A Ride Around the Lake Pt 4 - The former Bavarian Inn

Next to Baymen Park is a derelict old road that leads to the former Bavarian Inn. With a bit of TLC, this would be a great place for a boardwalk and a bike path along the water. There's a nice view across the lake and the foliage separates you from the traffic on Smithtown Blvd. 

 Lake Ronkonkoma

This is the view I'm talking about. At first glance you might almost believe this was taken somewhere on Lake Constance. Not really, but you gotta admit most people wouldn't think this was taken on Lake Ronkonkoma. The tower you see poking out between the trees there is part of St. Mary's Church on Lake Shore Rd. I'm not much of a churchgoer myself but I have to say St. Mary's is probably the nicest looking building on the lake. 

Lake Ronkonkoma 

Once you zoom out a bit, you can see the remains of the Bavarian Inn parking lot jutting out into the water. Takes a bit away from the shot. The sand isn't the cleanest here either. What I like about this shot though is the different waterfowl in line towards the church.

Lake Ronkonkoma - 2015

Zoom out even further and the larger picture is just sad. As always, perspective is everything. And I promise I didn't pose those bottles there for dramatic effect; that's exactly how I found them. Rip down that retaining wall, cut away the parking lot so the lake shore has it's original shape again, clean up the trash, build a boardwalk, and this could turn into a very pleasant place to walk or ride a bike. 

Lake Ronkonkoma - 2015

At the end of the old street is a small bridge that leads to the old Bavarian Inn property. It doesn't look like much of a bridge in this picture, but it goes over the small brook that flows from Lily Pond Park into the lake.

Lily Pond

This is the view towards Lily Pond Park. There's a lot of plants in the way, but under them there's water flowing south towards the lake. The power lines you see are the ones that run along Smithtown Blvd.

Lily Pond flowing into Lake Ronkonkom

This is the lakeside view. With water constantly draining south it's no wonder the basement of the Bavarian Inn flooded.

Thistles growing by Lake Ronkonkoma

At the end of the bridge there's a bunch of thistles that were full of bumble bees and butterflies. I managed to get a closeup shot of a bumble bee pollinating one of the thistles.

Site of former Bavarian Inn - Summer 2015

This is what the Bavarian Inn property looks like as of 2015, not pretty but still a huge improvement over the old abandoned building. By the time they ripped it down it was covered in ivy and graffiti.

Lake Ronkonkoma

From here you also get a nice view of the lake. It's as if the swans are still here in honor of Mad Ludwig of Bavaria and his Neuschwannstein castle.

Remains of Bavarian Inn parking lot - 2015

But again, perspective is everything.

Site of Bavarian Inn looking North - Summer 2015

This is the way off the property and points toward Lily Pond Park. After I got back on Smithtown Blvd I backtracked a little bit to so I could take a few pictures in there as well. That'll be the subject of my next post.

A Ride Around the Lake Pt 3 - Baymen Park

I've finally made it to Baymen Park, located on Shore Rd just off of Smithtown Blvd. It gets it's name from the youth baseball team that plays here. 

Baymen Park 

The sign actually reads "Lake Ronkonoma County Park: Home of the L.I. Baymen," but Baymen Park is the best way to differentiate it from the other areas that belong to LRCP.  Anyway, this is the road leading into the park, nothing too exciting. It's lined with trees on the right and a small lawn on the left. If you look closely you can see that the sidewalk abruptly ends once you get into the actual park. It's almost as if the sidewalks around here are just decorations that aren't actually meant to be walked on. 

Smithtown Blvd

Just across from the entrance is yet another strip mall. All these businesses are fine and all, it's just the building they're housed in that's kind of ugly. That, and the crumbling car park plastered in front of it. But anyway, back to the park... 

Baymen Park

This is the beach. At first glance it looks pretty nice. In the background you can see a guy in the water with a metal detector. He's actually the second one I spotted. Right when I rode in, I saw another guy with a metal detector pull an aluminum can out of the water, briefly look it over, then toss it back into the lake with contempt. Gotta love it.

There were also some people swimming. Swimming is actually prohibited here because they don't have a life guard posted, but people do it anyway. Technically, I was also breaking the rules for biking, just like the guys who were wading looking for metal. This place is just full of first world anarchists stickin' it to the absent and underfunded man. 

Baymen Park

One thing I like about this park are the trees at the top of the beach that let you sit in the shade while you have a view of the water. 

Baymen Park

And there is no shortage of picnic tables either (seen in the background under the trees). The amount of garbage cans is a bit overkill though if you ask me. It looks like one per table. I get that they wanna keep people from littering, but littering the picnic area with garbage cans kinda defeats the purpose.

