

* The East River generally, where so many of New York's prematurely 
dead end up.

* The Gowanus Canal, the Newtown Creek's littler, cleaner sister.

Feel free to add your own!

Creepy regards,

Erik "Soul Tormentor" Baard

LIC Community Boathouse
http://www.licboathouse.org

Nature Calendar
http://www.naturecalendar.com

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