JUNIPER VALLEY PARK

When I first visited Elmhurst Park a few weeks ago, I also had a run to JHS 73.  On the way back to the car at Elmhurst Park, I struck a conversation with an old lady who happened to know the area well. She correctly pointed out to me that Elmhurst Park is a decent place for the people in the area but then Juniper Valley Park isn't that far away.  When I used to live in Woodhaven while going to school at Cooper Union, my father used to drive me, as his first, free fare, in his taxi as he headed into Manhattan to work.  He used to pass by Juniper Valley all the time, so I knew the park, just didn't have the chance to visit it.  Some years ago, I took my son there, while the women shopped at Queens Center.  He was young so we only visited some playground and then watched some match of petanque.  I cannot really say I explored the park, until today.

As I got to Juniper Valley Park, I misread the parking signs that read "NO STANDING 9 PM TO 6 AM" as "NO STANDING 9 AM TO 6 PM".  WTF!?  9 AM to 6 PM, that's pretty much the whole day!  Yet many cars were parked near such signs.  Only after I wasted some time and gasoline making loops of the two sections of the park and found a parking space elsewhere, away from those "severely restricted" areas, did I realized it's 9 PM to 6 AM.  Maybe the park has problems with people hanging out after dark doing illegal stuff, so the signs are there to give local police a leg up on any such activities.

Being on foot is the best way to explore an area.  I first walked around the western end of the park, near the track and futbol field.  I found the usable restroom, not as nice as Forest Park's but good enough.  I then cut across the park to get back to my car and started a run all the way around the park's perimeter.  I used to think that 80th Street neatly divides the park into two equal parks, but today I learned otherwise.  The eastern part of the park is a lot smaller and is mostly for strolling.  The western section has two restrooms, one near the playground and the other near the ball fields, make perfect sense.  Also in the western side is the petanque court, some other ball field, tennis courts, basketball courts, the whole nine yards.  The perimeter was about 2.5 km.  Second time around I went on the inside path wherever possible, to avoid the sun, although the sidewalks were not that sunny, really.  There are many great trees in the park and while you don't have the tree canopy of Forest Parks, Juniper was well-shaded.  Maybe I've become a jaded photographer, but I only took a few photos of Juniper.

Juniper Valley Park, corner near 80th Street and Boulevard South.

After lunch with my son, instead of the usual stroll in the great shade of Forest Park, we explored the area near DeVoy Playground, which is on the northern edge of Forest Park.  When we originally approached the playground I saw two horse-riders on the road.  When I visited the playground on foot later, I discovered that the bridle path ended at the playground.  That explained those riders on the road.  Maybe they were heading back to the stable.  My son pointed out to me the poem written in stone.  A nice touch.  Good thing there was no autocorrect back then.  Or perhaps it's good to have autocorrect, as the sign about DeVoy Playground incorrectly used "bridal" in place of "bridle".

DeVoy Playground in Forest Park.

A poem written in stone.  Thank goodness for the lack of autocorrect...

Nice bio of Mr. DeVoy and some parks history, too bad they used "bridal" in place of "bridle".

WOODHAVEN RE-VISITS

Years ago, I lived for about two years in Woodhaven, Queens.  After a few years living in an apartment building, it was an improvement to move to a family house in Woodhaven.  I recall going to the local T-shirt store and bought an "I Love Woodhaven" shirt.  Woodhaven was not as crowded as Elmhurst, more so now that Elmhurst is so over-developed.  I like the area and want to re-visit it but it's out of the way for me.  The most I would do is drive by along Woodhaven Boulevard, maybe once actually going out of the way to drive by the house I lived in.  Recently, my son started to take SHSAT tutoring in Elmhurst and I have about two hours to kill every Saturday.  Perfect time to re-visit Woodhaven!

The first place I re-visited, or perhaps visited for the first time, was the eastern section of Forest Park.  I used to live near the western end of the park and knew about the bandshell, the golf course, the entrances to the Jackie Robinson Parkway.  It's a shame that I was not as serious as I am with regards to running.  The hill at Forest Parkway and Park Lane South is perfect for elevation training.  Alas, I only recall once walking with my fellow blogger TOTA to St. Anthony Hospital to run a loop or two of the facility.  Years later I would discover, with surprise, that the whole place was gone and replaced by a bunch of family houses.  The only thing left is some marker put in place by the Woodhaven Cultural and Historic Society.  On another occasion, I walked through the park to Glendale and paid a surprise visit to a high school friend who lived in Glendale.  There was no cell phone back then and I just came up with the idea out of the blue, so even if I wanted to call ahead, it was not easy.  One other time, I went through the eastern section of Forest Park, all the way to Metropolitan Avenue and found some branch library of the Queens Public Library system.  I recall clearly I helped some old person operate the copying machine and he/she was so grateful.  But those three incidents are all I remember of my walks or run.  If I live in Woodhaven today, I would run on its trails everyday!

Some weeks ago, I explored the eastern trails of Forest Park, with my son, and promptly got lost.  I tried to avoid the many small trails and stayed on some wide trail that occasionally have wooden rails to mark the path.  The Google Map program on my smartphone was no help, as it showed me as being outside of the park.  Once deep in the trail, you just cannot see buildings etc to know where you are heading.  I knew about some LIRR train track that goes through the park, so at least I was able to use that to head back.  Just to be sure, I asked a jogger if we were heading toward the exit and she confirmed so.  Eventually, we made it to the paved path leading to Myrtle Avenue and Park Lane South.  Civilization!

Some weeks later I actually ran in the park, out to the Metropolitan Avenue exit of the Jackie Robinson, then to the northern border of the park, and back into the park at the bridle path.  I was somewhat lost again, but without my son I was able to run faster and eventually found my way back to Myrtle and Park Lane South again.  I'll keep exploring the trails until I know them so well as to which way is Uptown and which Downtown!

My most recent re-visit of Woodhaven took me back to the area where I used to live.  I went as far as the Betty Smith House, where the "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" author wrote most of the book, on Forest Parkway.  Appropriately enough, just across the house is the Woodhaven Branch Library.  Too bad the library was closed.  I spent many hours studying there when I lived in the area.  I then ran up the many steps at Park Lane South and Forest Parkway to the top of the hill and headed for the track just on the other side of Woodhaven Boulevard.  On the way, I learned that there was now a pond in the park.  I knew about the nature trail from some visit long ago, just a glimpse of it, and the occasion finally arrived to check it out.  There used to be many ponds in the park but they all disappeared over time.  This particular pond was once a ball field, but it was flooded so often that park department decided to make it into a pond again.  It's named after Private First Class Strack, who was the first Woodhaven resident to die in battle during the Vietnam War.  It's a lovely pond and I brought my son back for a walk later on in the day.  Together we discovered strawberries, tadpoles, frogs, sunning turtles, ladybugs, and various unusual plants, at least unusual-looking to us.

In the coming weeks, I'll explore the non-forest parts of Woodhaven, especially historically places.

World War I memorial near Myrtle and Park Lane South.

One of the many trails in the eastern section of Forest Park.

Somehow I mistook this to be "Betsy Ross" when I used to live in the area.

From here on, it's all downhill and the pond is on the right.