Occurrence at Bear Mountain Bridge

Looking from the Anthony’s Nose side of the bridge down toward Jones Point, you can sense the scale of the terrain from the way it shrinks the ship,

BBC Seine on the Hudson passing Iona Island.

That’s the south slope of  Bear Mountain to the right.  I’m not sure whether the other peaks have separate names.  More of that mountain can be seen below and was included in this post from almost half a year ago.

BBC Seine was moving quite fast with a favorable current . . . 15+ kts, I believe.

How’s that for a wake.  Is there another word for this indication of turbulence?  Anyhow, at that point, I heard a noise from high up on the bridge that

sounded like this.

Such was the occurrence.   Can anyone identify the prey by the feet?

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Lights Near Bear Mountain Bridge

Crossing Bear Mountain Bridge the other afternoon–it’s December–I saw this light for the first time.

A bit later on the east side of the River, I pulled off at the “scenic overlook” because I knew this tug and barge were approaching, southbound.  See the same star near the ridge line, directly above the flat snow-covered roof to the right of the lights around the skating rink?

Here the unit–Morton S. Bouchard Jr. and (I think) B. No. 210–pass between Iona Island and the east side of the Hudson.  I’m guessing the buildings on the island date from its time as a US Navy ammunition facility.

 

This angle provides a good view of the barge notch into which the tug fits.

And if I had not yet seen enough lights, a northbound freight came around Jones Point, the edge of Dunderberg Mountain.  Fifty years ago, the Hudson River Reserve Fleet aka ghost ships stretched from there southward.  Here and here are posts I’ve done about the ghost fleet.  Washington Irving also wove the landscape into his tales inspired by that very landscape.

I took the photo below in August 2017 of Perkins Memorial Tower, a CCC project atop Bear Mountain but not visible the other afternoon from my vantage point.

Below is a photo I took of Morton S. Bouchard Jr. last week at the Bayonne Bridge.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Helen Laraway

My sidekick and I caught glimpses of Helen Laraway over a period of about 30 hours starting in Coeymans.

At the first sighting, Helen seemed to be moving astern with a load of scrap, whose origin I wondered about.  SS Binghamton perhaps?   My sidekick?

Oh, I borrowed this beauty from Diana, who had been called away on a mission.

 

Whatever my sidekick was thinking, I’ll never know, as she spoke not a word

in spite of watching with intensity.

While we were on the crag, Helen passed southbound and we caught up a bit later.

 

 

Safe travels.  Notice the Left Coast Lifter near the left margin of the photo above?

All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose previous posts with Helen can be found here.

Hudson Downbound ’13b

To start part 2, I’ll go back upriver a bit to Esopus Island.  Craig Eric Reinauer with RTC 103 is anchored to the south.  Much of the Hudson has  associated with some unusual characters, both in fiction and in real life.  Esopus Island is no exception:  about a century ago it was the magical hideaway of Aleister Crowley.  My friend Mitch–Newtown Pentacle–wrote about him here.

Farther south is a place with a magical name but a quite mundane though necessary construction on it.  This is the current resident of Duyvil’s Danskammer Point, idled in litigation I think.  The Dutch called it “devil’s dance chamber” because they saw natives doing a ceremonial dance there by firelight . . .   A lighthouse and several brickworks also once stood here.

Looking back upstream . .  the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and Danskammer Point in the background.  Foreground is picnic boat Gem.  A Hinckley?

River Rose previously appeared here about three years ago.

Justine McAllister . . . I caught her the day before east- and then northbound at the KV buoy pushing RTC 120.  Also, three years ago I caught Justine towing the same barge on the Hudson.

Upbound off Cornwall . .  it’s Kimberly Poling, also a frequenter of both this river and this blog.

I’m not sure why so many large yachts were on the river the other day . . . off Bannerman’s Castle, location of a ceremonial swim a few months back, it’s Blue Moon.

Here’s Bannerman’s from the south side, juxtaposing the residence (left) with the warehouse.

I’ve yet to deliver on closeups of the residence, but here’s a preview.  The “picture window” serves to illustrate the interior for now.

That’s Bannerman’s in the background as Black Watch passes northbound.  Slope on the right is dauntingly named Breakneck Ridge.

The Hudson is truly loved.

Here a crowded Clearwater lowers sail in the Hudson Highlands.

Seastreak New York, usually shuttling south from the sixth boro, travels north when the leaves start to turn color.   Not pictured to the left is West Point.

Peak behind Bear Mountain Bridge is Anthony’s Nose, which I scaled back in April.

And finally . . . just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge . . . it’s another people mover usually associated with the confines of the sixth boro, Circle Line Queens, here assisting in leaf peeping.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.