Welcome to a one day late Halloween Happy Horror Story.
Got a Happy Story is a community gathering every Friday night where we share stories large and small that have put smiles on our faces. It is a time to acknowledge the joy and wonder we experience. The Happy Story diary exists as a way to anchor the community in hope and comfort while we do the hard work of taking back our country. Everyone and all sorts of stories and pictures are welcome. May we find joy and strength here.
Well you know how things go bump in the night. Last night I was possessed by the money demon. The phone rang and it was cash, money, green, so out the door I went. I feel a little guilty about breaking an almost four year chain of Friday post but there are those bills.
The original title was Got a Happy Story? גולם Edition. I had an accident this week that was a real horrorshow but I love sharing photos of the changing trees. Now with another day to think about it I have even more photos to share for Kossacks who are not from the Northeast.
So you may deserve a pony if you find my one day late seasonal scary Halloween drama.
Tonight's story could have been called Got a Happy Story? Charlie's Hole Revisited because this is a continuation of my last happy story. Two weeks ago I took a long walk in the forest and at sunset I decided to walk along a highway with no median to see a very wild corner of New York City where I once went swimming.
I explained in that diary that it was my first time seeing this extremely inaccessible corner of the Bronx in about forty years. I think it is just fascinating to be inside the boundaries of New York City and also be somewhere that is so remote. I mean if you hike to the summit of Mount Katahdin, most likely you will run into another hiker but at Charlie's Hole there is no chance of seeing another soul.
In my first visit to to my boyhood swimming hole I got some good photos and posted them in Got a Happy Story? Charlie's Hole Edition but it was very late in the day;
During that trek from two weeks ago the adventurer in me came back to life. So a little bit obsessed with my new found Shangri-La I woke up one beautiful morning this week and realizing it was peak foliage in the Bronx, I went back for some sun filled photos.
Now that you've found your paradise, this is your kingdom to command
I started at my usual parking spot by the Riverdale Riding Academy On a perfect day for both maples and oaks.
That's on Broadway and Moshulu Avenue if you ever feel like taking an urban walk or following Eddie's Big Adventure. Then all you have to do is follow the John Muir Nature Trail.
It was Monday and it was a perfect day. With cold and rain in the forecast for the coming days it seem like the next walk in the forest would be bare trees and kicking leaves. The walk to Charlie's Hole was wonderful.
I had another mission on my second adult quest to Charlie's Hole. When I was a boy I assumed this swimming hole was a pond. Surrounded on all sides by thick brush, then surrounded again by highways, it does not appear to be part of a waterway. Now it seems to be a part of the Saw Mill River Watershed. The lake in Tibbits Brook Park flows down into the Bronx and Charlie's Hole is actually the source of Van Cortland Lake.
As someone who has been living in a concrete jungle all of my life this walk brought up some new questions I've never asked before. What happens to all of these rivers? After years of driving the Saw Mill Parkway, I never once asked where does the river go. Now I know that the "progress of civilization" has made these waterways disappear.
The mouth of the Saw Mill River turns into a big sewer pipe under downtown Yonkers and feeds into the Hudson about two miles north of my apartment. My lovely Van Cortland Lake that I always post photos from also has a very unglamorous ending. At the southern end of the lake a big sewer pipe takes the overflow underground and the once picturesque Tibbits Brook now flows in darkness to the East River.
On Monday I was planning to find the secret river that feeds Charlie's Hole from the north and the place where it appears on The Van Cortland Golf Course. My accident interrupted the northern trek but I deserve a feather in my cap for my southern discoveries.
The spot where the John Muir Nature Trail and the oldest public golf course in America go under Moshulu Parkway is also where Charlie's Hole is lost under the roadway. So I walked the Old Putnam Railroad Trail that also goes under the road and climbed though a hole in the fence onto the golf course for some investigative walking;
I found several acres that are fenced in to keep curious golfers out and after climbing a fence I discovered a new secret sanctuary. Now I know where Charlie's Hole enters the Van Cortland Golf Course. First a secret lagoon between the 8th and 10th hols that goes unnoticed and lies untouched by human hands.
Then this fenced in forest wetland that offers birds and squirrels a little privacy in New York City continues for another thousand feet or so down the course all the way to a pond that is out in the open. From that pond there is a stream with a little golf cart bridge that leads to the wetlands just above Van Cortland Lake. Now I know where my lake comes from. Fuckin' A!
Monday was also a perfect day for golf course walking, especially if you are not chasing a little white ball all over the place;
And then the climax of my adventure. Follow me on the walk to the place in New York City that, excluding introduced plant species, doesn't look much different from the way it did before the influence of the White Man's Foot.
From the highway you can hardly see Charlie's Hole;
After you come around the curve and do a little bushwhacking there is this marvelous and serene nature sanctuary;
On my first visit I decided that from the island in the middle of this pond I could get the perfect photo;
Here's a photo a little closer to the island;
Another on my way across a log I placed as a bridge;
And the only photo I took from the island;
My island photo session was cut short because after the first click I noticed that my ankles felt wet. So I turned around and looked for my footsteps where I very carefully stepped out on this island. I must have missed because my first step plunged my right leg into the muck up to my groin. My left leg flailed into the drink and trying to steady myself with my my right hand, that also went into the muck up to my elbow.
There was a little problem with plunging my right hand into the mud because my camera was in my right hand. Well a big problem because I'm very fond of my camera. If the lanyard was not wrapped around my wrist I never would have seen that camera again.
My leg was stuck in this unstable island and by the time I managed to get free I had transformed myself into a a Golem. A Golem with soul but still a Halloween horror story that's a little funny, just a little.
I did not use my log to get back. What difference would it make? At that point the water helped wash down my muddy feet. By the time I got back to the river bank every part of me was covered in mud except my left arm and I used that part of my shirt in an attempt to clean off my once happy camera.
Fortunately it was warm so the two mile walk back to the car was not all that uncomfortable. A blanket protected the seat but the steering wheel is still gritty.
So why is this a happy story? When I got home I blew dried my camera all night and on Tuesday morning after a little Blue Shower and a whole lot of dust off, I went to work with Q-Tips and alcohol. By noon the camera turned back on! On Tuesday night I posted the highlights of photos numbers 76526 thru 76537 in Top Comments.
The camera is a little funky now but this Canon PowerShot A630 is pretty indestructible and I may still make it to photo number 100,000.
And speaking of Top Comments, I posted this photo in Top Comments recently;
And sardonyx thought he saw a word in those vines. After using a little imagination I realized that is the Barack Obama tree because the vines spell Win!
Hey the Repugs must have had a miserable Halloween and that's a Happy story for all Americans even the ones who don't realize it.
With the certainty of a Democratic president and possibility of a filibuster-proof majority in the senate that foul party has nothing but horror show in their future. With the state of this nation, oh well two out of three ain't bad.
But on my first adult trip to Charlie's Hole I got to recapture the twelve year old kid I once was and on the second I had a typical twelve year old accident. It was fun.
And if you don't know about Got A Happy Story? You can always stop in on Friday to share the good stuff. Do you have anything happy to share tonight?