A locals guide to Central Park, New York City

I am not a New York native, but I did have an experience in Central Park that is probably worth sharing here.

A few years ago I spent several months in New York recording a record with my band. One night, the singer and I, tired of being cooped up in our microscopic hotel room, decided to go out for a jog. (Neither of us being regular runners, or having the right gear to run in, we probably looked pretty hilarious.)

We jogged for a while, heading in one direction. We weren’t exactly sure where we were, but we knew how to get back to the hotel. Eventually, by chance, we ended up at Central Park. It was probably about 9 pm at this point. The southern end of the park was vibrating with life. There were people walking their dogs, African drum circles, a preacher hollering, and lots of good-looking New Yorkers to look at. So we decided to stroll through the park before turning around to jog back.

We walked for a while, probably 15 minutes, and the number of people around us started to thin out a bit. We barely noticed, and weren’t that concerned. We kept walking, and then rather suddenly the paved path we were on became more of a dirt trail. That’s when we noticed that in the forest next to us was a group of thuggish, terrifying-looking guys. They saw us and immediately starting walking aggressively toward us. We must have stepped on their turf or something. Quickly, we turned around and started briskly walking the other way, trying not to look like we were pissing in our pants. I glanced over my shoulder a few times to see the group still following us. We finally arrived a clearing with a street lamps, and the group stopped and watched us as we made our way back into a more common area of the park.

It was only later that I learned what it seems most New Yorkers, and, well, a surprising number of people in general, know about Central Park – the dark, forested, unlit areas of Central Park are no place to be at night. So be careful where you walk in there, especially after dark.

If you stay in the areas with lots of people, you’re perfectly and completely safe. But don’t travel too far off the beaten path. The first 20 minutes of our visit to Central Park were fantastic. The park with thriving with interesting things to hear and see. We just made a wrong turn and kept walking when we should have stopped. We were lucky to walk away from the incident with all our teeth and a good story. Hopefully this will prevent you from leaving Central Park with a bad story.