Dispatch
Jan 11, 2006
Little Tokyo Sushi Bar at Charaktors Night Club
Ludlow, VT
~10:08 PM
I love it when you stumble into a locally owned establishment, eat surprisingly good food and get to chat with the patrons or better yet the owner. After a long drive through miserable rain and fog, the unexpected fresh fish, the tasty beer and the hot tea have returned me to happiness. Part of it also, is just being on the road, feels good to shake of my stay-at-home laziness and be out again.
Normally, I'd be taking advantage of the quiet midweek here in ski country to get in some private time on the slopes, but thanks to some overeager moshing to popular Eastern European dance music at the Bulgarian Bar in NYC two weeks ago, followed by some overenthusiastic Karaoke this past weekend, my ankle is shot. I can limp on it pretty good, but anything more than that sends it twinging. Need to behave so I can be back on my game before I really ship out.
Speaking of which, the time for shipping again is fast approaching. Crazy Dr. Lou and I are hitting it up down in the Dominican Republic from Jan 20th to the 28th. After we get back, I get a few short days back in NY and then I fly to San Francisco on the 31st. I have no idea how I'm going to fit in seeing everyone in that short time, but I can promise you that it will not be in the form of a gigantic warehouse shennanigan. I'll promise instead to do the best I can with the short time we'll have.
On the 5th, I fly off to Sydney, Oztralia and then start my way up the coast to meet Mike. That's as far as I have planned right now, excepting my need to be back in NY for Eric's wedding next September. Since I'll be in the US anyway, I might also plan on going back to Burning Man. The first flyer for this year's event arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm stoked. I'm thinking of getting a small camp together and dragging everyone along, so start thinking about coming.
The ankle and rainy weather also prevented me from finishing up on the Meadowbrook via the tunnels, but I've learned a lot in the meantime. Firstly, I took to watching the water level based on rainfall over several days. The water level rose about 4 inches one day after a major rain. During the next big rainstorm, stood in the pouring rain and observed that the water had risen about 6 more inches. This is good news because it seems to indicate that there is little risk of getting hit by a drowning flash flood while exploring the tunnels. As to where they go, I'm not sure at all anymore.
While Carter was in town, we tried to find out more about the historic course of the Meadowbrook. The nice lady at the East Meadow Library suggested that we try the Hofstra university Center for Long Island Studies. Unfortunately, they were closing for their winter break at the time we called them so we didn't get to visit while Carter was still here.
Last week they reopened, and I went down there to see if I could find out any more information. I found a map showing the brook circa 1860, a Hagstroms atlas of Nassau County from 1960 and a waterways survey from 1970 by the USGS. Loading these maps into photoshop, I was able to scale them to match the Google Maps hybrid that shows the modern course and where the brook disappears into the tunnels today. When I overlaid the three maps, I was amazed to find that they all show the Meadowbrook ending (well, starting actually) in roughly the same spot, just south of Stewart Avenue.
Click the map for a larger and more detailed captioned version.
There are some minor variations that could be due to measurement inaccuracies or changes in the brook's course, but the overall I think it is fair to say that I hiked to the historic "headwaters" of the Meadowbrook. In the past, that point was probably the culmination of several more minor runoffs and tributaries that are uncharted. Today, the flow comes from those tunnels, which, I'm now guessing, are aggregating storm drains to capture surface flow in much the same way the old runoffs did.
The only sad point is that there probably isn't much farther to go in those tunnels (which is not to say that I'm not totally in there just as soon as circumstances allow). The USGS survey, though, did show me a different inspiring option. The Connetquot River flows south to the Atlantic from the middle of LI, right near the terminus of the Nissequogue River that then flows north to the LI Sound. It should be possible to hike from the mouth of the Connetquot, along the river, across the Island to follow the Nissequogue up to its mouth. A rough estimate shows about 14 miles to cover, although routefinding might add quite a bit more. One day perhaps.
Tonight, I'm staying at the Trojan Horse Lodge hostel here in Ludlow. It's a clean and cozy place that offers the lowest cost beds near some serious ski slopes. If you can make it up here during the week, the place isn't booked up and you can hit up Okemo, Stratton, Killington or Bromley for $23 a night.
Tomorrow, I'm driving up to Lebanon, NH to visit Country Woolens, a yarn and knitting shop. I'll be representing Ozark Handspun, the wool dying and spinning company founded my Velma's dad, David. It was amazing visiting with him back in November and seeing his whole operation. His business has been growing like crazy and I'm excited to be helping him out.
That's it for now... oh... pics from the Karaoke night are posted on my smugmug account. Party on.
