Bronx, New York: NYC Chapter, Woodlawn Cemetery Caminito

Please join us for a winter caminito in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Woodlawn Cemetery is a National Historic Landmark with many notable residents and historic landscape design. The walk will be facilitated by Paul Brunn and the tour itself by Woodlawn Conservancy guide Nestor Danyluk (see bios below). This walking tour will involve many stops and will last 2 to 3 hours depending on weather, interest and speed, with at least one break. Mileage is about 3 miles. There is a $10 fee which goes to the Woodlawn Conservancy. Payable by cash or check the day of the hike.

Please register for the walk before Friday, January 13, 2023 by emailing NewYorkCity@americanpilgrims.org. When you register, please indicate whether you are taking Metro-North or driving, as well as the number of people in your party. If you want to take Metro-North with the group, please meet at the clock in Grand Central Terminal by 9:30am. We will be taking the 9:42am train to Woodlawn, arriving a half hour later. Buy a round trip CityTicket to Woodlawn before meeting the group. Upon arrival at Woodlawn Station we will walk a few minutes over to the cemetery’s Webster gate. Train riders can start their trip at other Metro-North stations on the Harlem line. Drivers can park just inside Webster gate and should arrive by 10:20am.

Bad weather, such as icy roads and trails, rain or heavy snow will postpone the walk until the following Sunday, January 22, 2023. Bathrooms are available at the start of the walk and at a point further along where we will take a short indoor break. Please dress for the weather, and bring water and possibly a snack. There will be an optional post-walk lunch at a nearby pub/restaurant in the Woodlawn Heights neighborhood.

Your tour leader for this walk will be Nestor Danyluk. He has led many historically themed tours for groups ranging from schools to senior organizations. After a 30-plus year career with the NYC Department of City Planning, he came to the Woodlawn Conservancy as a docent in 2013. His tours cover a variety of topics ranging from architecture and sculpture to the history of NYC, ethnic groups and the silent film era.

Although an attendee of many American Pilgrim events and walks for the last several years, Paul Brunn started leading hikes for the NYC chapter in 2022. He has an educational background in Environmental Studies, Botany and Landscape Architecture and a work background as a gardener and environmental inspector, but mostly as a city planner. This past fall he traveled to Central Europe and visited churches on the many routes of St. James Way (Jakobsweg) there as well as doing some short hikes or caminitos in the Alps. This spring he hopes to walk the Camino Primitivo or part of the Camino del Norte in Spain.