Baymen Park

As you can see the beach also has some hidden surprises camouflaged among the beach glass... I mean grass. If you walk across the beach, just about every two or three steps you can spot more of this crap, and that's if you don't even slow down to look for it. It's not so bad down by the water but if you're the kind of person who likes to walk barefoot in the sand you're not going to have much fun here. That's another rule that people don't seem to follow: no drinking alcohol. I mean I can't be 100% sure because I didn't actually see anyone imbibing, but I presume those are broken beer bottles and not just some colored vases somebody decided they'd discard at the lake.

I actually wouldn't mind people drinking as long as they weren't getting shitfaced while other people were there with their kids, and if they'd properly dispose of their glass. Outright bans or making people hide their booze in plastic cups really doesn't prevent that kind of behavior. It just leads to people hiding their containers and disposing of them where others don't see them.. at least not until they're pulling the shards out of their feet. Rules like these are just leftover nonsense from the prohibition era if you ask me. But what do I know. Next picture.

Baymen Park

These are the basketballs courts... or what's left of them anyway. Grass is growing through the cracks in the concrete and there's hardly anything left of the chain nets. With the taxes people pay around here you'd think they'd have some funds to maintain places like this. But hey, at least there's a bike rack in the park where you're not even allowed to ride a bike.

Baymen Park

There are also two baseball diamonds in the park with small seating areas on the side. This is the smaller of the two and it wasn't in as good of shape. I assume the larger one is the one where the kids play the most so it's better taken care of.  

There's also a fairly large playground in the park that a couple of families were at. I didn't take a picture of it because honestly I don't wanna end up on a list, but I wanted to mention it so you know the park wasn't empty and the playground was in decent condition (save for the colored plastic being bleached by the sun). The playground is also surrounded by a fence which is good because that keeps the kids from running out onto the glass-ridden sand. For hotter days there is a sort of gazebo next to the playground with benches under it for the parents to sit at.

Another thing I didn't photograph are the bathrooms which I'm happy to report had running water, soap, and paper towels.  

Baymen Park

This is the last picture I took of the park. In the background you can see more rebels; yes, boat launching is also prohibited. And look, another bike. Absolute madness.  Anyway this is the way my crazy adventure continued, on towards the former Bavarian Inn. That'll be the topic of my next post in this series.

A Ride Around the Lake Pt 2 - Rosevale and Smithtown Blvd

My next destination was Lake Ronkonkoma County Park. It's about a mile away from Ronkonkoma Beach so I also stopped to take some pictures along the way. As you saw in my last post, I started north down Rosevale Ave towards Smithtown Blvd. 

This part of Rosevale really isn't the safest place to ride a bike on. Motorists often speed and cut into the shoulder before making a turn, and sometimes cars are parked in the shoulder so you're forced to pull into traffic to get around them. That's why I opted to ride on the sidewalk. I figure even if it's illegal, the ticket is probably cheaper than an ER copay, or a funeral for that matter. Also a bit less traumatic for everyone involved, but I digress.

Rosevale Ave

Unfortunately, some parts of the sidewalk aren't all that well maintained. In case you were wondering about the stray wires on the ground behind the power pole, yes, they do in fact lead up to the power lines. I have no idea if they're live, I decided it would be best not to try and find out, but it certainly looks like anything but safe.

Rosevale Ave

Here's the sidewalk down one of the side streets. I'm not sure if the sidewalk came before the tree or vice versa, but either way, somebody really didn't think this through. It should've been obvious that that tree was going to get bigger at some point and destroy the sidewalk. Another win for urban planning.

 Smithtown Blvd

At the corner of Rosevale and Smithtown Blvd is a 9/11 memorial park. Memorials like this can be found in many of the surrounding towns and represent an event that has been burned into the minds of everyone who lived through it. These memorials not only honor the people we lost on that day, they also help define the historical identity of the area.
 

 Smithtown Blvd

I was glad to see the park and gardens were well maintained. In the background you can see an I-beam from one of the buildings that fell. 

 Smithtown Blvd

There was however one rather poorly placed tree blocking the view of the memorial. I also wish they had chosen a better location for the memorial itself. A busy intersection is a not a fitting place for grieving and reflection. 

Smithtown Blvd

Adjacent to the memorial is a new 7-11 (visible behind the memorial two pictures up), now the third of its kind on the same 1.5 mile stretch of Smithtown Blvd, and on the other side a small strip mall. As strip malls go, this one isn't terrible looking as it has been renovated fairly recently and it even has some plants and outdoor seating out front. 

Smithtown Blvd

The trees along the road provide a fragmented nature band-aid to hide the real eyesore across the way. Of course these ones are also poorly placed because now they're growing up into the flippin' power lines. 

