GC Community Event for Friday, July 18, 2003: Swimming &/or Hiking at Watch Hill on Fire Island

The Mathematics Ph.D. Program will be sponsoring another all-day community event on Friday, July 18th when we will travel to Watch Hill on Fire Island (south of Long Island).

     Part of the Fire Island National Seashore, Watch Hill offers a peaceful ocean beach and nature trails. Watch Hill also contains a marina.  Options for participants will include swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, hiking along beach dunes, or sitting and reading on or near the beach.  The trip will be on, regardless of the weather, unless thunderstorms are predicted. Note: You should put on some insect repellant before you leave. We will also bring some with us that you can spray on if necessary.  Regarding food, Watch Hill has a snack bar and a general store, but it is probably a good idea to bring some food with you: a sandwich, trail mix, bottled water, etc.

We will travel to Watch Hill by train - - the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) - - and then take a connecting ferry. Purchase your roundtrip ticket at Penn Station (7^th – 8^th Aves., 32^nd – 33^rd Sts.) at any Long Island railroad window for Patchogue. The roundtrip fare is $21. [$10 for children 5-11 years of age.] The price includes a free roundtrip transfer for the ferry. Ask at the window for the "Watch Hill package."  Note: The LIRR windows are on the lower level at Penn Station. At the windows you must pay by cash or check. You can use one of the ticket machines to the sides of the windows if you want to pay by credit card – look for “one-day getaways.” Then meet us at 8:45 a.m. by the four ticket machines just to the left of the LIRR ticket windows; this is opposite the last store - - a pretzel store – in a row of food shops. We will catch the 9:04 a.m. train for Patchague, scheduled to arrive at 10:59 a.m. We will then go to the Watch Hill Ferry terminal, just a short walk from the Patchogue Station, to connect with the ferry to Watch Hill; the ferry leaves at 11:30 a.m. [Train note: Instead of leaving from Penn Station, you can also catch the train from Flatbush, Brooklyn, or Jamaica, Queens.  If you would prefer to do this, see http://www.lirr.org/lirr/html/ttn/patchogu.htm for the schedule of when the 9:04 train from Penn station will stop at these stations.]  For the return trip, we are planning to leave Watch Hill on the 4:45 p.m. ferry and catch the 5:29 train from Patchogue, arriving at Penn Station at 7:04 p.m.

If you would like to join the GC group, please email your name and program affiliation to mathematics@gc.cuny.edu and we will add you to the list.  [You might want to print out these instructions.] Your guests are also welcome!

We hope that you will be able to join us for this one-day summer getaway.