DESTINATION: NEW YORK

Active adventures in New York City

Forget those workers shuffling on and off the subway. You can go biking, kayaking and rock climbing within this urban center.

By Yi Shun Lai, Special to The Times
12:00 AM PDT, September 17, 2006

A recent week's schedule looked like this:

Monday: Bouldering with Naomi after work

Wednesday: Kayaking with Karen and clients after work

Saturday: Trail running race, 8 a.m.

Sunday: Cycling with group

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IF you guessed that I was bouldering in the mountains of Colorado, you'd be wrong.

If you guessed that I was paddling among the orcas in Washington's Puget Sound, you'd be even farther off.

I spend most weeks like this getting to know New York City. Yes, that New York, the one whose name invokes images of pallid workers trudging through underground subway tunnels day after day.

But my New York is different. The city I know intimately is not from the pavement but from the waters of the Hudson River, the mean back hill of Central Park, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and the steep, unforgiving trails of Van Cortlandt Park.

Below, you'll find four of my favorite outdoor activities and places in the city to try them out.

*

Paddling

Seeing New York City from a kayak on the river, where the only sounds are the water lapping against your boat and the occasional thrumming of a passing ferry, is an otherworldly experience. The city should always be this peaceful.

Where am I?

Should we take offense, order a drink, or what? That depends, of course, on where you think these words turned up.


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