-=Scott
Little Tokyo Sushi Bar at Charaktors Night Club
Ludlow, VT
~10:08 PM
I love it when you stumble into a locally owned establishment, eat surprisingly good food and get to chat with the patrons or better yet the owner. After a long drive through miserable rain and fog, the unexpected fresh fish, the tasty beer and the hot tea have returned me to happiness. Part of it also, is just being on the road, feels good to shake of my stay-at-home laziness and be out again.
Normally, I'd be taking advantage of the quiet midweek here in ski country to get in some private time on the slopes, but thanks to some overeager moshing to popular Eastern European dance music at the Bulgarian Bar in NYC two weeks ago, followed by some overenthusiastic Karaoke this past weekend, my ankle is shot. I can limp on it pretty good, but anything more than that sends it twinging. Need to behave so I can be back on my game before I really ship out.
Speaking of which, the time for shipping again is fast approaching. Crazy Dr. Lou and I are hitting it up down in the Dominican Republic from Jan 20th to the 28th. After we get back, I get a few short days back in NY and then I fly to San Francisco on the 31st. I have no idea how I'm going to fit in seeing everyone in that short time, but I can promise you that it will not be in the form of a gigantic warehouse shennanigan. I'll promise instead to do the best I can with the short time we'll have.
On the 5th, I fly off to Sydney, Oztralia and then start my way up the coast to meet Mike. That's as far as I have planned right now, excepting my need to be back in NY for Eric's wedding next September. Since I'll be in the US anyway, I might also plan on going back to Burning Man. The first flyer for this year's event arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm stoked. I'm thinking of getting a small camp together and dragging everyone along, so start thinking about coming.
The ankle and rainy weather also prevented me from finishing up on the Meadowbrook via the tunnels, but I've learned a lot in the meantime. Firstly, I took to watching the water level based on rainfall over several days. The water level rose about 4 inches one day after a major rain. During the next big rainstorm, stood in the pouring rain and observed that the water had risen about 6 more inches. This is good news because it seems to indicate that there is little risk of getting hit by a drowning flash flood while exploring the tunnels. As to where they go, I'm not sure at all anymore.
While Carter was in town, we tried to find out more about the historic course of the Meadowbrook. The nice lady at the East Meadow Library suggested that we try the Hofstra university Center for Long Island Studies. Unfortunately, they were closing for their winter break at the time we called them so we didn't get to visit while Carter was still here.
Last week they reopened, and I went down there to see if I could find out any more information. I found a map showing the brook circa 1860, a Hagstroms atlas of Nassau County from 1960 and a waterways survey from 1970 by the USGS. Loading these maps into photoshop, I was able to scale them to match the Google Maps hybrid that shows the modern course and where the brook disappears into the tunnels today. When I overlaid the three maps, I was amazed to find that they all show the Meadowbrook ending (well, starting actually) in roughly the same spot, just south of Stewart Avenue.
There are some minor variations that could be due to measurement inaccuracies or changes in the brook's course, but the overall I think it is fair to say that I hiked to the historic "headwaters" of the Meadowbrook. In the past, that point was probably the culmination of several more minor runoffs and tributaries that are uncharted. Today, the flow comes from those tunnels, which, I'm now guessing, are aggregating storm drains to capture surface flow in much the same way the old runoffs did.
The only sad point is that there probably isn't much farther to go in those tunnels (which is not to say that I'm not totally in there just as soon as circumstances allow). The USGS survey, though, did show me a different inspiring option. The Connetquot River flows south to the Atlantic from the middle of LI, right near the terminus of the Nissequogue River that then flows north to the LI Sound. It should be possible to hike from the mouth of the Connetquot, along the river, across the Island to follow the Nissequogue up to its mouth. A rough estimate shows about 14 miles to cover, although routefinding might add quite a bit more. One day perhaps.
Tonight, I'm staying at the Trojan Horse Lodge hostel here in Ludlow. It's a clean and cozy place that offers the lowest cost beds near some serious ski slopes. If you can make it up here during the week, the place isn't booked up and you can hit up Okemo, Stratton, Killington or Bromley for $23 a night.
Tomorrow, I'm driving up to Lebanon, NH to visit Country Woolens, a yarn and knitting shop. I'll be representing Ozark Handspun, the wool dying and spinning company founded my Velma's dad, David. It was amazing visiting with him back in November and seeing his whole operation. His business has been growing like crazy and I'm excited to be helping him out.
That's it for now... oh... pics from the Karaoke night are posted on my smugmug account. Party on.
-=Scott
posted by Scottley at 8:11 PM
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