Descriptions of Places

 Living in the urban core of a sprawling metropolis, one develops passionate fantasies about abundant, clean, pristine nature, especially during the summer. New Yorkers have a habit of leaving the city during the summer, as their means allow. We do have nature in the city - huge rivers, beaches, forested parks, gardens, etc. - but not "abundant, clean, pristine" nature. An "urban hike" along the Bronx River, as a friend suggested, did not promise to fulfill my nature fantasy for a nice Sunday in June. The Bronx River barely registers as blue or green on a map amidst the street grid, other than in the Botanical Garden. But who am I to demand on-demand access to bountiful natural resources? Where I come from, suburban New Jersey, was almost as urbanized and environmentally degraded as New York City. The river through my neighborhood growing up, the east branch of the Rahway, was more like the Bronx River than a clear mountain stream. Fed from concrete culverts and sto...

Pennsylvania is covered with great expanses of forested, semi-rugged terrain. There is ample subtle beauty here but not the drama or wow-factor that draws in crowds. I might not advise going too far out of your way to vacation in the woods of PA, but those who do spend time there are rewarded with a seemingly endless supply of scenic, off the beaten path places to enjoy nature. The steep-sided ravine of a cascading stream on the flank of Rising Mountain, one of the long flat-topped ridges that make up the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Provence, about 40 miles west of Harrisburg, is one of those opportunities. Designated the Hemlocks Natural Area of Tuscarora State Forest, it contains old growth forest estimated at 120 acres. Parts of the ravine are in hemlocks as advertised. The archetypal image of huge old gentle dark trees with a dense cover of ferns beneath them is unfortunately somewhat complicated by the destruction due to the the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, an introduced pest, which ha...

Mount Beacon is one of the best vantage points in the Hudson Highlands. Approach from the west and you can also get a fun rock scramble similar to nearby Breakneck Ridge on the way up. On a clear day, from the open rocky summit or the cabin of the fire tower, you'll see, going roughly counterclockwise, starting with the west: Schunnemunk Mountain directly opposite the Hudson River, formed into a wedge shape by whatever intersecting tectonic forces caused the Appalachian Mountain chain to bend at this spot. A birds-eye perspective on the Hudson Highlands : the river itself coming in and out of view between the rounded but rugged small mountains it has cut through. Rising from the opposite bank are Storm King’s steep profile and, further south, the fun hiking terrain around Bear Mountain . Down the river, getting hazy with distance, the curving Palisades ridge, its cliff face reaching the shore near the Tappan Zee . NYC’s skyline marking the mouth of the Hudson and the opening up...

  The Rocky Mountains are somewhat similar to my familiar northern Appalachians in that they are in many places old rounded mountains that have been spiced up by Pleistocene glaciation. I can’t speak for everywhere but many important ranges from the Front Range and Sawatch Range in Colorado to the Beartooth Mountains of Montana share a common appearance: some sides are rugged cliffs scooped out by glacers, but the preglacial erosional surfaces are never far away, in the form of rounded boulder-covered slopes. The glaciers didn’t get everywhere in these mountains, and while the most dramatic terrain lies above U-shaped glacial valleys, there are large areas - whether a side of a mountain or an entire mountain range - that retain their smoothed-over appearance from millions of years of erosion. The strongest impression that the Colorado Rockies left on me was of extensiveness and geologic diversity, more than of steepness and ruggedness. The state has countless mountain ranges exhibi...

 I have conflicting feelings towards this war that don’t quite add up to the anger to protest. While I admire the protesters and agree with what they are demading, I am having having an upsetting struggle with my Jewish American identity that takes me out of the mood. I contrast these protests with the BLM protests after the deaths of Michael Brown and, later, George Floyd. Seeing those instances of racialized police brutality made me, and millions of my fellow citizens, angry. Protesting was a natural and constructive way to express that anger and communicate it towards the police, who were present in force at every protest. Thanks to the organizers, the protests were generally inspiring, uplifting communal experiences. In hindsight, I feel that they had a positive effect on the culture, even if much less so than I and others hoped at the time. Attending them was morally easy, fitting squarely with my sense of identity. This time, I also fully understand the motivation to protest ...

Washington DC is one of the many cities in the US Mid-Atlantic region located on the “fall line” where the hard crystalline bedrock of the Piedmont meets the relatively soft sediments of the Coastal Plain. The region contains several major rivers that are as a rule wide, navigable and tidal up to the fall line. At that point they usually contain a steep fast stretch as they transition to their generally narrower, shallower, fresher Piedmont forms. Some of these “falls” are more impressive than others. Now that I’m listing them out, they appear to get more dramatic as you go south. A casual tuber could go over the falls on the Delaware at Trenton without spilling his or her drink (though to be fair I’ve only seen them briefly out a train window). The dam on the Schuylkill by the Philadelphia water works is a nice urban park, but it is overshadowed by the city's Museum of Art nearby (from Rocky ). Jones Falls in Baltimore features some dramatic scenes of post-industrial nature but th...

As a young teenager, I went to a chamber music concert with my grandparents in a local church. They were trying to encourage my unexpected, growing interest in classical music. Some Mozart was on the program, I think it was the clarinet quintet, but I honestly can't remember. During the intermission, in the bathroom, I overheard two grey-haired men have a conversation something like this.  "Great concert."  "Yes, beautiful." "Eighteenth century music is my favorite. Of course there is some incredible nineteenth century music too, but I prefer the eighteenth century." "Sure." "I can't stand twentieth century music, though." "No, it's just not music." My awkward adolescent self was uncomfortable with the idea that I was joining this snobbish, absurdly conservative social scene through my unusual adolescent interest in classical music. At that point in my life I was still, to be honest, not really sure what I was list...