July 27

Official

Wet clothes, wet shoes, wet tarp.  Nothing else to do but get up and start hiking.  After a couple miles down the trail, I crossed the Palisades Parkway.  There was no footbridge or anything.  This was an extremely busy, four lane highway that fed into NYC.  I had to wait a bit for a break in the traffic to cross quickly to the other side of the road.  The morning was sunny and beautiful.  On West Mountain, I rounded a bend and came across 4 deer eating next to the trail.  One of the does, and 2 fawns, scampered off into the woods, but the other doe stayed put.  I moved in a bit closer for a picture.  She looked up, stared at me, and continued feeding.  I moved a bit closer again.  She looked up, and started nodding her head up and down.  I mimicked the movement.  Then she did it again, and stared at me some more.  I felt like we were communicating, but I didn't want upset her, so I backed off, and eventually she moved on.  We all stopped for lunch at the Perkins Memorial tower.  I sat on a bench, made my tuna salad tortilla lunch, and set out my wet gear in the sun.  Great lunch spot.  And the view!  You could see the NYC skyline in the distance, about 30 miles away.  After lunch I came down the mountain, and passed a few day hikers.  Tink ran up behind Slims and I, and said that when we had passed the day hikers, they said we looked "official".  Haha.  We made it to Bear Mountain Recreation Area, where there was a huge lake, concessions, picnic areas, a pool, and a zoo.  The bear cage in the zoo is the lowest point on the entire trail at 124 feet above sea level.  It was a strange place.  Full of animals we were familiar with seeing already on the trail.  But there were also signs in front of areas like "erosion", showing where rain water had washed out soil from a gully, and "boulder" in front of a big grey rock.  I guess if you've never been in the woods before, this would be a very informative place to go.  Crossing the Bear Mountain bridge, over the Hudson River, was pretty cool.  We had some more ups and downs over the next few miles, and arrived at a road crossing where we stopped by the Appalachian Deli for dinner.  It was just a gas station really, but the deli inside had excellent subs and pizza, and $0.99 Rolling Rock tallboys.  I pigged out.  It was less than a mile from there to the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, where we stopped for the night.  This Franciscan monastery lets hikers camp on the ball field, where there's a pavilion with electrical outlets, and a shower!  It's been an awesome, and varied day.  Absolutely loving New York!

Crossing the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain Bridge