First Post! (Introduction)

This is intended to be a blog of my explorations of the backcountry in the general vicinity of New York City. 

I grew up (mostly) on the West Coast of Canada but have been living in the Northeastern US since 1997 when I moved to Boston area for graduate school; I've been living in New York since 2005.  While I used to do a lot of hiking and camping back in British Columbia, I essentially hadn't spent any time in the woods since moving out east, but I recently decided to get back into it.  I've been starting out with places pretty close to NYC, especially those that are accessible without a car (in particular by some form of public transportation), but I expect to be expanding my range as time goes by.

I'm primarily interested in what seems to be called "backcountry camping" these days.  That is, packing all your gear and food on your back and hiking into a nice spot to camp.  If there are a few other people around, that's fine with me, but I'm really not a big fan of the large, drive-in camps with dozens of sites; my idea of a campsite with running water is a tent set-up beside a creek.  I might try a few backpacking treks, moving camp each day, but I typically like to stay in one place for a few days, so that I can explore the surrounding area with just a day pack to carry.

I hope that the entries here will be helpful for others who are interested in finding nice spots in the woods to get away from civilization for a while; especially for those (like me) who don't have a car.  So, if you have any questions, please post a comment; also, if you have any ideas for places I should check out, please let me know!

Aside: For those who are wondering about where the "NYNEX" acronym came from: the regional phone company in New York and New England that resulting from the breakup of Bell was NYNEX.  It was still in operation when I first moved to Cambridge, MA in 1997, but was soon acquired by Bell Atlantic, which then became Verizon.  In any case, it's just as fitting an acronym for this blog, so I decided to appropriate it.