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7th July 2002 From:
Arden Valley Road It was a hot day made to feel hotter as there was little cover for most of the day. I had a goal, to make it to the restaurant at Bear Mountain for lunch. I didn't get there until 1:30, which was later than planned, but I soon cleaned up then sat down to a cold beer and a nice meal. The restaurant is part of a large complex that has accommodations and a self-serve cafeteria. The Bear Mountain Inn is located on Hessian Lake that is about 1/4 mile wide and a mile long. The car parks would have had at least 1000 cars and people were spread all around the space having bar-b-ques and picnics. There were also a lot of people on the lake in rowboats and peddle-o's. This place is only 37 miles from New York City so it's clearly a popular outing for many. Visibility was down to a few miles today due I'm told to smoke from fires in Canada. That made the hiking harder as you could smell and taste the smoke all day. Another unusual thing today was continuous gunnery practice from a local military reserve. It started at 8:00 A.M. and is still going on at 9:30 P.M. This happens to be the Sunday in the July 4th-long-weekend, so I bet the holiday makers are overjoyed. You certainly wouldn't want to live anywhere near here if this was a regular occurrence! By the way, these are big guns they are firing, as well as smaller anti-aircraft types. I crossed the Hudson River this afternoon and took a shot of the Bear Mountain Bridge as I crossed over. The river is about a half mile wide at this point and looks rather spectacular. Unfortunately, I only had one shot left in my camera. With that, I'll close and say, goodnight all.
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