It was another quiet and uneventful morning. I hiked for four hours without seeing anyone else on the trail. I did hear the sounds of planes, trains, and automobiles off and on all day, which has been typical of my time in NY so far. And at the four hour mark today I reached the Appalachian Market which is a gas station with deli and pizza service inside.
I ordered pizza and hung out in the market while it was being made. After about an hour I had finished lunch, packed the rest of the pizza to go, and continued on. I have noticed the landscape becoming more and more reminiscent of wilderness areas on the west side of the Hudson River that were my old stomping grounds: those areas surrounding “My Rockbound Highland Home” as it is sometimes called by those who live there.
A few miles later the trail climbed up and followed a nice ridge line paralleling the Hudson. You couldn’t see the river but you could tell something was down there because of the wide open space visible through the trees.
Then, after a short road walk, I crossed the Bear Mountain Bridge over the river. The toll booth and bridge buildings have quite a lot of character and looked like old European buildings.
Just beyond the bridge, at the base of Bear Mountain, was the trailside zoo. It is a small, old type zoo with cages and enclosures. The zoo now houses native animals that have been injured or otherwise can’t live in the wild for some reason. They have birds, foxes, coyotes, bears, etc. The AT goes right though the zoo and my AT guide reported that the bear enclosure is the lowest point on the trail at 124 feet. The zoo also has some old Civilian Conservation Corps buildings housing a few museum-like exhibits. For some reason I really enjoyed walking through here and spent a good bit of time looking around.
The next milestone was Bear Mountain, just uphill from the zoo. There is a nice lake at the bottom, picnic areas, and car access at the top so a few people were out enjoying the day, despite the cool, cloudy weather. There were beautifully made trails on the way up. After the summit the trail continued along the back side of the mountain, but I was the only person back there as far as I could tell. There were great natural views back there due to large granite outcrops with no trees growing. I thought this part of the trail was a real gem—nice trails and great views—and I took my time heading down.
Then, a little later on the next mountain, I got a nice view back toward Bear Mountain. You can kind of see all the exposed granite which made the hike so enjoyable.
I read in the guide that the next shelter probably didn’t have a good water supply so I decided to skip that site and continue until I could get water then find a place to camp afterwards. That worked out well and I got all settled down before 7pm. Tomorrow should be another good weather day, cool and cloudy, then rain is expected the following day. So I hope to get a good night sleep and get as far as I can tomorrow before the rain the following day.