The last 10 miles
Local Man Walked 5,000 Miles Around New York City, and Then 5,000 Miles More
Two weeks ago, instead of staying home on a Saturday to pack for our upcoming move, I woke at what felt like the crack of dawn (it was after 7am) to go to Staten Island, of all places. I had heard through the friend grapevine that Matt Green, the man walking every street and pedestrian path in New York City, was about to cross the finish line. I reached out and asked to join his entourage for the last 10 miles.
On E’s encouragement, I also sent an impulsive pitch Thursday night to local worker-owned news site Hell Gate, and got a conditional assignment. (Conditionally dependent on me coming up with some decent material.)
I got just four or five hours of fitful sleep, because my anxiety-riddled mind woke me in the middle of the night, panicked about the move and of falling behind on the mountain of tasks I had ahead of me. I wasn’t able to go back to sleep for hours. So I wasn’t exactly well rested when I showed up at 10 am to walk 10 miles in the sun while keeping up an almost constant patter of conversation with Green and his friends, trying to glean enough insight into the man and his quixotic quest to write something new and fresh.
I hoped the story would go up the following week. But then the mayor was indicted and Hell Gate coverage was wall to wall stories about Eric Adams!
But my story did go up this week, and I’m delighted to share it with you all now.
Walking every street in New York City is the kind of thing I wouldn’t ever want to do myself, but I’m glad somebody does—did. And I had such a good time on the short section I was able to walk. I wore my Great Saunter hat, because I thought it would be a good conversation starter, and it was. Green and his friends and acquaintances were open and friendly and eager to chat. Many of them had met through a walking group that Green started over a decade ago, so (surprise, surprise) we talked a lot about walking. I also gave a surprisingly feisty defense of the water we got out of a fountain that most everyone said was swampy, but I maintain was still better tasting than 98 percent (an approximate, made up figure) of the tap water in the country.
I also met the guy who made a documentary about Green, who turned out to be the first person to find and take pictures of the Eurasian eagle-owl Flaco after he escaped from the Central Park Zoo in February 2023. (Sadly, Flaco died just a year later following a building collision, and was found to have harmful levels of rat poison and pigeon herpesvirus in his system, which could have been fatal even without the building collision.)
Anyway, I’m really glad I pushed myself to go on the walk, even though I was feeling stretched incredibly thin, because it was really cool to be there at the end of Green’s momentous achievement, and I would have regretted missing it. And I’m glad I pitched a story about it, because it was a fun thing to write, and I’ve wanted to contribute to Hell Gate for a while now! It helped that I had recently learned a painful lesson about snoozing and losing.
Read more: Matt Green's 10,000-Mile Quest to Walk Every Block in NYC Is Finally Over
Shortish missive today because I’m exhausted from our move on Monday.
But I did want to say that my thoughts have been with everyone impacted by Hurricane Helene and subsequent flooding. The devastation in cities and towns like Asheville, North Carolina, which was once heralded as a climate haven, is a reminder that there is no such place. (Small world: That story was written by Jessica Wakeman, the journalist who lived with her husband in the apartment E and I just vacated before they moved to Asheville.)
I learned from Rusty Foster’s Today on Trail newsletter that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has asked hikers to stay off the trail between Rockfish Gap at the southern end of Shenandoah National Park and Springer Mountain in Georgia, a stretch of more than 864 miles, until the safety of the trail can be assessed, and to reduce the burden on emergency responders and devastated trail towns. Rusty and other SOBOs may not be able to complete their hikes this year. Hurricane Helene is yet one more example of how climate crisis is creating new hazards and complications for long distance hikers.