Dead Horse Bay: Bottles + Boats

Last weekend my dude and I biked 24 miles—my first time on a bike in a looooong time, and my first-ever experience with city biking. We had planned to go to Fort Tilden, but when he mentioned that we could stop at Dead Horse Bay on the way I immediately agreed.

Trent and I had gone to DHB last year for the first time (read about that visit here and here) and I haven't stopped thinking about how amazing it was and wondering when I would get to go back. This time we spent nearly four hours combing through trash, treasure and everything in between, during which I said "this place is SO cool" so many times that I lost count.

With places like DHB—places so amazing that I wonder how they even exist at all—I'm constantly terrified that they'll disappear, and wary of them becoming too "popular." A major appeal of DHB is its abandoned, other-worldly feel, which is always a precarious thing to maintain—especially in a city as crowded and visible as New York. Luckily, DHB hasn't seemed to change much in the year since I first went, although we did see a lot more people this time.

Dead Horse Bay is alternatively referred to as "Bottle Beach," and it should be immediately obvious why. It's so fun sifting through the bottles to find remnants of sodas I've never heard of, pieces of beautiful typography and colorful graphics. Not wishing to go full-on Collyer Brothers, we did end up sifting through what we had picked up and made some Sophie's Choices before we left—unfortunately none of the bottles made the cut, but I did keep the jar from The F.W. Fitch Co.

One difference that I did take note of was the amount of beached boats we saw—there were at least four new ones from the last time I was at DHB. It's kind of a mystery to me how or why the boats get abandoned, but they are fascinating to look at and really add to the abandoned, post-apocalyptic beach feel.

Dead Horse Bay is definitely in my top five favorite New York places and I still can't believe that it is so accessible and consistently awesome. Knowing how easily (and quickly) I can bike there just makes me want to go more frequently—I'm sure I could go to DHB once a day for the rest of my life and still find something new every time.