The Daily Tannenbaum The stigmata of the single life.*

I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but this part of the world where I live is wonderful.  The more I explore it, the more I love it.

I would be no Hudson Valley blogger worth her salt if I didn’t write up a little something about our new crowning jewel, Walkway Over the Hudson.  For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the walkway is a state park that connects Poughkeepsie to Highland via a bridge that used to be an elevated railway.  There’s not much to the walkway, just slabs of concrete covering what used to be tracks, with a few signs depicting area history affixed to the 5-foot railing.  At first that kind of bugged me, the lack of pomp or benches at this park.  But by the time I walked half way across the river, I realized that the beauty of the walkway isn’t the ground below, but the panorama available only to those standing 212 feet above the Hudson River.

This summer I’ve sailed down the river, swam across the river, sat at the banks of the river, and maneuvered my car from one side to another more times than I’d like to admit.  None of those compared to the breathtaking view of standing on the walkway above the river, seeing the changing leaves in the highlands to the west and looking to the east, where a downtrodden city looks peaceful and organic when turned into a quilt of rooftops, trees and lawns.  I hope that this new tourist attraction continues to bring crowds, because the people-watching is exquisite.  I still don’t have a camera, but you can see a photo set on Flickr.

I’m lucky enough to live (sort of) walking distance from the walkway.  I had heard that the parking was not sufficent, so I decided to get there via the rail trail, which meanders near my backyard.  The rail trail is another thing that’s going to make this area super awesome, but it’s not quite finished yet.  There’s still some emminent domain and who owns what issues before the powers that be can finish paving the mile or so from where the walkway ends in Poughkeepsie to where it picks up again… in Poughkeepsie.  But being the intrepid exploer and tresspasser that I am, I decided on walking on the unincorporated territories of the unfinished rail trail.  So glad I did, because that was the highlight of my afternoon of hiking.  The railroad stopped operating in the mid-70′s, meaning I walked through 30 years of wild growth and some scary small bridges made of hundred-years-old railway wood.

My goodness, an overgrown wild area is such a cool juxtaposition to the sparkling new walkway, and totally worth navigating the scary bridges, risking trespass, and walking a few extra miles before reaching the hundreds of people at the walkway parking lot.  And once I got to the other side of the Hudson, I was feeling a little giddy, so I decided to walk home via the nearby Mid-Hudson Bridge, which is slowly displacing the GWB as my favorite river crossing.  And you know what is awesome about the bridge?  There are listening stations at the towers where you can play selections of Bridge Music, songs made using only sounds made on the bridge.  So cool, and I can’t wait to do it again, as long ast this time there’s a taxi waiting for me at the base of the bridge so I don’t have to walk the miles home.