By Rich Bockmann
Northeast Queens trail enthusiasts have a new group dedicated to exercising their restless feet.
The Alley Pond Environmental Center Hikers is a group composed of APEC members who wanted to restore and maintain the center’s pathways with like-minded trail heads who would also enjoy regular excursions to the area’s best hikes.
“We want to make the trails more usable now and to make people more aware of them,” said APEC volunteer and group organizer Tom McGlinchey. “We were looking for volunteer help for a trail crew and thought it would be a good idea to form a hiking club so there’d be some fun attached to it.”
A number of the center’s trails, McGlinchey said, have been damaged by invasive plant species and the construction work surrounding the city Department of Environmental Protection’s new Combined Sewer Overflow facility along Northern Boulevard.
One of the primary goals of the hikers group is to restore access to these trails for members, city school trips, bird clubs, university groups and environmentalists who use them throughout the year, McGlinchey said.
The industrious hikers also intend to whistle while they work, and McGlinchey, an avid and knowledgeable hiker, said there are plenty of quality trails in the borough, as well as in neighboring Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties for hikers of differing experience levels to explore.
He said about 15 members showed up to the group’s first meeting last week, where a representative from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference spoke about forming a trail maintenance crew.
The Hikers will hold a public meeting Aug. 15 at APEC, at 228-06 Northern Blvd., and membership into the club will require one to join both APEC and the NY-NJ TC for insurance purposes.
McGlinchey said he expects membership to pick up as the group begins regular hikes. Weekly hikes, though, will take some time to design and to find people to lead them, and McGlinchey said he already has some great ideas.
Flushing Meadows Corona and Cunningham parks and the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway — the 40-mile route running from Coney Island to Fort Totten — all offer recreational hiking without leaving the city.
McGlinchey can even tell hikers about Joe Michaels Mile, a path along the shore of Little Neck Bay in Crocheron Park named after the health activist and longtime borough resident who was the first president of the Alley Pond Striders, a running group that trained in the park.
“There’s a lot to do, and a lot of fun to be had,” McGlinchey said.
Those interested in joining can call APEC at 718-229-4000 or e-mail McGlinchey at tom0153@hotmail.com.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
