What is a ridiculous hike?
It's a hike planned for a fun group of people wanting to get to know one another without forced conversation. It's a hike whereas the destination does not matter, the route is ridiculous enough that if you were to get to point A to point B, you would be done in an hour or less by taking a train. It's about the journey not the destination. We averaged about 15 to 20 miles typically, with the occasional 6 or 7 when walking in rectangles.
This was the 14 Bridge Hike Group picture (few were camera-shy). We were 18 strong!
Hour, John, Angela (me), Amanda and Erik pose together during lunch break at Chelsea Market, on July 12, 2014.
The 3 of us made it to 181st Street to end our trial hike, however, the A train wasn't running for John and I, so we had to walk additional steps all the way to 168th Street. Hour ended up walking back to the Bronx!
The BIRTH of Ridiculous Hikes
On June 8, 2014, I went on a meetup hike in Staten Island (Greenbelt Conservancy) and met a guy named John, who is originally from Philly and relocated to NY for work. We were talking about potential hikes in general and discussed where we would walk in the city (urban areas). I distinctly remember saying that we can walk the perimeter of Central Park or the length of the Hudson River Greenway, to which John responded, "You can create your own meetup group and name it Ridiculous Hikes." At that very moment, John gave me the idea and inspiration that paved my way to many new friendships and ridiculous adventures. Although, I never did create my own meetup group, I did become an organizer for the meetup that we were in and hosted dozens upon dozens of ridiculous hikes. I even invited John to my first trial ridiculous hike before becoming an organizer for the meetup. What I learned is that you NEVER know who you might meet in this world that after just ONE conversation, your life can change just like that. I credit John for the impact he has had on my ability to explore my leadership skills that was already there, that I didn't know I had, which allowed me to discover my self-confidence and proactive initiative-taking in becoming a leader for something I enjoy: walking. For the 5 or so years that Ridiculous Hikes was happening, I never hesitated to host because I was meeting so many new friends and forming so many new bonds. Meeting people is hard in NYC and sometimes, walking without the forced conversation, is just walking with strangers who may become friends!
The Memories and the END of Ridiculous Hikes
On or around 2018, I stopped hosting Ridiculous Hikes, because attendance dwindled for the meetups and my heart wasn't in it anymore. There was one hike after work when no one showed up, but I still hiked the path I had planned. Another time, I remember one girl showed up to my 10 bridges hike and she thought more people would show, but I told her, it's just me and you! Then I proceeded to tell her that I will walk the entire route as long as she was up for it. She ended up thanking me for changing her life that day. She was so proud of herself for completing the hike and didn't believe she could have done so! Months passed and on another ridiculous hike, she showed up and wanted to let me know that since that one hike I did with her, she has truly found inspiration and gone on walks herself, getting herself out of the house when in the past, she never found the inspiration to do so. There are people like her that made me so happy and grateful/appreciative that I can impact someone's life just by hosting a meetup.
In 2018, I decided to host hikes with another meetup (Hiking for Lazy People) after my friend, Christina, asked me to join her group as an organizer. Although, I never thought of myself as a lazy person, I hosted hikes in that group anyway. I had hosted for that group until 2020, when the pandemic ceased all opportunities to continue hosting such hikes. It was in 2021, when I decided not to host anymore meetups. Your heart always know when to stop doing something that you're not passionate about. Being a leader is something that I learned to do and there's a lot of responsibility and decisions to make. I will always treasure each and every person that showed up to my ridiculous hikes or lazy hikes.
The Memories:
The purpose of this website is to commemorate the good times and share the stories that occurred in the dozens of hikes that I've hosted. I will share a few here, but in the subsequent pages on this website, I will post every hike I've done as well as share the pictures that we took.
To summarize: most of my repeated hikes were planned so that we discovered different places in NYC: 1)Broadway Hike: from Whitehall, South Ferry to Marble Hill, the Bronx (all on Broadway), 2)Hudson River Greenway: mostly pedestrian walkway, bikeway, runway lol, 3) Perimeter of Central Park (6.6 miles), 4) East River Greenway (with a huge chunk on 1st avenue), 5)Belly of Brooklyn - basically the belt parkway, then 5th ave to Barclays 6) Beach hike: Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Rockaway Beach 7)Ocean Parkway into Prospect Park 8) 7 Line Hike: from Hudson Yards to Flushing 9) Staten Island: St. George to the beaches! 10) The Bronx: Van Cortlandt Park to Untermeyer Garden
For Nature hikes, I've done only the Palisades and South Mountain Reservation (without a car for both!)