 Hideous

My lens wasn't wide enough to capture everything, but this is the worst of said eyesore. Those busted fences, the sidewalk to pavement to gravel to grass gradient, and that parking lot full of boats, trucks, and construction equipment in back. This could have been a set for Black Hawk Down.

So this is most of what you see along the way between the two beaches. I must admit I neglected to take a picture of a popular pizza parlor along the way. That building is actually pretty nice looking. Anyhoo, in my next post I'll show you around Baymen Park.

A Ride Around the Lake Pt 1 - Ronkonkoma Beach

This will be the first part in a short series of blogs consisting of photos I took on a bike ride around the lake. Lots of people have their own opinion about the lake so I thought I would go investigate for myself. I grew up in this area but never really took the time to appreciate the lake before. I made sure to photograph both the good and the bad so you can get an honest picture of what it looks like. This post will be about my first stop, Ronkonkoma Beach, located on the corner of Rosevale and Kirk.

Entrance to Ronkonkoma Beach - Summer 2015

So this is the entrance. As you can see there's a crosswalk to nowhere on the right, which unfortunately is a recurring theme here. Aside from that, the nice thing is the entrance signs are large and visible to motorists, and the trees have been cut back so they're not covering the signs. That might sound like a strange thing to point out, but as you'll see later on in this series, that's not the case at every park around the lake. I was also happy to find out that I didn't have to pay any kind of entrance fee arriving on a bike.

Ronkonkoma Beach & Recreation Center - Summer 2015

The beach and facilities are actually pretty nice; clean and well maintained. While I was there, there were people using the tennis courts, families having picnics, and a fair amount of people down on the beach reading or swimming. There was also a playground but no one was using it at the time. All in all the park is pretty pleasant and not full of drug dealers as some would have you believe. I mean, maybe there are at certain spots and at certain hours, but I didn't see any here.

Ronkonkoma Beach - Summer 2015

I made my way down to the water and found that it's clearer than I expected. This beach is kept in pretty good shape and isn't full of driftwood and garbage like some other parts of the lake. The downside though is that swimming is sometimes prohibited due to the blue green algae blooms. However, while I was there the life guard was on duty and plenty of people were in the water. The Lake Ronkonkoma Civic Organization reported in early July that the water is currently safe for swimming, which is a reassuring thing to hear.

Ronkonkoma Beach Bus Stop - Summer 2015

On my way out I decided I'd take a picture of the bus stop just outside the park. This is part of Suffolk County Transit's S57 line that runs from around 7:30a - 7:30p between Smith Haven Mall and Sayville. As you can see, there really isn't much to it; no benches, no shelter, and no timetables. Most people driving by wouldn't notice there's a stop here at all. This would be a good site to improve like they did on Portion Rd.

In summary, I'd say this beach is nicer than some people make it out to be. The sand is clean, the facilities are in good shape, and there aren't any shady people hanging around. The one drawback is of course that the water isn't always safe to swim in, but even then that doesn't mean you can't go to sit and relax on the beach or to play a game of tennis.

Lake Ronkonkoma - A Place Worth Caring About

Growing up in suburbia, certain things are taken for granted. Commercial areas mostly consist of bland strip malls, the sidewalks lead to nowhere, you can't get anywhere without a car, young people are either stuck living with their parents or moving out of state, the local environment is neglected, and very few people seem to care. 

The speaker in the TED Talk below explains why and how suburbia developed the way it has in America. Be advised there's some coarse language here and there. You're also likely to find yourself nodding and laughing with cynicism as he characterizes the sad reality that is suburban development since the 1950's.

 "These are places that are not worth caring about."

Ronkonkoma is no exception. As of now, it has little to set itself apart from the neighboring hamlets aside from the few "welcome to Ronkonkoma" signs that no one really notices as they speed by in their cars. It too seems to be a place "not worth caring about" with its "nature band-aids," its poorly defined centers of civic life,  and little unique character. The lake is the one thing Ronkonkoma has that doesn't exist anywhere else on Long Island and much of it is woefully neglected. We should do something about that.

"Do it for Ronkonkoma!"

Though they are few, thankfully there are some who are actually doing something for Ronkonkoma. The new sidewalks, bus stops, and bike lanes on Portion Rd are a pleasant change. The prospect of a new downtown area around the train station gives residents some hope that meaningful urban planning is on its way. 

Despite all this, there are still many more areas in our community that are poorly designed and maintained. We still have our sidewalks to nowhere, our neglected parks, our dirty lake, and many areas that are in desperate need for a complete overhaul in design. I hope that this blog will motivate more of our residents to get active and turn all of Ronkonkoma into a place worth caring about.